IPSS Explorations! Thursday, January 17th, 2019, 8:00 – 9:30pm, Jenna Davino, LCSW’s “#MeToo — Connection and the Implicit Dimension of Change: Treating an Adolescent Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse.” Beatrice Beebe, Ph.D, Discussant.

An adolescent with a history of childhood sexual abuse within the family has recently been sexually assaulted and is referred for treatment by her university’s victim services team. This treatment highlights the challenges ––and ultimate successes–– I experience integrating psychoanalytic theory into trauma-focused work with survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Kate enters treatment as the #MeToo movement sweeps our cultural consciousness –– a moment in time when my sense of self as a woman, and as an advocate for women, is at the forefront of my experience. As Kate processes her traumatic experiences, all or nothing thinking –– good versus bad, victim versus perpetrator –– seeps into our treatment; psychoanalytic theory provides a useful perspective, allowing me, and eventually Kate, to think in more complex and nuanced ways. In addition to directly addressing traumatic experiences, an experience-near listening perspective and close attention to implicit dimensions of communication is vital in co-constructing a secure therapeutic connection; within this space, Kate develops, and claims, a richer, more organized narrative of her life experiences.

Jenna Davino is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in private practice with children, adolescents, adults, and families in New York City.  She is a Clinical Instructor at NYU School of Medicine, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry —  Child Study Center, Family Studies program. Jenna received her MSW at NYU School of Social Work and recently completed her certificate in psychoanalysis at IPSS.

Beatrice Beebe Ph.D. is Clinical Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry), College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute. She directs a basic research lab on mother-infant communication. She is faculty at the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center, the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity, and the N.Y.U. Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is co-author with Jaffe, Feldstein et al. of  Rhythms of Dialogue in Infancy (2001); author with Lachmann of Infant Research and Adult Treatment: Co-Constructing Interactions (2002); author with Knoblauch, Rustin and Sorter of Forms of Intersubjectivity in Infant Research and Adult Treatment (2005); author with Jaffe, Markese, et al. of The origins of 12-month attachment: A microanalysis of 4-month mother-infant interaction ( 2010); and author with Lachmann of The Origins of Attachment: Infant Research and Adult Treatment(Routledge). Currently she directs a primary prevention Project for mothers who were pregnant and widowed on 9-11. The project therapists have written a book, edited by Beebe, B., Cohen, P., Sossin, K. M. & Markese, S. (Eds.) (2012). Mothers, infants and young children of September 11, 2001: A primary prevention project (Routledge).