Scientific Meeting: Psychedelics: Clinical Applications in Psychoanalytic Practice

We're sorry, but all tickets sales have ended because the event is expired.

  •  December 9, 2025
     8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

***This meeting is virtual and will be held on ZOOM.***

NYPSI’s 1081st Scientific Meeting:

“Psychedelics: Clinical Applications in Psychoanalytic Practice”

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

8:00 – 10:00 PM (EST)

Presenters: Jeffrey Guss, M.D., Charis Cladouhos, M.D., & Shuli Sandler, Psy.D.

This panel is designed for clinicians who want to learn more about psychedelics with the possibility of gaining further training in the use of psychedelics clinically for their patients.

Presenters are experts in the field of the clinical use of psychedelics. Through a discussion of clinical material, they will consider the use of psychedelics in relation to psychoanalytic treatment.

2 Contact Hours. 2 CME/CE credits will be offered. See details below.


General Admission: $50

Student Admission: $35

Free Admission for current NYPSI members/students and HFI Candidates

REGISTRATION LINK HERE

Please note registration closes at 5 PM on Monday, December 8th.


THIS MEETING IS VIRTUAL; READ INSTRUCTIONS BELOW:

***Registration in Zoom Before the Meeting is Required to Attend***

After you have completed registering for the event, please look out for a confirmation email with more details on how to receive your Zoom Link.

Evaluation Survey and CME/CE documentation will be emailed after the event.

Please make sure you type your email correctly when you register!  Contact with questions.


OPTIONAL READINGS
    1. Bender, D., & Hellerstein, D. J. (2022). Assessing the risk-benefit profile of classical psychedelics: a clinical review of second-wave psychedelic research. Psychopharmacology, 239(6), 1907–1932. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-06049-6
    2. Evans, J., Robinson, O. C., Argyri, E. K., Suseelan, S., Murphy-Beiner, A., McAlpine, R., Luke, D., Michelle, K., & Prideaux, E. (2023). Extended difficulties following the use of psychedelic drugs: A mixed methods study. PloS one, 18(10), e0293349. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293349
    3. Guss, J. (2022). A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Psychedelic Experience, Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32:5, 452-468, doi: 10.1080/10481885.2022.2106140 
    4. Hartogsohn I. (2017). Constructing drug effects: A history of set and setting. Drug Science, Policy and Law. 2017;3. doi:10.1177/2050324516683325

BIOGRAPHIES
Charis Cladouhos, M.D. is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with an interest in the treatment of trauma. She is also trained in EMDR, DBR, ketamine and MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. A faculty member at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and Tufts University School of Medicine, as well as the incoming Chair of the Psychoanalytic Special Interest Group for the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, Dr. Cladouhos has taught courses at BPSI on Developmental Trauma and Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. She has been interviewed by the On the Couch IPA podcast on the topic of psychoanalysis and psychedelic-assisted therapy. She has been course director of the Healer’s Art Elective at Tufts University School of Medicine and organized the first hospital-sponsored retreat for physicians at Tufts Medical Center during the pandemic. Dr. Cladouhos has a private practice in Waban, Massachusetts.
*
Shuli Sandler, Psy.D. is a clinical psychologist licensed to practice in New York and New Jersey. Her areas of specialty include working with the full-age range of development from children through elder adulthood. She has experience diagnosing and treating anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, Asperger’s, and academic difficulties. Dr. Sandler is a psychoanalyst and received her certification to practice psychoanalysis from New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. Dr. Sandler also provides psychedelic integration and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.
*

Jeffrey Guss, MD is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher and teacher with an interest in the integration of psychoanalytic therapy and psychedelic therapy. He is Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the New York University Langone School of Medicine and was Co-Principal Investigator and Director of Psychedelic Psychotherapy for the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Research Project. He has been a study therapist with numerous clinical trials of psychedelic therapy, including Psilocybin-Assisted treatment of Major Depressive Disorder and MDMA-assisted Psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Dr. Gus is on the faculty of the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and has published on the topics of gender and sexuality in Psychoanalysis Culture and Society. He is Lead Trainer and Psychoanalytic Program Director at Fluence Continuing Education for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and he lectures on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Psychoanalytic Explorations of Psychedelic Experience, and provides Continuing Case Conferences on Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. He has over 22 publications related to the use of Psychedelic Medicines and lectures internationally on Psychoanalysis and Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy. Dr. Gus has recently published “A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Psychedelic Experience” in the most recent issue of Psychoanalytic Dialogues. He maintains a private practice of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy in New York City.


CONTINUING EDUCATION

Educational Objectives: Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

  1. Explain the therapeutic use of psychedelics to treat various psychiatric disorders.
  2. Summarize how the use of psychedelics can enhance the work of psychoanalysis clinically.

Psychologists

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY – 0073.

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists. New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. DISCLOSURE: None of the planners and presenters of this CE program has any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Social Workers

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW – 0317.

Physicians
ACCME Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of [2] AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Statement

None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. *Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.


Scientific Meeting: Facing the Existential Threat Posed by the Global Ecological Crisis – A Crucial Role for Psychoanalysis

We're sorry, but all tickets sales have ended because the event is expired.

  •  November 11, 2025
     8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

***This meeting is virtual and will be held on ZOOM.***

NYPSI’s 1080th Scientific Meeting:

“Facing the Existential Threat Posed by the Global Ecological Crisis – A Crucial Role for Psychoanalysis”

Tuesday, November 11 2025

8:00 – 10:00 PM (EST)

Panelists: Josephine Wright, M.D., Delia Kostner, Ph.D., & Lindsay Clarkson, M.D.

The multisystemic nature of the accelerating ecological crisis calls for multidisciplinary responses. Conceptual rigidity, society-wide cognitive dissonance, inability to imagine beyond cultural assumptions foster dangerous denial and inaction. Psychoanalysis and psychology must play a role – both in the consulting room and beyond, in understanding the defenses against fear, grief, traumatic empathy that prevent full appreciation of imminent danger and stymie creative re-imagining of how to be in and of the world. Panelists will discuss these resistances to knowledge and resulting affects that arise in therapist, patient and in society.  The reality must be acknowledged alongside the unconscious unique conflicts aroused. The dissociation from kinship with the nonhuman world, a characteristic of the modern, techno-industrial civilization, has facilitated the ecological disaster; reconnecting to that kinship, and its common roots in childhood, can promote transformation.

2 Contact Hours. 2 CME/CE credits will be offered. See details below.


General Admission: $50

Student Admission: $35

Free Admission for current NYPSI members/students and HFI Candidates

REGISTRATION LINK HERE

Please note registration closes at 2PM on Tuesday, November 11th.


THIS MEETING IS VIRTUAL; READ INSTRUCTIONS BELOW:

***Registration in Zoom Before the Meeting is Required to Attend***

After you have completed registering for the event, please look out for a confirmation email with more details on how to receive your Zoom Link.

Evaluation Survey and CME/CE documentation will be emailed after the event.

Please make sure you type your email correctly when you register!  Contact with questions.


OPTIONAL READINGS
    1. Haseley, D., & Lament, C. (2024). A Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight: Climate Anxiety in Our Youth – Introduction to the Section. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 77(1), 330–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/00797308.2023.2287378
    2. Clarkson, L.L., & Rockwell, S. (2024) Receptivity to the Weight and Heft of the Natural World in our Inner Selves. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 72(4), 583-612. https://doi.org/10.1177/00030651241247222
    3. Johan Rockström, Gupta, J., Qin, D., Lade, S. J., Abrams, J. F., Lauren Seaby Andersen, Armstrong, D. I., Bai, X., Bala, G., Bunn, S. E., Ciobanu, D., DeClerck, F., Ebi, K. L., Gifford, L., Gordon, C., Hasan, S., Norichika Kanie, Lenton, T. M., Loriani, S., & Liverman, D. (2023). Safe and just Earth system boundaries. Nature, 619(7968). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06083-8

BIOGRAPHIES
*

Josephine Wright, MD is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who served adults, adolescents and children for many decades in New York City and Northwest Connecticut. She is a graduate and former faculty member of the the New York Psychoanalytic Institute and a founding member of the Berkshire Psychoanalytic Institute. In more recent years of her psychotherapeutic practice, Dr. Wright found many patients eager to bring their profound awareness and deep distress of the multiple crises facing our world into their therapy. At times, this called for acknowledgment of the deranged external reality as well as helping the patient understand their own unique responses. Now retired from clinical practice, Dr. Wright continues to explore these issues in study groups, writing and working with environmental issues. She has published papers and essays in several journals including: JAPA, Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, Room: A Sketchbook for Analytic Action and is the author of the 1997 Avon book: Do We Really Need Ritalin: A Family Guide to ADHD.  Her essays on Substack are meditations on home, migration, and the environmental crisis. After many years of raising sons, dogs, vegetables and sheep in Northwest Connecticut, she continues to pursue her love and knowledge of the natural world in her new home in coastal Washington State.

*
Delia Kostner, Ph.D. is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Amherst, New Hampshire.  She has worked with children, adolescents and adults in individual, family and group therapy for over 35 years. Dr. Kostner completed her psychoanalytic training at the Pine Psychoanalytic Institute where she served as faculty for nine years. She is currently a member of Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute where she is co-creator and co-facilitator of BPSI’s monthly Climate Conversations meetings. She is also co-editor with Rita Teusch of The Climate Crisis and Beyond in the Consulting Room to be published by Karnac. She has also written and taught at the confluence of Buddhism and psychoanalysis, and is a meditation teacher. An amateur naturalist, avid hiker, backpacker, and outdoors person, Dr. Kostner is currently devoted to understanding the intertwining of the human and more-than- human world in her writing and photography. She is a graduate of New Directions Writing program at the Washington Baltimore Psychoanalytic Center, where she periodically serves as faculty and a small group leader for their writing weekends.
*

Lindsay L. Clarkson, M.D., a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, is currently a supervising and training analyst emerita at the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis and a member of the Humanities and Psychoanalysis Study Group at Dartmouth. She explores our relationship to the natural world with the hope that the inquiry might contribute to a more benign and preservative response to the evolving environmental catastrophe. Dr. Clarkson combines a lifelong interest in natural history with an appreciation of Klein and Bion, and the contemporary aspects of their tradition and perspective. She has used clinical process, narrative and environmental literature, poetry and biography to extend the purview of psychoanalytic listening and developmental theory to include the place of the environment within our internal worlds. In addition to presenting on various aspects of this topic at meetings of APsA and the IPA, and as an invited speaker at society meetings, her essays have been published in four anthologies. Her most recent journal contribution, with Dr. Shelley Rockwell, appeared in JAPA 2024, “The Weight and Heft of the Natural World in our Inner Selves.”


CONTINUING EDUCATION

Educational Objectives: Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

  1. Summarize the current nature of the environmental disruptions that are stimulating defensive denial or causing anxiety and grief in themselves or their patients.
  2. Utilize this understanding in helping patients with their feelings about the ecological crisis and assess the degree to which previous unique experience and trauma may complicate their adaptive responses to the current real situation.

Psychologists

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY – 0073.

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists. New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. DISCLOSURE: None of the planners and presenters of this CE program has any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Social Workers

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW – 0317.

Physicians
ACCME Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of [2] AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Statement

The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME’s identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.


Special Event: “The Need for a New Freud?”: Screening of Award-Winning Film Outsider. Freud directed by Yair Qedar with Presentation to Follow by Philip Herschenfeld, M.D.

We're sorry, but all tickets sales have ended because the event is expired.

  •  December 9, 2023
     7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
  •  October 18, 2025
     7:00 pm - 9:30 pm

**This event will be held in person**

Special Event: “The Need for a New Freud?”: Screening of Award-Winning Film Outsider. Freud Directed by Yair Qedar with Presentation to Follow by Philip Herschenfeld, M.D.

Saturday, October 18th, 2025

7:00 – 9:30 PM (EST)

Location: Marianne & Nicholas Young Auditorium 

247 E 82nd St., NYC 10028

Introduction: George Makari, M.D. 

Presenter: Philip Herschenfeld, M.D.

Discussants: Yair Qedar, filmmaker & George Makari, M.D.

Please join us for a special screening of the award winning film Outsider.Freud directed by Yair Qedar. Outsider.Freud is a journey into the life and work of Sigmund Freud in four acts, combining animation, dreams, and insights from leading psychoanalysts. It explores Freud’s life of marginalization as a Jew in Vienna during Hitler’s rise to power and how these experiences shaped his theories and personal life. Through an intimate lens, the film reveals new dimensions of Freud’s legacy, focusing on his impact on psychoanalysis, Judaism, and the power dynamics of being an outsider.

**Click HERE to view the trailer.**

After the film, Philip Herschenfeld, M.D. will present on whether there is, as some in the psychoanalytic community feel, a need for a “new Freud.” Although Freud served as an identificatory example for the field, his thinking evolved over time and our understanding of it continues to change. Psychoanalysis has evolved over time to meet the changing needs of society. The evolution of evolution of classical psychoanalytic thinking all too often assumed to have remained fundamentally static. Dr. Herschenfeld will explore the need for a “new Freud” and if this is a proper way to conceptualize this evolution in psychoanalysis.

Please join us for this exciting evening!

NO SALES AT THE DOOR. PLEASE BUY YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE.

1 Contact Hour, 1 CME/CE credit will be offered. See details below.


General Admission: $50

Student Admission: $35

Free Admission for current NYPSI members/students and HFI Candidates

REGISTRATION LINK HERE

Please note registration closes at 5 PM on Thursday, October 16th.


OPTIONAL READINGS
  1. Blass, R. B. (2016) Understanding Freud’s Conflicted View of the Object-Relatedness of Sexuality and its Implications for Contemporary Psychoanalysis: A Re-Examination of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 97:591-613.
  2. Solms, M. (2020). New project for a scientific psychology: General scheme. Neuropsychoanalysis, 22(1–2), 5–35.
  3. Ogden, T. H. (2020) Toward a Revised Form of Analytic Thinking and Practice: The Evolution of Analytic Theory of Mind. Psychoanalytic Quarterly 89:219-243.

BIOGRAPHIES
*

Yair Qedar is an Israeli filmmaker and cultural producer. He studied Hebrew literature and history at Tel Aviv University and worked for several years as a journalist and editor. In the 1990s, he founded HaZman HaVarod (The Pink Times), Israel’s first LGBTQ+ newspaper. Since 2010, Qedar has been developing The Hebrews, a film series focused on key figures in modern Hebrew and Jewish literature. The project includes 19 feature-length films combining archival material, interviews, animation, and text. The series has been screened widely and has received over 40 awards. In parallel, Qedar has directed filmic works dealing with gender, queer identity, and cultural history. His recent film, OUTSIDER. FREUD, examines the Jewish and outsider dimensions of Sigmund Freud’s life and legacy, in dialogue with psychoanalytic and queer perspectives. His films are shown at cultural institutions, festivals, and universities internationally.

*

George Makari, M.D. Historian, essayist, psychoanalyst, and psychiatrist is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy, and the Arts, and Professor of Psychiatry at Weill-Cornell Medical College. His latest book, Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia (W.W Norton, 2021) was the recipient of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize, the Elisabeth Young-Bruehl Prize, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a Bloomberg Book of the Year. It was preceded by two award-winning histories, Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind (W.W Norton, 2015) and Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis (HarperCollins, 2008). His books have been or are being translated into thirteen languages. His essays have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Raritan as well as many scholarly and literary journals. The recipient of numerous honors, Dr. Makari was presented with the Benjamin Rush Award from the American Psychiatric Association. A graduate of Brown University, Cornell University Medical College, and the Columbia University’s Psychoanalytic Center, he is a Guest Investigator at Rockefeller University and lives with his family in New York City.

*

Philip Herschenfeld, M.D. is a graduate of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and of the Psychiatry Residency at that institution. He has taught psychiatric residents as a faculty member at Albert Einstein and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Herschenfeld has been affiliated with NYPSI since 1975 as a candidate, graduate, faculty member, training analyst and Dean of Education. His major interest has always been the practice and teaching of clinical psychoanalytic work. Dr. Herschenfeld was a somewhat indifferent (resistant?) student as an adolescent. He was mostly self-educated, therefore, through immersion in 19th century Russian literature. Since then he has been interested in artistic (literary and visual) as well as religious expression and interpretation of culture.

 


CONTINUING EDUCATION

Educational Objectives: Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

  1. Assess how psychoanalytic thinking has evolved over time.
  2. Describe how the evolution of psychoanalytic thinking can be applied in clinical scenarios.

Psychologists

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY – 0073.

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists. New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. DISCLOSURE: None of the planners and presenters of this CE program has any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Social Workers

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW – 0317.

Physicians
ACCME Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of [1] AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Statement

The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME’s identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.

 

Welcome Reception for NYPSI Students, Faculty and Members 2025-2026

We're sorry, but all tickets sales have ended because the event is expired.

  •  September 16, 2025
     8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Welcome Reception for NYPSI Students, Faculty and Members

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

8:00 – 9:30 PM

Please join us for introductions & hors d’oeuvres to kick off the 2025-2026 academic year, everyone within the NYPSI community is welcome.

REGISTER HERE!

Autism Spectrum Disorder Symposium: Developmental, Psychoanalytic, and Neuroscientific Perspectives on Diagnosis and Treatment

We're sorry, but all tickets sales have ended because the event is expired.

  •  September 27, 2025
     9:30 am - 4:30 pm

***This symposium will be held in person***

Autism Spectrum Disorder Symposium: Developmental, Psychoanalytic, and Neuroscientific Perspectives on Diagnosis and Treatment

Saturday, September 27th 2025

9:30AM – 4:30 PM (EST)

In person:

Marianne & Nicholas Young Auditorium

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute

247 East 82nd St., New York, NY

 

Presenters: Susan Sherkow, M.D., Alexandra Harrison, M.D., Fred Volkmar M.D., Sylvie Goldman, Ph.D., Cynthia Martin, Psy.D., and Carlotta Bettencourt Ph.D.

This full-day symposium is designed for mental health professionals, educators, and parents seeking to learn how to apply a psychoanalytic approach to diagnosis and treatment of youngsters with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and integrative approaches to and techniques used in play therapy.

Presentations will address: a comparison of typical and atypical developmental trajectories, the impact of ASD on object relations, ego, superego, and gender development, the role of anxiety in symptom formation and in parent-child dynamics, and on theory of mind. Experts will present clinical video recordings, case material, and play-based interventions to illustrate how psychoanalytic techniques foster self-regulation, emotional understanding, and parent-child attunement. This symposium will equip clinicians with strategies to enhance diagnostic precision and therapeutic engagement by applying developmental and psychoanalytic frameworks to understand behavior, emotional conflict, and relational dynamics in children with ASD.

6 Contact Hours. 6 CME/CE credits will be offered. See details below.

**Please note that in order to receive credits, you must attend the entire symposium. NYPSI cannot award partial credits.**


EARLY BIRD (Till 9/5/25)

General Admission: $125

Student Admission: $50

REGULAR (After 9/5/25)

General Admission: $175

Student Admission: $60

Free Admission for current NYPSI members/students and HFI Candidates

REGISTRATION LINK 

Please note registration closes at 5 PM on Thursday, September 25th.


PROGRAM:

9:30am-10:00am – Introduction and overview by Susan Sherkow, M.D.

10:00am-10:30am – “Working with Individuals on the Autism Spectrum: Complexities and Challenges” by Keynote Speaker, Fred Volkmar, M.D.

10:30am-11:30am – “Psychoanalytic Technique in Play Therapy with Children with Autism – Part 1” by Susan Sherkow, M.D., presenter, and Alexandra Harrison, M.D, discussant

11:30am-12:30pm – Panel discussion and Q&A with Cynthia Martin, Psy.D.

12:30pm-1:30pm: Break for lunch

1:30pm-2:00pm: “Female Autism: Diagnosing Girls From Toddlerhood Through Latency” by Sylvie Goldman, Ph.D., presenter

2:00pm-2:30pm – “A Psychoanalytic approach to group therapy for ASD” by Carlotta Bettencourt, MD

2:30pm-3:30pm – “Psychoanalytic Technique in Play Therapy with Children with Autism – Part 2” by Alexandra Harrison, M.D, presenter and Susan Sherkow, M.D., discussant

3:30pm-4:30pm – Panel discussion and Q&A with Cynthia Martin, Psy.D.

 


OPTIONAL READINGS
  1. Sherkow, S. P., & Harrison, A. M. (2013). Autism spectrum disorder: Perspectives from psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Rowman & Littlefield.
  2. Van Schalkwyk, G. I., & Volkmar, F. R. (2015). Autism spectrum disorders: In theory and practice. The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 69(1), 219-241.
  3. Lai, M. C., Amestoy, A., Bishop, S., Brown, H. M., Onaiwu, M. G., Halladay, A., … & Goldman, S. (2023). Improving autism identification and support for individuals assigned female at birth: Clinical suggestions and research priorities. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 7(12), 897-908.
  4. Harrison, A.M. (2022). Insights into safety and connection in relationships provided by psychoanalytic treatment of autistic individuals. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 42(1), 23-29.

BIOGRAPHIES

Susan P. Sherkow, M.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute, and on the voluntary faculties of the Mount Sinai and Albert Einstein Colleges of Medicine. Dr. Sherkow has published in JAPA, The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, and Psychoanalytic Inquiry, among other journals, on the topics of autism spectrum disorder, primal scene, intergenerational eating disorders, the diagnosis of sexual abuse in young children, watched play, and working in analysis with children under five. She is co-author, with Dr. Alexandra Harrison, of Autism Spectrum Disorder: Perspectives from Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience (2014). Her most recent writings include chapter contributions: “Managing arrogance in child analysis” in  Arrogance: Developmental, Cultural, and Clinical Realms, and “Back to Freud’s Beginning: Looking at Neuroscience through a Contemporary Psychoanalytic Lens” in Psychoanalytic Trends in Theory and Practice, The Second Century of The Talking Cure. Dr. Sherkow received the Ritvo prize in child psychoanalysis from the Yale Child Study Center in 2010. In 2012, she founded The Sherkow Center for Child Development and Autism Spectrum Disorder, a not-for-profit organization created to provide support for training, treatment, and research in the area of developmental delays and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Alexandra Murray Harrison, M.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute in Adult and Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis, an Associate Professor Part Time of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and on the Core Faculty of the Early Relational Health Fellowship at University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. Her clinical and academic interests focus on development across the lifespan and include therapeutic action in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, the treatment of autistic spectrum disorders, the use of videotape in child evaluation and treatment, and supporting the caregiving relationship. In 2017 Dr. Harrison co-founded a non-profit organization, Supporting Child Caregivers, https://supportingchildcaregivers.org, that has as its mission offering training and educational support to caregivers of children and their families. Dr. Harrison has publications in the areas of child analysis, therapeutic action, autism, and infant mental health, and has lectured in the U.S. and internationally.

Fred R. Volkmar, M.D. is the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology Emeritus at the Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine and the Dorothy Goodwin Family Chair of Special Education at Southern Connecticut State University.  An international authority on Asperger’s disorder and autism, Dr. Volkmar was the primary author of the DSM-IV autism and pervasive developmental disorders section. He has authored several hundred scientific papers and has co-edited numerous books, including Asperger Syndrome, Healthcare for Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Guide to Medical, Nutritional, and Behavioral Issues, and the recently released third edition of The Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. He serves as associate editor of the Journal of Autism, The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and the American Journal of Psychiatry. He also serves as co-chairperson of the autism/MR committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.  From 2007-2022, Dr. Volkmar served as editor of the Journal of Autism and more recently of the Encyclopedia of Autism. He is certified in adult and child psychoanalysis and a member of the Western New England Institute.

Sylvie Goldman, Ph.D. is a Developmental Neuropsychologist and Associate Professor in the Division of Child Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Neurology and the Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). She obtained her degree in Clinical Psychology from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium and her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY). Her dissertation under the mentorship of Katherine Nelson addressed “Personal and fictional narratives in children with autism, and language developmental disorders and typically developing children”. She held a post-doc position at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY in Child Neurology under the mentorship of Dr. Isabelle Rapin and was the co-director of the NIH-Human Clinical Phenotype Core of the Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDRRC). During that time, Dr. Goldman worked part-time at the Mc Carton Center for Developmental Pediatrics conducting developmental diagnostic assessments of toddlers. Dr Goldman joined the Division of Child Neurology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in 2014 to lead a clinic on early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder with a focus on movement disorders and identification of autism in young girls. Her main research interests center around motor stereotypes and sex/gender factors affecting clinicians’ diagnostic decision-making. Dr. Goldman is a teaching faculty for the Parent-Infant Psychotherapy Program (PIP) in the Department of Child Psychiatry at CUIMC.

Carlotta Bettencourt, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and researcher at The Sherkow Center for Child Development and Autism Spectrum Disorder in New York City. Her work bridges clinical practice and developmental research, with a focus on individualized, integrative interventions for children and adolescents on the autism spectrum. She earned her Ph.D. from Sorbonne Université where her research centered on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in autism interventions. Her ongoing work explores neurodevelopmental approaches to care, including robotic-assisted therapy, social skills interventions, and longitudinal outcomes in psychodynamic treatment models for ASD.

Cynthia Martin, Psy.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist based in New York City with over 20 years of experience specializing in neurodevelopmental assessment, therapy, and consultation. Her work covers the lifespan – from toddlers to adults – with developmental differences such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, intellectual disability, and genetic conditions. Her research focuses on early developmental assessment and longitudinal outcomes in children with neurodevelopmental disorders, including ASD and Down syndrome.


CONTINUING EDUCATION

Educational Objectives: Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to:

  1. Differentiate between the observable diagnostic features of ASD and symptoms rooted in relational dynamics and intrapsychic conflict, in order to enhance clinical formulations through a developmental and psychoanalytic lens.
  2. Explain and illustrate how psychoanalytic play technique fosters ego and superego development in children with autism by working through internal conflict, enhancing symbolic functioning, and integrating early relational experiences – ultimately informing more individualized and psychoanalytically, developmentally-based therapeutic interventions.

Psychologists

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY – 0073.

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education programs for psychologists. New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. DISCLOSURE: None of the planners and presenters of this CE program has any relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Social Workers

New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW – 0317.

Physicians
ACCME Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of [6] AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Statement

The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME’s identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.