EVENTS

All events are Eastern Time.

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

THE CHILD IN MIND: WORKING WITH YOUNG CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS
SUNDAY, MAY 31, 2026   
2:30 PM – 4:30 PM EDT
PRESENTER: KARLIE GOLDSTEIN, LCSW

Young children are referred to therapy for a myriad of reasons. Parents often seek help when they believe their child exhibits challenging or disturbing behaviors, or when they receive repeated complaints from teachers at the child’s daycare setting. Parents today have easy access to more “how to” parenting resources than ever before, but we can offer more than just parenting strategies. Our focus is on deepening the understanding of the child, the parent, and their relationship by revealing unconscious negative attributions, projections, and developmental expectation gaps. The ultimate goal is to foster reflective functioning and emotional regulation for both parent and child, allowing parents to connect more effectively and offer continuous support throughout the child's developmental journey. This presentation will provide an overview of how clinicians can work dyadically with parents and their young children. Pulling from diverse disciplines including psychoanalysis, developmental psychology, attachment theory, mentalization and affect theory, clinicians can make an impact on the child’s foundation, to strengthen parental knowledge, improve confidence and enable them to support their child in alignment with their current abilities. 

Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to:
1) become familiar with issues and behaviors in children 3 to 5 years old and understand the importance of assessing a child developmentally as well as differentiating biological vs. relational difficulties.
2) understand how caregiver attributions, projections and adult expectation gaps shape a child's sense of self.
3) gain insight into how parents' own upbringing and histories affect both their parenting and their ability to utilize the dyadic clinical work.
4) comprehend the significance of collaborating with parents and learn how working in a dyadic model with both parents and child can be highly effective for this age group, as well as the reasons it is indicated.

PRESENTER: KARLIE GOLDSTEIN, LCSW Certificate in Clinical Training in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Graduate: Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Advanced Adult Psychoanalysis Program. Certificate in Couples Therapy, Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. Faculty and Supervisor: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Child and Adolescent Program. Consultant: Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant NYC and Westchester.

LOCATION: ONLINE THROUGH ZOOM

NO FEE

Registration deadline: May 29, 2026

Zoom instructions and meeting link will be emailed to participants no later than an hour prior to the workshop.

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, 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.

2026 SUMMER INSTITUTE

ONLINE MINI-COURSES & WORKSHOPS

CONTACT HOURS/CEUs APPROVED

All workshops and mini-courses are EDT

The New York State Education Department has approved these online workshops and mini-courses for 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, 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. 

PLEASE USE REGISTRATION FORM AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

Zoom meeting links will be emailed after registration.

INFANT DEVELOPMENT AND ATTACHMENT: IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
Instructor: Susana Martinez, Ph.D., LP
Over the past fifty years, there have been important findings in the areas of attachment and infant development, as well as on how such findings can better inform treatment with children and adults.  In this six-week course, we will study some of these findings and examine how they contribute to psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy.

SUSANA I. MARTINEZ, Ph.D., LP Certificate in Psychoanalysis: National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. Faculty and Supervisor: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult and Child and Adolescent Programs; National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. Guest Editor: Psychoanalytic Inquiry. Member: International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, and National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis.

TUESDAYS, JUNE 16, 23, 30, JULY 7, 14, 21, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
9 Contact Hours
FEE: $225

TREATING THE REGRESSED PATIENT: A TWO-SESSION CLINICAL WORKSHOP
Instructor: Alma Ismailgeci, LMSW
This workshop will examine the treatment of regressed patients predominantly through focusing on clinical work with a woman in her mid-forties who entered therapy with communications that were primarily non-verbal. The patient presented herself as if she were a young child, analogous to the time when she actually was a small child and had wishes for a union with her mother. These wishes included the desire to cut off from the world, and to reconnect with her mother in the womb. The instructor will demonstrate how transference, countertransference and resistance were at play. In this workshop, she will illustrate the techniques she used and how she managed the treatment of this regressed patient as she considers its general implications. Participants will: 1) understand techniques that were used to address patient's primarily non-verbal communication, 2) learn how a therapist can provide a mirroring experience and maintain neutrality, and understand the transference, countertransference and resistance in treatment, 3) understand patient’s feeling of omnipotence, and her intertwined picture with self, family and others related to sex and money.

ALMA ISMAILGECI, LMSW Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Faculty and Supervisor: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Member: Metropolitan Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists; American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 27, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
4 Contact Hours
FEE: $100

TREATING NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER: THERAPY STRATEGIES FOR NARCISSISTIC DEFENSES Instructor: Anthony Mazzella, Ph.D., LCSW
This mini-course is designed to provide a theoretical framework and clinical techniques for mental health professionals who are interested in, currently working with, or planning to work with patients struggling with the hallmark features of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). The course offers a close examination of the developmental and relational factors that give rise to narcissistic defenses, with particular attention to how early unmet emotional needs and defensive adaptations shape self-experience and patterns of relating. Participants will gain insight into the role of grandiosity as an affect-regulating defense against feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, and shame. The course will also provide participants with specific, effective, and empirically validated therapeutic strategies for engaging patients and working with narcissistic vulnerabilities and defensive patterns as they emerge in treatment.

ANTHONY MAZZELLA, Ph.D., LCSW Certificate in Psychoanalysis, Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Faculty: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Fellow, Training and Supervising Analyst: Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Board of Directors: IPTAR. Past Director: IPTAR Clinical Center. Past Professor: New York University, Fordham University. Member: International Psychoanalytical Association. 

MONDAYS, JUNE 22, 29, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
3 Contact Hours
FEE: $75

EMBODIMENT AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
Instructor: Susan McNamara, MD, FAPA
We are experts on bodies; we all have one. This seminar takes up the topic of the body and the significance of our bodies to ourselves and others. Why is there a mind-body duality? How do bodies collect anxiety and fear? How are bodies gendered? Why does psychoanalysis struggle with the corporeal? This mini-course will consider embodiment from different perspectives and deepen our understanding of how perceptions of the body crisscross and resonate. We will explore the epistemology of the body from various psychoanalytic perspectives by examining the work of Kathryn Zerbe, Alexandra Harrison, Ed Tronick, Andrzej Werbart, Daria Columbo, and Griffin Hansbury. We will examine our assumptions about the body and its relationship to the mind, assess how psychoanalytic, biological, anthropological, and medical concepts intersect with cultural and political ideas about embodiment, and describe somatic countertransference.

SUSAN McNAMARA, MD, FAPA Certificate in Contemporary Psychoanalysis, National Institute for the Psychotherapies/National Training Program. Faculty: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Clinical Instructor: Yale School of Medicine. Fellow: American Psychiatric Association. Managing Editor: Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association Review of Books.

WEDNESDAYS, JUNE 24, JULY 1, 8, 15, 22, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
7.5 Contact Hours
FEE: $185

BUILDING AND MAINTAINING A PRIVATE PRACTICE IN CHALLENGING TIMES
Instructors: Barbara L. Reichenthal, LCSW, BCD, and Ruby R. Benjamin, Ed.D., LP
This workshop is designed to help clinicians who are thinking about building a private practice in this challenging time. Rules and issues clinicians face around whether or not to participate in managed care panels or maintain an out of network insurance profile, what to consider in setting a fee especially in this period of growing unemployment and financial uncertainty, active competition for the available pool of patients posing immediate and longer term decisions about the hidden costs of private practice, and the risk assessment involved in joining programs that feed your referral base. In this workshop, we will also focus on the mechanics of starting and maintaining a practice, such as assessment of office space needs, rental costs, locating an office, determining whether or not to participate on managed care panels, issues in fee settings, marketing, developing a referral network, HIPAA (Privacy Law) requirements, licensing restrictions, keeping notes and documentation, and developing collegial and supervisory supports. The clinical dimensions involved are also considered. Special attention will be paid to the “frame issues” that arise where aspects of clinical phenomena get ”lost” in insurance rules and regulations around the frequency of sessions, payments for missed appointments, use of telehealth, note-keeping, and other such matters. Names of insurance panels and information on how to contact them will also be discussed. Participants will be able to identify two reasons to set up private practice and how to do so; two obstacles in setting it up and how to navigate those challenges; two frame issues that are clinical dimensions that need to be considered in private practice.

BARBARA L. REICHENTHAL, LCSW, BCD Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Faculty and Supervisor: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult and Child and Adolescent Program. Past President, Member: Metropolitan Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists. Past President, Member: Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. 

RUBY R. BENJAMIN, Ed.D., LP Member: Board of Trustees, Metropolitan Center for Mental Health; Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Member-At-Large: Metropolitan Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists.  

SATURDAY, JULY 11, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Contact Hours: N/A
FEE: $75

WORKING WITH ADULT SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE
Instructor: Caroline Sloane, LMSW
This seminar will integrate relevant psychoanalytic theory and literature with clinical case material to explore the treatment of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Particular attention will be given not only to the enduring psychological impact of sexual trauma on patients, but also to the ways in which clinicians’ own resistance to confronting the unthinkable may shape the therapeutic process and countertransference experience. The seminar will examine unconscious dynamics related to identification with the aggressor as they emerge within treatment and consider their adaptive function within the patient’s psychic organization. Drawing upon betrayal trauma theory, a clinical vignette will be presented to illustrate these concepts and facilitate discussion of their application in clinical practice.

CAROLINE SLOANE, LMSW Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Candidates' Representative: Board of Trustees, Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Member: Metropolitan Society of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
1.5 Contact Hours
FEE: $55

PROTECTING THERAPEUTIC DEPTH: REFLECTIVE CAPACITY IN THE FACE OF RACIAL AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCE
Instructor: Kim Arrington, Psy.D.
This workshop examines the therapist’s internal functioning in the presence of clinically and culturally charged material. While therapeutic depth is often assumed, it may narrow when difference evokes psychological activation that is not recognized or metabolized. Participants will explore subtle forms of internal retreat, defensive certainty, and the impact of these processes on treatment. Through didactic instruction, structured reflection, case-based discussion, and guided practice, participants will develop increased capacity to sustain psychological presence during difficult or activating clinical moments. Emphasis will be placed on strengthening reflective pause skills, differentiating defensive reactions from reflective processing, and protecting the conditions under which patients can feel seen, accompanied, and understood.

KIM ARRINGTON, Psy.D. Certificate in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis, Harlem Family Institute. Faculty: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Child & Adolescent Program. Supervisor: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program and Child & Adolescent Program. Member, Board of Trustees, and Program Committee: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Clinical Psychologist: Hackensack University Medical Center. Assistant Professor: Hackensack Medical School. Member: American Psychological Association, Division 39.

TUESDAYS, AUGUST 4, 11, 18, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
6 Contact Hours
FEE: $150

OPEN HOUSE & CLINICAL PRESENTATION

OPEN TO THOSE CONSIDERING POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

LOOKING FOR A THERAPEUTIC WINDOW: NAVIGATING COUNTERTRANSFERENCE AND SEARCHING FOR OPPORTUNITIES WHILE WORKING WITH A NARCISSISTICALLY DISTURBED PATIENT
SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2026   
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM EDT
PRESENTER: MICHAEL AMBROSINO, LMSW

This presentation details the treatment of a 59-year-old male whose clinical presentation was defined by a striking contrast: a disarmingly affable personality underpinned by an inexplicable sense of intimidation. The patient sought treatment after being fired from his job, hoping to obtain stability until his retirement. The presenter will explore the profound countertransference of feeling confused, intimidated, and unable to think or speak. The presentation will also highlight the ways in which the therapist searched for windows of opportunity to create depth and meaning in a patient who felt he desperately lacked it.

PRESENTER: MICHAEL AMBROSINO, LMSW Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program.

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.

PREPARING FOR THE NEW YORK LP EXAM: 
A FOCUSED, STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH TO PASSING WITH CONFIDENCE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2026
12:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT
PRESENTER: BRIAN KLOPPENBERG, LP, MFA

This workshop will teach participants a number of skills: It will help in writing case narratives for the New York State LP exam, prepare for the actual writing of each narrative at the testing site, and navigate the testing situation itself. We will begin with a close examination of the various sections of the LP exam, question by question, in order to build case narratives that eventuate in passing the exam. Each case narrative should have its own internal logic, and we will talk about how to find and develop that logic. Having helped a number of candidates from several different institutes to pass the exam, I have a strong sense of what the readers of the case narratives are looking for, as well as some common mistakes that can be avoided without too much trouble. Participants are welcome to submit some of their sample answers ahead of time and we can work on these during the workshop. Helpful advice will be offered for what to do next once the narrative has been written, both in the days leading up to the exam and when at the testing site. This interactive workshop will allow plenty of time for questions and answers with the participants.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will:
1) understand more effective ways to think about the format of the New York State LP exam.
2) begin to construct a case narrative according to an internal psychoanalytic logic.
3) identify various mistakes that are best avoided in order to obtain optimal results on the exam.
4) identify various test-taking strategies both for the days leading up to the exam and while writing up the narrative at a testing site.

PRESENTER: BRIAN KLOPPENBERG, LP, MFA Certificate in Psychoanalysis, National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. Faculty: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, Adult Program. Board Member, Training and Supervising Analyst: National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. Former Director: Theodore Reik Clinical Center for Psychotherapy.

LOCATION: ONLINE THROUGH ZOOM

FEE: $100 or $75 for students (with proof of student status)
NO FEE FOR MCMH STAFF THERAPISTS

Registration deadline: September 17, 2026

Zoom instructions and meeting link will be emailed to participants prior to the workshop.    

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.