NOBPC in collaboration with EPIC NOLA

Attendees will receive a 5-hour CME certificate for attending both sessions. This is a hybrid event. Please choose to join us at Tulane Medical School Murphy Building (details below) or via Zoom. In-person space is limited so please register early.

Vital Signs of Clinical Progress and Psychological Wellness by Nancy McWilliams, PhD

Morning Session – 9am – 12pm Central Time 3 CME credits

Mental health professionals try to alleviate specific symptoms, but at the same time we try to help our patients solve general problems in living, pursue overall life goals, and mature in the areas of love, work, and play. In the absence of a DSM definition of mental health, both therapists and patients need to evaluate progress not only in terms of symptom reduction but also in terms of a general construct of psychological wellness by which they can assess how treatment is going. Patients often cannot conceptualize these areas themselves until they make progress in them and can see the difference in their lives. This presentation will explore an evidence-based conceptualization of overall psychological wellness. It will cover ten areas identified in the clinical literature as critical aspects of overall mental health, explore the empirical literature about each of these areas, and emphasize the practical clinical utility of keeping an eye on these vital signs. The presenter will give examples of how therapists and patients can pursue these goals together. Connections between concepts and clinical techniques will be made explicit.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe ten areas of overall mental health relevant to psychotherapy and clinical supervision
• Define the term “mentalization” and apply it to clinical work
• Identify eight qualities in psychotherapists that correlate with patient satisfaction about clinical outcome

Disguised Memories of Traumatic Experiences in Childhood and Adolescence that Appear in Psychotic Symptoms by Michael Garrett, MD

Afternoon Session – 2pm – 4pm Central Time 2 CME credits

Research has shown that childhood trauma increases the risk for psychosis in adolescence and adulthood. Disguised memories of trauma appear in psychotic symptoms. Despite mounting evidence that childhood adversity increases the risk of psychosis, the prevailing treatment of psychotic patients consists of neuroleptic medication. The high incidence of child abuse in patients with a psychosis diagnosis suggests that ambitious trauma-informed psychotherapy is an essential treatment modality in the treatment of psychosis, however, there is a widespread failure to implement such an approach. Most psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other mental health disciplines are taught that “schizophrenia” is a genetically-determined brain disease, rather than a bio-psycho-social stress disorder requiring both medication and psychotherapy. This presentation will provide clinicians with tools to change the way they listen to psychotic symptoms. Learners will attempt to discern the meaning that underlies psychotic symptoms. Instead of regarding them as the meaningless byproducts of a diseased brain, learners will instead regard them as meaningful communications about the patient’s life history and current state of mind. This change will improve the capacity of clinicians to deliver trauma-informed care to psychotic patients.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain why traumatic experiences cannot be entirely forgotten, but can only be remembered in de-contextualized fragmented recollections.
• Give one example of a delusion the content of which appears as a trauma memory in disguise.

Nancy McWilliams, PhD, is Visiting Professor Emerita at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology and has a private practice in Lambertville, NJ. She is author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (1994; rev. ed. 2011), Psychoanalytic Case Formulation (1999), Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2004), and Psychoanalytic Supervision (2021). She has taught in thirty countries, and her writings have been translated into twenty languages. She has been featured by the American Psychological Association as a master clinician. Dr. McWilliams specializes in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and supervision; the relationship between diagnosis and treatment; alternatives to DSM and ICD diagnostic conventions; integration of feminist theory and psychoanalytic knowledge; the application of psychoanalytic understanding to the problems of diverse clinical populations; altruism; narcissism; and trauma and dissociative disorders.

Michael Garrett, MD, is Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and author of Psychotherapy for Psychosis: Integrating Cognitive-Behavioral and Psychodynamic Treatment (Guilford, 2019). Most of his professional career has been spent in public psychiatry. His time is divided among patient care, supervision of psychotherapy, teaching, and clinical research. He has an abiding concern for the problems clinicians confront when trying to develop relationships with psychotic individuals who have a fundamentally different view of reality than that of the therapist. Trained in both psychoanalysis and CBT for psychosis, he combines these approaches in treating psychotic patients.

In person at Tulane University School of Medicine, Murphy Building, 14th floor, Room 1439, 131 S. Robertson St., New Orleans, LA 70112 Campus Map Parking lots near Murphy Building

Registration Information (includes up to 5 CME credits)

Advance registration is required. Please click here to register online. If you prefer to pay by check, please email nobpcenter@gmail.com.

Early Registration Discount by March 1, 2024:

NOBPC Members: $85 Non-members: $135 Students (enrolled in a formal academic or training program) No CME $25

AFTER March 1, 2024 and at the door (if space allows):

NOBPC Members: $100 Non-members: $150 Students (enrolled in a formal academic or training program) No CME $25

VIRTUAL (ZOOM) REGISTRATION ENDS Friday, March 8 at Noon Central Time.

Scientific Conference Schedule

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and NOBPC. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. *Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company. -Updated July 2021-

Psychologists, Social Workers, and Licensed Professional Counselors may also receive continuing education credit for this activity if their accredited associations or boards recognize CME credits.