2022 Class
Welcome students. On this page you will find the syllabus for Fall 2022, as well as links to the required readings. Future courses and readings will be updated.
Fall 2022: Foundations – Critical Therapy
This course will introduce students to the fundamental concepts of critical therapy. We will learn about the basic tenants of: psychoanalysis, critical psychology, critical pedagogy and liberation psychology. Students also familiarize themselves with the three stages of critical therapy. This course conceptualizes the therapeutic process in the context of changing perspectives about the therapeutic relationship and orients the students to the rich curriculum to follow. Clinical issues that students might face in the beginning of treatment with patients, will be addressed, as well as basic definitions central to critical therapy, including: assessment, transference, countertransference, the analytic stance, and power.
Spring 2023: Building Blocks of Critical Therapy
This course introduces different theoretical traditions that have shaped and influenced critical therapy. We will look at the writings of: Freire, Holloway, Butler, hooks, Fanon, and Martin-Baro, while paying particular attention to the application of different theories to psychotherapy, and clinical praxis. We will discuss postcolonial theory, poststructuralism, deconstruction, feminism, and queer theory as they inform the clinical hour and case conceptualization. Particular attention will be given to ways these theories inform our path towards liberation.
Summer 2023: Starting Your Practice
Fall 2023: Transference and Countertransference: Therapy’s Playground
Transference is a central concept in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, the bedrock of our work with patients. This course provides an in depth study of the concepts of transference and countertransference and transference and countertransference resistances with readings from the current and historical literature. We will explore the usefulness of working with transference for understanding the past and helping to create therapeutic change in the present. We will look at different kinds of transferences and different ways of working with transference. We will also consider the relationship between transference and countertransference, touching on related concepts of: projective identification, enactment, the therapist’s use of self, and the question of therapist self-disclosure. We will also discuss the use of transference in critical therapy and the concept of “paying in the sandbox” with your patient. Patient material and class process will be used to illustrate concepts of transference and countertransference and resistances.
Spring 2024: Construction of Identities: The role of power and privilege in the therapeutic relationship
What is identity? Is it a construct, a narrative? How do categories such as: race, class, gender and religion (to name a few) shape and construct one’s identity? As therapists, what are the blind spots that may occur in the countertransference when working with patients who are generally considered “other” to us? This course will start with a theoretical exploration of the notion of identity, and move towards a deep analysis and exploration of ways culture, color, gender identification and ableness, impact the clinical hour, for both patient and therapist. Through our discussions and case presentations, we hope to increase our awareness of the multiplicity of our own context-dependent identification process. In some contexts, for instance, our gender renders us as marginal. In another context our color may render us as dominant. When placed in a dominant position, a therapist suffers the most severe limits on awareness of the clinical (and social) implications of their place. We have blind spots. We will also explore and reflect on our own privilege and power within and outside the clinical hour.
Summer 2024: Building the Therapeutic Relationship
This course will focus on practical applications of theory in the middle phases of critical therapy. We will analyze and discuss the relationship between therapist and patient(s), with a deep focus on transference, intimacy and self-disclosure. An interactive and intensive course, a great part of our time together will focus on case presentations, and introspection.