Using the literary metaphor of Odysseus, as he journeyed passed the Song of the  Sirens, this paper will focus on the process of change in psychotherapy. With an emphasis on the “ongoingness” of the self-object experience, I intend to show how a sustained selfobject experience allows our patients to move away from their dysregulated but familiar psychological and neurological home, to a state of greater regulation—one that can often feel disorienting and unknown. Through a clinical example, I will discuss a patient’s journey to a more secure attachment style by helping her to connect to her longings and intrinsic strivings.

Marc Sholes, LCSW is a board member, faculty and supervisor at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) as well the Co-Director of Curriculum for their Adult Training Program in Psychoanalysis.  He is also on the Council of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology and maintains a private practice in New York City. His current interest has to do with the relationship between Attachment Theory, Infant Research and Self Psychology.

Steven Kuchuck is Editor-in-Chief; Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Associate Editor; Routledge Relational Perspectives Book Series,  Incoming President of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and Board Member, supervisor, faculty, Co-Director of Curriculum for the psychoanalytic training program at NIP, and faculty/supervisor at the NIP National Training Program, Stephen Mitchell Relational Study Center, the Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis of Philadelphia and other institutes. Steve’s writing focuses primarily on the analyst’s subjectivity and in 2015 and 2016, he won the Gradiva Award for best psychoanalytic book: Clinical Implications of the Psychoanalyst’s Life Experience: When the Personal Becomes Professional and The Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi: From Ghost to Ancestor (co-edited with Adrienne Harris).

Location: NIP Conference Room 250 West 57th Street, #501, NYC, NY

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