Upcoming Conference!
Psychodynamic & Expressive Therapy for Older Adults:
Healing in Late Life
Date: Sunday, October 27, 2024
Time: 10:00am – 5:30pm
Location: Online via Zoom
6.75 CEs
Register by 6 pm, Friday, October 25
Program Description:
This conference covers the essentials of Psychotherapeutic work with older adults. Contemporary psychodynamic thought and experiential therapy can be applied clinically to engage the older patient in psychotherapeutic work of depth and meaning. This work not only relieves suffering but also promotes growth. People are rarely too old to grow. Thinking otherwise is an earmark of ageism.
The difficulties accompanying older age can affect psychological function. Presenters will examine the unique psychotherapeutic needs of this age group. Using clinical vignettes and assessment techniques for illustrative purposes the needs of this age group will be discussed and demonstrated.
The conference explores the challenges, tasks, techniques, and accomplishments involved in the treatment of older adults. Topics discussed include the reemergence of earlier developmental challenges; the concurrent treatment of late life and revived early trauma; transference and countertransference; the functions of developing an enriched life narrative in restoring the self; existential issues; and mourning.
The demand for mental health services for older adults is growing alongside increasing life spans, but the psychodynamic literature and teaching special skills to work with this population is neglected. This conference offers a guide to effective work with older adults for all psychotherapists, psychoanalysts , and experiential therapists.
Schedule:
10:00 AM – 10:15 AM Welcome and Review of Protocols [Rob Bamberger]
10:15 AM – 11:00 AM Keynote: Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Older Adults: Transformative Approaches to Later Life [Tybe Diamond, MSW]]
11:00 AM – 11:30 AM Assessment [Kathryn Chefetz, MSW]
11:30 AM – 12:00 PM Individual Treatment with Case Vignette [Jane Brewster, MSW]
12:00 PM – 12:15 PM Break
12:15 PM – 12:45 PM Family Therapy with Case Vignette [Judy Peres, MSW]
12:45 PM – 1:15 PM Couples Therapy with Case Vignette [Glory Dierker, PhD]
1:15 PM – 1:45 PM Lunch Break
1:45 PM – 2:15 PM Group Therapy [Rob Bamberger, MSW, and George Saiger, MD]
2:15 PM – 3:15 PM Expressive Therapies [Margo Silberstein, Ed.D.]
3:15 PM – 3:30 PM Break
3:30 PM – 5:15 PM Poetry Therapy [Peggy Heller, MSW]
5:15 PM – 5:45 PM Closing Dialogue: Integrating the conference themes [Chair & Moderator: Tybe Diamond with the Faculty]
Learning Objectives:
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Describe Freud’s biased view that older adults do not have the potential for growth and change.
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List 3 of the ways in which physical, cognitive and emotional losses of later life impact the self.
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Explain how therapists can feel empowered in helping older clients with the pain of aging rather than feeling only despair and helplessness.
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Discuss the challenges and techniques involved in the treatment of older adults that can be effective.
Presenter Bios:
Tybe Diamond, MSW, Chair, has been a psychotherapist for many decades. She has served on three clinical faculties at the old Washington School of Psychiatry and joined the old WSP in 1974. She has chaired the aging training program, the Study of Aging and Clinical Applications at the NewWSP, since its start in 2008. She also serves on the couple’s faculty of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and has been a member of that faculty since its inception. Ms. Diamond also founded Tybe Diamond and Associates in 1993, an organizational consulting firm focused on the dynamics of organizations and family businesses. Her focus is on leadership , staff issues, coaching, and transitions. Her private practice is in upper NW, Washington, DC where she offers individual, couples, family, group psychotherapy and consultation to multi-disciplined psychotherapists.
Rob Bamberger, MSW graduated from the Social Work program at George Mason University. He also holds a B.A. and M.A. in History from UCLA. He leads and co-facilitates caregiver support groups at IONA Senior Services, and co-leads a therapy group comprised of individuals in their 70s and 80s discussing issues facing Aging Adults. He’s a member of the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis [ICP&P], the Mid-Atlantic Group Psychotherapy Society [MAGPS], and was himself a student of the Aging and Clinical Applications Program before being invited to serve on its Steering Committee. Saturday evenings, you will find him hosting the long-running program, Hot Jazz Saturday Night, which airs live on public radio affiliate WAMU (88.5 FM).
Jane Brewster, MSW is a psychotherapist in private practice in Old Town Alexandria. She specializes in working with older adults in individual and family psychotherapy and is on the faculty of the New Washington School of Psychiatry in the Study of Aging and Clinical Applications. She served as a consultant/clinician to staff and residents of Paul Spring Retirement Community in Alexandria and to members of Mt Vernon at Home, the aging-in-place village membership organization serving south Alexandria. She has provided consultation and supervision to psychotherapists on working with older adults in psychotherapy, and to psychotherapy externs in the psychotherapy training program for The Women’s Center in Vienna, Virginia. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at George Mason’s School of Social Work and has taught multiple personal growth workshops. In 2020, she completed the Washington School of Psychiatry program in the Study of Aging and Clinical Applications. In 2013, she completed George Mason University’s multidisciplinary program in Gerontology. She received her undergraduate degree from George Washington University, summa cum laude, and her MSW from the Catholic University of America.
Kathryn Chefetz, MSW is a licensed clinical social worker engaged in the private practice of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and consultation in Washington, D.C. with a specialty in trauma treatment and work with aging adults. She is a graduate of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute and is a Teaching Analyst and faculty member at the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis. She served as Chair of the Community Outreach Division of the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis and is a past Chair of the Washington Psychoanalytic Clinic. She is currently a faulty member of the Center for the Study of Aging at the New Washington School of Psychiatry.
Glory Dierker, PhD a clinical psychologist has been the Executive Director and a Psychotherapist at the Family Center of Falls Church, Virginia since 1989. She has worked in social service in Northern Virginia since the 1970s. Her work has centered around individual attachment styles impact on family relationships. Understanding an individual’s working model of attachment throughout the life span facilitates enhancing connections between people at all stages of development. Dr Dierker’s focus on the relationships of the aging population and their care partners lends to developing strategies for family members, of all ages, to work together to enhance the care of elder family members.
Peggy Osna Heller, PhD, MSW, PTR, social worker and clinical poetry therapist trained in bibliotherapy at St. Elizabeths Hospital from 1979 to 1981, working with long-hospitalized aged patients and in the community with fragile and healthy populations of all ages. Peggy then worked as staff biblio/poetry therapist at local area psychiatric hospitals. She has taught poetry therapy in university social work departments and as co-director of the Wordsworth Center for Growth and Healing. Peggy is currently a Medicare provider practicing psychotherapy and poetry therapy with elders at her home office in Potomac, MD.
Judy Peres, MSW is a clinical social worker and policy analyst in aging and palliative care. She maintains a private clinical psychotherapy practice focusing on aging, transitions, palliative care and mind/body health. She uses cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques to assist older persons and their families to cope with the vicissitudes of aging. As an expert consultant on LTC (long term care) and palliative end-of-life care, she presents and consults with a host of entities and organizations.
George Saiger, MD is a geriatric psychiatrist who is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, with a special interest in group psychotherapy. Having completed the Group Psychotherapy Training Program of the Washington School of Psychiatry. He served on the faculty of that program for many years, and later in the School's Center on Aging and Its Clinical Applications, of which he was a founding chair. He maintained a clinical practice for almost five decades and worked in various health/medical settings.
Margo Silberstein, EdD is a Psychologist practicing in Washington. D.C. for 40 + years. A graduate of the National Group Psychotherapy Institute at WSP (2002) and the Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy program (2007), Margo served as faculty in ISTDP ( 2011- 2022 ) and is a certified Trainer and Supervisor through the International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association. A Psychodramatist trained in the 1970s at St Elizabeths Hospital she has directed psychodrama services with community members across the life span. A longtime Steering Committee and faculty member of the Center for the Study of Aging and Clinical Applications, she has promoted a focus on experiential expressive arts therapies as essential best practices for working with and deepening our understanding of this stage of life.
