Closed Meeting: Child Seminar: Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C): From Clinical Construct to Systematic Empirical Study

Please note this meeting is closed to the public. Child candidates at NYPSI, Columbia and PANY are expected to attend.

Advanced Seminar in Child and Adolescent Analysis:

“Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C): From Clinical Construct to Systematic Empirical Study”

Thursday, May 18, 2023

8:00 pm – 10:00 pm (EST)

Please note this meeting will be held virtually on ZOOM. Registrants will receive ZOOM link.

Presenters: Leon Hoffman, M.D. & Can Büyükaşık, M.D.

This presentation describes the development of the Manual of Regulation-Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C) with Externalizing Behaviors: A Psychodynamic Approach by Leon Hoffman, Timothy Rice, and Tracy Prout, including the aphorism, “it is easier to get mad than to feel sad.” The construct of “defense against unpleasant affects” began with the work of Berta Bornstein who resolved the theoretical disputes between Anna Freud and Melanie Klein. Defense analysis thereon became a staple in child analytic training and clinical practice. The manualized treatment of Affect Phobia (“fear of feelings”) by Leigh McCullough spurred the creation of the Manual of RFP-C and it was further influenced by the work of Paulina Kernberg and Saralea Chazan, Phebe Cramer, David Malan, and the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) of the NIMH.

In this seminar the presenters will highlight the contrast between behavioral approaches and the approach in RFP-C to disruptive behaviors in children. In RFP-C the therapist helps parents understand the value of conceptualizing disruptive behaviors as defenses protecting the child from painful emotions; with the child, the therapist addresses the child’s defense mechanisms (DM) against such painful emotions as they emerge in the sessions. The parallel between the concept of DM and the neuropsychological concept of Implicit Emotion Regulation (IER) will be addressed. In addition, the clinical utility of the Triangle of Defense and findings from a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) will be discussed. Clinical excerpts will highlight these concepts.

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

Leon Hoffman, M.D. is Co-Director of the Pacella Research Center of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He is co-author with Timothy Rice and Tracy Prout of Regulation Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C): A Psychodynamic Approach and with Timothy Rice and “Defense Mechanisms and Implicit Emotion Regulation: A Comparison of a Psychodynamic Construct with One from Contemporary Neuroscience.” In 2022, he presented the Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Psychodynamic Psychotherapy lecture on “Helping Parents Spare the Rod: Addressing Their Unbearable Emotions” based on a paper he authored with Tracy Prout and he presented the Paulina Kernberg Memorial Lecture at Weill Cornell Medicine Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Grand Rounds entitled “On Regulation Focused Psychotherapy: An evidence based psychodynamic treatment for children with disruptive behaviors.”

Can Büyükaşık, M.D. is an adult psychoanalytic candidate at New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute and a double-board-certified child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist in private practice in New York City. He is a faculty member at Donald & Barbara Zucker School of Medicine and the supervising psychiatrist for the Youth Assertive Community Treatment team of Child Center of New York in Manhattan. Dr. Buyukasik is a member of the research team at the Center for Regulation Focused Psychotherapy as an RFP-C supervisor for the upcoming international trial in collaboration with Sibel Halfon from Bilgi University in Turkey.

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