Psychotherapeutic Forms of Love

Psychotherapeutic Forms of Love: from Eros to Agape

This webinar was recorded and is now available as a Talk on Demand.  Click here for more details.

Saturday 30 January 2021 - A Live Webinar

A Webinar with Dr Andrea Celenza, Professor Paul Gilbert, Dr Richard Gipps and Dr Joy Schaverien

  • Includes a recording of the event with access for a year (14 days post the event)
  • Bookings close at 9.00am GMT Wednesday 27 January

This project began with a discussion between people working at Confer on whether love of the client is essential for the therapeutic process to work. Some thought it would be strange if a slowly emerging, intimate experience of deeply knowing another, and being known, did not result in love of some kind. Others wondered how a therapeutic stance of being loving might inhibit the client’s need to use the therapist as a hateful object.

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FULL PROGRAMME

13.00 GMT (08.00 EST)
Introductions and Zoom Housekeeping

13.05
Dr Richard Gipps
What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Therapy helps the patient become, and know herself to be, lovable – so that she may live with dignity and not be lost to loneliness or mental illness. How can we understand this therapeutic love? Discussions tend to turn it into a feeling, focus on parental care or erotic passion, or see therapy as a trade of love for money. But psychotherapists aren’t analogous to prostitutes, surrogates, or foster parents. Instead they’re “love coaches” who disclose the patient’s humanity to him; who promote the value of being known and, in that, being found lovable; and who, in the face of dejection, cleave to the knowledge of love’s value for the truly lived life.

13.45
Q&A

14.00
Dr Andrea Celenza
The Maternal Loving Transference and the Fate of Feminine Signifiers
The maternal loving transference is the site of the earliest experience of love, care, and attention. Sensorial modalities of looking and touching are identified as early modes of receptivity, representative of desires to take in the analyst. Different forms of love will be discussed, including the false dichotomy of identificatory love and object love. In this presentation, I will present my patient Petra to illustrate aspects of unconscious feminine identity and various transformations by receiving love in the analytic process. A transformation in myself, related to experiences with my own dying mother, expanded my containing capacities and opened up new areas of patience, love and receptivity in me.

14.45
Q&A

15.00
Break

15.30
Dr Joy Schaverien
Love and Loss within the Analytic Frame
When we embark on psychotherapy with a stranger the shape the journey will take is always unknown.  So it was with a man who was referred to treat the depression that had blighted his life.  Then, three months later, with an unforeseen diagnosis of terminal cancer, the analysis deepened, the individuation process speeded up and a transference/ countertransference dynamic,  characterised by eros in its many guises, developed. The intense love (and hate) that emerged, alongside the tragic circumstances, put the analytic frame under extreme pressure. Drawings, made by the analyst, will illustrate the personal as well as professional ending we came to.

16.15
Q&A

16.30
Break

16.45
Professor Paul Gilbert
Why Compassion is About Care, Courage and Wisdom
This talk will explore some of the origins of compassion focused therapy. It will highlight how compassion is about three core therapeutic qualities: caring, courage and wisdom. What distinguishes human compassion from caring motives and behaviours in other animals is our ability to have a certain kind of awareness with a knowing intention to be helpful and address suffering wisely. Compassion can be distinguished from love and kindness and we will consider when and why.

17.30
Q&A

17.45
Discussion

18:15
End

FEES

Handouts included:

Bookings close at 9.00am GMT Wednesday 27 January

Confer member:
£56
(Click here to become a member)

Self-funded:
£70

CPD

Certificates of attendance for 4.5 hours will be provided

VENUE

This is a live online webinar using Zoom software. Zoom is free to download and use.

For more information about Zoom click here.

To download Zoom free of charge click here.

SCHEDULE

Saturday
13.00 GMT (08.00 EST) Start
13.00 Introductions and Zoom Housekeeping
13.05 Dr Richard Gipps
13.45 Q&A
14.00 Dr Andrea Celenza
14.45 Q&A
15.00 Break
15.30 Dr Joy Schaverien
16.15 Q&A
16.30 Break
16.45 Paul Gilbert
17.30 Q&A
17.45 Discussion
18.15 End

BOOKING CONDITIONS

Regrettably, refunds cannot be given in any circumstances except as follows:

  • You cancel in writing to info@confer.uk.com 60 days before the first date of the event you have booked, in which case you will be entitled to a 100% refund.
  • You cancel in writing to info@confer.uk.com 30 days before the first date of the event you have booked, in which case you will be entitled to a 50% refund.

This does not apply to parts of an event such as a seminar within a series but only to a whole event or complete series. You may give your place to another person if you let us know that person's name at least 24 hours before the event begins.

We reserve the right to change a speaker at one of our conferences without offering a refund. However, if a solo presenter cancels we will offer a full refund OR transfer of your fee to another Confer event. If the entire event is cancelled we will offer you a full refund.

We reserve the right to change our prices at any time. Regrettably, discounts offered after you made your booking cannot be claimed or applied retrospectively.