THE GOOD ENOUGH THERAPIST (student discount)

SOLD OUT: This workshop has reached capacity.

NY Creative Arts Therapists is delighted to welcome Dr. Art Robbins, pioneer in the field of art therapy, founder of the Institute for Expressive Analysis, founder of the art therapy masters program at Pratt Institute, acclaimed author and educator in the field of art and psychotherapy, for this intimate evening workshop.

Analytically oriented practice suggests that therapists should present a “blank slate” stance with their patients. However, every therapist knows that treatment brings up powerful feelings and emotions, not just for the patient, but for the therapist as well.

Through discussion and art-making, participants will learn a clinical framework which incorporates and utilizes the therapist’s emotional response to their patients. We will explore how and why it is inevitable that both patients and therapists “act out” in treatment, and how to handle these reactions in a therapeutic way.

In his inimitably frank, playful yet profound way, Dr. Robbins will guide us through an approach to therapy that not only allows, but encourages us, to bring all of our humanity into the session. We will learn to manage emotional reactions that could hinder or interfere treatment, and put them to diagnostic, therapeutic, and relational use. We will also learn when it is more appropriate to curb our emotional reactivity in favor of more structured responses.

Participants will learn:

• How to differentiate between induced feelings and counter-transference
• How to address enactments verbally and through non-verbal means
• How to use their emotional response to patients as a diagnostic tool
• When and how to share our emotional reactions with our patients.