EVENTS

All events are Eastern Time. Events are not recorded.

SEEKING ASYLUM – TWICE AS LIKELY
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2026     
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
PRESENTER: SUSAN McNAMARA, MD

Freud fled from Vienna to London in 1938, terrified after the Gestapo picked up his daughter, Anna. It was not easy to get the Freuds the necessary immigration permits from the British government and even more difficult to extricate the Freuds from Nazi Vienna. Ernest Jones applied pressure through diplomatic channels and the Nazis needed to be bribed. Psychoanalysts from Austria and Germany fled to Britain, Switzerland, the United States, and Argentina, essentially anywhere they could gain entry, many times leaving behind family members who would be murdered in the camps. Over and over, we see people fleeing their countries for safety and struggling to gain legal status and avoid deportation to a certain death. We will discuss the psychodynamics of immigration, the physical and psychological trauma of those who emigrate, and the practicalities of how one might help new immigrants by providing objective assessments and essential documentation supporting legal claims for asylum, T Visas, and other forms of humanitarian relief and protection in the United States. 

Learning Objectives:
Participants will:
1) understand the historical and psychological context of immigration.
2) investigate how trauma affects the cognitive, emotional, and physical health of people who are immigrants.
3) learn the critical role of health professionals in rigorously documenting human right abuses in immigration cases.

PRESENTER: SUSAN McNAMARA, MD Faculty: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Managing Editor: Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association Review of Books, and editor of the “Dancing While Queer” issue published by Psychoanalytic Inquiry, November 2025. Dr. McNamara is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who has been working for the past 20 years with those seeking political asylum by providing free psychiatric evaluations to document evidence of torture and abuse for people fleeing persecution in their home countries, and providing affidavits for use in US Immigration Court by their attorneys, as well as providing court testimony.

LOCATION: ONLINE on ZOOM

FEE: $60 or $40 for students (with proof of student status)
NO FEE FOR MCMH STAFF THERAPISTS

Zoom meeting link and confirmation will be emailed upon registration and any required payment.

 Registration deadline: October 16, 2026

The New York State Education Department has approved this online workshop for 2 contact hours (CEUs) for LMSWs, LCSWs, LMHCs, LPs, LMFTs and Licensed Psychologists. A certificate will be emailed to those who sign in at the beginning of the session, stay until the end of the session, and complete an emailed evaluation. The evaluation form will be emailed to you within a week of the event and usually much more quickly. Full session must be attended to be eligible for CEUs/Contact hours.

The Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
The Metropolitan Center for Mental Health and
The Metropolitan Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists

Invite you to a Scientific Meeting

ON THE + OF LGBTQ+:
ADOLESCENCE AS THE FULCRUM OF SEXUAL IDENTITY
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2026
2:30 PM – 4:30 PM EDT
PRESENTER: PASCAL SAUVAYRE, Ph.D.

This presentation theorizes the “+” of LGBTQ+ not just as a place holder for sexual identities that do not fit into the five categories, but as an enigmatic call for the generation of new sexual identities. Conjugating Jean Laplanche’s concept of the “sexuel” with Harry Stack Sullivan’s concept of chumship, the thesis is that chumship provides the relational foundations for the undoing of the repression of gender by sex and for the translation of the “sexuel” residue into a sexual identity. This “translation,” facilitated by the tumultuousness of adolescence, is built on the framework of chumship, which restructures the asymmetrical relations and the primacy of the other of childhood. The clinical situation is then viewed as a movement between the asymmetrical parent/child relation (and the analysis of the implantation of enigmatic messages) and the symmetrical relationship of chumship (and the collaborative construction of meaning).

Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1) distinguish the concepts of gender, sex, and sexuality and understand how their interplay informs the formation of one's sexual identity.
2) understand and appreciate the pivotal potential of the chumship stage in addressing the developmental challenges of one's sexual identity.
3) clarify the function of the adolescent "crisis" as an opportunity for creating new identities.

PRESENTER: PASCAL SAUVAYRE, Ph.D. Training Analyst and Faculty: William Alanson White Institute. Dr. Sauvayre studies, teaches, and writes at the interdisciplinary boundaries of psychoanalysis, with a special interest in philosophy. Author: The Unconscious: Contemporary Refractions in Psychoanalysis, co-edited with David Braucher (2021; Routledge); Culture, Politics, and Race in the Making of Interpersonal Psychoanalysis, co-edited with Roger Frie (2022; Routledge), and A Dialogue Between Evolving Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Paul Ricoeur's Philosophical Anthropology, co-edited with Jeffrey Sacks (2026; Bloomsbury). Co-Editor in Chief, with Roger Frie & Orshi Hunyady: Contemporary Psychoanalysis.  

 LOCATION: ONLINE on ZOOM
NO FEE

Registration deadline: October 23, 2026

The New York State Education Department has approved this online workshop for 2 contact hours (CEUs) for LMSWs, LCSWs, LMHCs, LMFTs, LPs and Licensed Psychologists. A certificate will be emailed to those who sign in at the beginning of the session, stay until the end of the session, complete an emailed evaluation and pay a $20 fee. Full session must be attended to be eligible for CEUs/Contact hours. There is no charge for those affiliated with MITPP, MCMH or MSPP.

OPEN HOUSE & CLINICAL PRESENTATION

OPEN TO THOSE CONSIDERING POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

HOW CAN EXPERIENCE IN ANOTHER PROFESSION BE DEEPENED AND INTEGRATED THROUGH PSYCHOANALYTIC TRAINING?
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2026   
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM EST
PRESENTER: LINDSAY BUTERA, LP, MA 

Psychoanalytic training changes how a person understands relationships, motivation, emotion, conflict, and development, allowing previous professional experience to take on new meaning. This presentation explores how my earlier work as a jury and trial consultant informs — and contrasts with — my current work as a therapist trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. In jury selection, consultants must form quick, high-stakes impressions about potential jurors’ biases and decision-making tendencies, often within minutes and under significant time pressure. Psychoanalytic treatment, by contrast, requires a disciplined slowing down: tolerating uncertainty, suspending premature conclusions, and allowing meaning to emerge over time. This presentation will discuss how the shift from rapid evaluative judgment to sustained analytic listening reshaped my clinical stance, especially during my early training. Learning not to approach therapy like a one-day jury selection process — but instead as a gradual, unfolding inquiry — required developing patience and comfort with ambiguity. Drawing on examples from both settings, I will highlight shared skills — careful observation, attention to unconscious processes, and sensitivity to narrative and affect — while emphasizing how psychoanalytic training deepened my capacity for patience, curiosity, and openness. The talk will be especially relevant for prospective candidates interested in how prior professional experience can be transformed through analytic training.

PRESENTER: LINDSAY BUTERA, LP, MA Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Forensic Psychology Master’s Degree: CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Member: Metropolitan Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists.

LOCATION:  ONLINE VIA ZOOM - Zoom instructions and meeting link will be emailed to participants prior to the event.

RSVP:  There is no fee but you must reserve in advance. For reservations: please email info@mitpp.org.

Training opportunities, including flexible scheduling and financial options to fit individual needs, will be described following the presentation.

A NEW OBJECT IN THE INNER WORLD:
CLINICAL PERSPECTIVES ON PATIENTS' AI USE IN TREATMENT
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2026     
1:30 PM – 3:30 PM EST
PRESENTER: MARLENE M. REIL, MSN, Ph.D., PMHNP-BC

As AI becomes ubiquitous in how people seek mental health support, it is arriving in the consulting room not as a tool introduced by the clinician, but as something patients bring — with feelings, attachments, and relational patterns already formed around it. This workshop offers a clinical framework for meeting that reality with the same curious, non-judgmental attention brought to any other relational phenomenon. Drawing on psychoanalytic and object relations theory, it examines the central distinction between AI used as a thinking tool and AI used as a relational substitute; five clinical presentations likely to appear in practice as AI use becomes more prevalent; the transference and projective dynamics specific to AI interaction; the therapist's own experience of the technology as a prerequisite for effective clinical response; and the questions a clinician might hold internally when a patient's AI use becomes material. Participants will leave with a working clinical framework applicable immediately in practice, grounded in the psychodynamic tradition and responsive to the specific moment the field is currently navigating.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1) distinguish AI use as a thinking tool from AI use as a relational substitute.
2) recognize the five clinical presentations of AI use Parasocial Attachment, Avoidant Processor, Uncanny Responder, Rehearsal User, Authority Transferrer.
3) routinely incorporate inquiry into a patient’s relationship with AI as part of intake and ongoing work. 

PRESENTER: MARLENE M. REIL, MSN, Ph.D., PMHNP-BC Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Master’s in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, The New School for Social Research. Founder: Minding Mental Health PLLC (Massachusetts and New York). Formerly Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and MAT Prescriber: Baystate Behavioral Health, Griswold Center. Formerly Supervisor, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Program: Baystate/UMass Psychiatry Residency. Principal Co-Investigator: Psychiatric Diagnostic and Prescribing Practices in El Salvador, University of Central America. Member: Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. Formerly Project Leader and Research Scientist, Office of Health Integration, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

LOCATION: ONLINE on ZOOM

FEE: $60 or $40 for students (with proof of student status)
NO FEE FOR MCMH STAFF THERAPISTS

 Registration deadline: NOVEMBER 19, 2026

The New York State Education Department has approved this online workshop for 2 contact hours (CEUs) for LMSWs, LCSWs, LMHCs, LPs, LMFTs and Licensed Psychologists. A certificate will be emailed to those who sign in at the beginning of the session, stay until the end of the session, and complete an emailed evaluation. The evaluation form will be emailed to you within a week of the event and usually much more quickly. Full session must be attended to be eligible for CEUs/Contact hours.

ZEN BUDDHISM & PSYCHOANALYSIS:
A REALIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2026     
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
PRESENTER: SEISO PAUL C. COOPER, Ph.D., LP

The British psychoanalyst, Wilfred Bion (1897-1979) and the Soto Zen Buddhist master, Eihei Dogen (1200-1253), were both highly creative and brilliant thinkers who exerted a radical impact on their respective disciplines. Their ideas continue to contribute to the contemporary cross-fertilization between Buddhism and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Despite the highly regarded philosophical and theoretical complexity of their teachings, they both shared the agenda of strengthening and deepening experiential realizational practice with an insistent emphasis on the relationship in the present moment. Both have contributed directly to effective clinical work and religious realization and from the realizational perspective. This experiential and didactic workshop provides an overview of similarities, differences and identities between Bion’s and Dogen’s ideas and practices. The workshop will elaborate four foundational points that form the basis of the realizational perspective and its impact on clinical practice. These points include: Emphasis on an openness to unknowing; balance between intuition and cognition; shift from attention to static mind states to an emphasis on fluid functions and actional relationships; and radically experiential orientation rooted in the present moment.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will:
1) become familiar with the Zen Buddhist practice of shikantaza “Just Sitting.”
2) identify unconscious transference dynamics that influence clinical choices.
3) understand the Zen Buddhist concept of “mushotoku” (no gaining mind) and its clinical relevance.
4) distinguish Bion’s notions of “evolution” and “O” in relation to psychoanalytic listening.

PRESENTER: SEISO PAUL C. COOPER, Ph.D., LP is a licensed psychoanalyst; Zen Buddhist Priest and formally transmitted Zen teacher. Faculty and Supervisor: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Member: American Zen Teachers Association. Founder: Realizational Practice Studies Group, Montpelier, Vermont; Former Dean of Training: NPAP; Faculty: Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science; California Institute for Integral Studies: Clinic Without Walls; Award-winning author: Zen Master Yueh Shan & Thinking's Bad Rap: A Practitioner's Guide (2026), Psychoanalysis & Zen Buddhism: A Realizational Perspective (2023), Zen Insight, Psychoanalytic Action: Two Arrows Meeting (2019), The Zen Impulse and the Psychoanalytic Encounter (2010). He has presented his work on Buddhism and Psychoanalysis internationally. He is the founder and guiding teacher of the Barre Zen Meditation Center, Barre, Vermont. 

LOCATION: ONLINE on ZOOM

FEE: $60 or $40 for students (with proof of student status)
NO FEE FOR MCMH STAFF THERAPISTS

 Registration deadline: December 10, 2026

The New York State Education Department has approved this online workshop for 2 contact hours (CEUs) for LMSWs, LCSWs, LMHCs, LPs, LMFTs and Licensed Psychologists. A certificate will be emailed to those who sign in at the beginning of the session, stay until the end of the session, and complete an emailed evaluation. The evaluation form will be emailed to you within a week of the event and usually much more quickly. Full session must be attended to be eligible for CEUs/Contact hours.

PAYMENT OPTIONS ARE LISTED BELOW REGISTRATION FORM

REGISTRATION FORM

PAYMENT OPTIONS

• Zelle – Debit Card or Bank Account
  You may use Zelle through your bank or download the Zelle app and follow the instructions.  Zelle will not accept credit cards. Payment should be made to: info@mitpp.org.

• Chase QuickPay with Zelle – Access through the Chase app.

• PayPal - Please add $4.00 to your total to cover PayPal fees for payments up to $75. For payments above $75, contact MITPP for fee information. PayPal payments should be made to info@mitpp.org.
  
  If you are unable to pay electronically and would like to send a check, please contact MITPP.

  For questions about payment, please email info@mitpp.org

Refund Policy

If you find you are unable to attend an event for any reason, you must notify MITPP by email at least 48 hours prior to the time the course/workshop begins in order to receive a full refund. No refunds will be issued after that time.