MELBOURNE: Nancy McWilliams and Michael Garrett

**** Ticket sales close 9th Feb ****

Psych Ascend is honoured to present as its inaugural event, a national series of live lectures with Dr Nancy McWilliams and Michael Garrett, MD in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. This will be Dr McWilliams’ and Dr Garrett’s final teaching tour within Australia, and the last opportunity to see them presenting live in Melbourne. 

We welcome colleagues from psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, many of whom are familiar with and whose practice has already been enriched by Dr McWilliams’ seminal writing and teachings on psychoanalytic diagnosis, and Dr Garrett’s innovative integration of CBT and psychodynamic psychotherapy for the treatment of psychosis. We warmly encourage early-career clinicians, students and those new to the work of Dr McWilliams and Dr Garrett to take advantage of this unique and invaluable learning opportunity. This is an event not to be missed!

Programme 

19 February 2025 

9am – 10.30am Dr Nancy McWilliams

Enhancing Therapeutic Competence through Clinical Supervision and Consultation: Controversies, Challenges, and Empirical Findings 

11am – 12.30am Dr Nancy McWilliams

Monitoring Vital Signs of Psychological Growth: Therapeutic change beyond symptom reduction

1.30 – 3.30pm Dr Michael Garrett

Psychotherapy for Psychosis: Integrating Cognitive-Behavioral and Psychodynamic Treatment

4pm – 5pm Dr Nancy McWilliams & Dr Michael Garrett 

Live Consultation with audience case presentation

20 February 2025 

9am – 10.30am Dr Michael Garrett

Psychotic Symptoms as Disguised Recollections of Trauma

11am – 12.30am Dr Michael Garrett

Psychosis, Trauma, and the Bayesian Predicting Processing Model of the Brain and the Mind

1.30 – 3.30pm Dr Nancy McWilliams

Ten Angles of Vision on Personality with Clinical Implications 

4pm – 5pm Dr Nancy McWilliams & Dr Michael Garrett 

Live Consultation with audience case presentation

Refreshments & Breaks 

Morning and Afternoon Tea served each day at 10.30am and 3.30pm. 

Lunch served each day at 12.30-1.30pm.

Early Bird Registration closes 30 November 2024

$415* Early Bird One Day Tickets 

$690* Early Bird Two Day Tickets (Both Days) 

$475* Standard One Day Tickets  

$790* Standard Two Day Tickets (Both Days)

* Prices above are exclusive of GST and Humanitix booking fees 

Early Career Psychologists (less than 5 years post graduation) 20% off - Limited tickets available - Promotional Code at checkout: EARLYCAREER

MULTI-VENUE DISCOUNT - If you have already paid full price at another venue, please contact us at info@psychascend.au and we will provide you with a 50% discount for your 2nd and/or 3rd venue. 

Current full-time Students 40%** off  - Limited tickets available (This discount is NOT available for psychiatry or psychology registrars, who should instead use the Early Career Code) - Email us at info@psychascend.au for your unique discount code, stating: your university, degree name and expected year of completion.  

Presenter Information

Nancy McWilliams 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), all with Guilford Press. She has edited or contributed to several other books, and is Associate Editor of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (2006, Lingiardi & McWilliams, 2017). She is a former president of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association and is on the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Psychology. A graduate of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, Dr. McWilliams is also affiliated with the Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of New Jersey. She is on the Board of Trustees of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA. 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.

Lectures

Enhancing Therapeutic Competence through Clinical Supervision and Consultation: Controversies, Challenges, and Empirical Findings This talk aims to be relevant to the practical and professional needs of both supervisors and supervisees. Many approaches to clinical supervision conceptualize supervisory competence in terms of mastering techniques or skill sets. Dr. McWilliams argues that good supervision and consultation are not so much about teaching skills, although that is part of such mentoring, as they are about relational and developmental goals, such as creating safety in the supervisory alliance, fostering professional and personal growth, facilitating supervisees’ integration of their clinical interventions with their individual personalities, appreciating the implications of personality differences for technique, and attending to progress that goes beyond symptom amelioration. 

Monitoring Vital Signs of Psychological Growth: Therapeutic change beyond symptom reduction This talk will cover ten areas that have been identified in the clinical literature as critical aspects of overall mental health, with examples of how therapists and patients can pursue these goals together. The goal of treatment is not only symptom reduction but also facilitation of patients’ resolution of general problems in living, pursuit of overall life goals, and maturation in the areas of love, work, and play. Clinicians need to keep in mind a general sense of psychological wellness by which they can assess how treatment is going. And if the supervisory process goes well, clinicians can make progress in these areas as well. 

Ten Angles of Vision on Personality with Clinical Implications A vast empirical literature has established the importance of the therapist’s and client’s personality to treatment outcome. Dr. McWilliams will review ten different psychological lenses through which personality has been viewed (temperament, attachment, observed clinical pattern, defensive structure, affective organization, implicit cognition, drive tendencies, self-definition versus self-in-relation orientation, core relational theme, level of severity). She will mention the evidence base for each angle of vision, explore some therapeutic implications of each perspective, and give clinical examples. 

Presenter Information

Michael Garrett, MD is currently Professor Emeritus of Clinical Psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He is also on the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Association of New York (PANY) affiliated with NYU Medical Center in New York City. He received his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed his residency training in Psychiatry at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center. He currently teaches and supervises clinicians doing psychotherapy for psychosis and is a consultant to several first-episode for psychosis teams in the United States and elsewhere. He has a particular interest in the integration of cognitive behavioral and psychodynamic treatment in the psychotherapy of psychosis, as detailed in a Chapter in Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry 11th Ed titled Individual Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Psychosis, and in his recent book, Garrett, M. (2019) Psychotherapy for Psychosis: Integrating Cognitive Behavioral and Psychodynamic Treatments. Guilford Press/New York. 

Lectures

Psychotherapy for Psychosis: Integrating Cognitive-Behavioral and Psychodynamic Treatment Dr. Garrett will describe the utility of integrating cognitive-behavior therapy for psychosis (CBTp) and psychodynamic treatment in helping patients with psychotic conditions. CBTp can help patients consider the possibility that their delusional beliefs are literally false, while a psychodynamic approach can help them understand the figurative, metaphorical truth of their symptoms as authentic expressions of their state of mind and past history. Dr. Garrett will give a detailed presentation of the first 16 sessions in the successful therapy of a chronically psychotic woman, unresponsive to medication, who for 20 years believed she had a horrible smell. Dr. Garrett will include a video of the patient reflecting on her treatment.

Psychotic Symptoms as Disguised Recollections of Trauma Dr. Garrett will summarize research that bears on the question, “What mediates between trauma and psychosis?” Dr. Garrett will compare and contrast the phenotypic manifestations of PTSD and psychosis, respectively, presenting evidence for the view that psychotic symptoms constitute disguised recollections of trauma. Dr. Garrett will illustrate this idea in a detailed description of the successful psychotherapy of a chronically psychotic man, unresponsive to medication, who feared that he might be arrested, with a video clip of the patient reflecting on his treatment.

Resistances to the Use of Logic in CBTp Dr. Garrett will describe ten forms of resistance by clients to the use of logic in CBT for psychosis (CBTp) that may interfere with the optimal efficacy of CBTp. Dr. Garrett will suggest interventions that clinicians may use to distinguish such obstacles to clinical progress.

Venue & Location

Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, 25 Collins Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000

Lectures to be held in Arthur Street Auditorium (L1), catering to be served in the Fitzroy Ballroom (L1). 

Parking Information

Hotel parking $85 subject to availability. Contact the hotel for more information on (03) 9653 0000. Public parking available at First Parking Collins Place Car Park. Click here for more information. 

Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Each day of lectures offers 6 professional development hours.

Enquiries 

For more information and enquiries about this event please contact s.may@psychascend.au

For more information about Psych Ascend visit us at http://www.psychascend.au