Scientific Conferences
Multiple topics, perspectives, and organizations.
About
We host conferences each year for WBCP members and interested clinicians, with CME/CE credits available. We also collaborate with other organizations to co-sponsor events.
Events are scheduled throughout the year, focusing on: Cultural Competency, hosted by COWAP to increase a clinician’s competency within various cultural topics; A variety of issues within the LGBTQ communities are presented at the LGBTQ Conference; Ethics Conferences discuss various issues around ethics from a psychoanalytic viewpoint; Restricted to members of WBCP, Colloquium presents original papers by members of the WBCP community; The Raphling Conference presents various topics within psychoanalytic technique; Community Psychoanalysis Colloquium considers topics related to community psychoanalysis.
Continuing Education Units are not issued for partial attendance of one day programs
Contact
For more information about the Scientific Conferences please contact Archana Varma Caballeo, MD at archana@archanavarmamd.com.
Upcoming
January
Saturday, January 11, 2025 | 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Annual Colloquium (Members Only Event)
“I Put a Spell on You”
Saturday, January 11, 2025
9:00 am – 12:00 pm ET
In-Person Only
George Washington University
Mt. Vernon Campus – Post Hall
(3 CME/CE)
NOTE: This event is required for all students and candidates. If you are unable to attend, you will need to complete a make-up assignment.
Registration Link: https://wbcp.memberclicks.net/reg_2025_colloquium
Program Flyer: HERE
Registration Deadline: January 8, 2025
Presentation Description:
The Faces of Power:
This program explores the concept of power, developed over years of reflection on its true depth. Power is considered in the context of key relationships, such as supervisor-trainee and therapist-patient, and how it influences interactions and behavior. It encompasses what humans are capable of—beyond the roles they take on or are assigned.
The program delves into how those in positions of authority engage with others, whether through their roles or their mere presence in a shared space. It emphasizes that when power is exercised with the heart and mind aligned, it has the potential to create fairness for others. This fairness allows for freedom of choice, a capacity that is both innate and influenced by the presence or absence of power dynamics.
At its core, the program defines power as the ability to exercise choice—whether in words or actions—without it becoming contingent on whether those in authority allow or restrict it. Through this exploration, participants will gain insight into how power shapes relationships and decision-making in profound ways.
I Put a Spell on You:
During and post Covid, internet scams have proliferated. This paper will 1) investigate the dynamics of need and greed that bind the isolated dyad in a scam 2) elaborate how two senses need to be
activated to make the scam possible 3) review decades of literature on scammers that confirm the requisite personal qualities of a successful scammer and 4) raise awareness about how under certain circumstances, we humans can be exploited.
Saturday, January 11, 2025 | 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
COWAP: “Women, The Longest Revolution”: Session 4: Women as Caregivers Through Their Lifespan
Session 4: Women’s Role as Caregivers Through Their Lifespan
Panel: Jessica Benjamin in conversation with Erika Lepiavka and Tracy Sidesinger
Date: January 11, 2025
Time: 11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET
Registration Link: https://wbcp.memberclicks.net/registration_cowap_women_revolution_2024-2025
Click Here to View the Program Flyer
Registration Deadline: January 8, 2025
Description: Notions of woman and the feminine have changed dramatically over the last decades and this is reflected in how women perceive themselves, how they are perceived by society, and how this is understood from a psychoanalytic perspective. Jessica Benjamin will talk about how feminism changed our understanding of the human psyche, including issues in psychosexual development related to gender and our rejection of normative heterosexuality. She will also reflect on her early work. She will have a conversation about these issues with Tracy Sidesinger, and Erika Lepiavka, considering new gender dynamics, the deconstruction of motherhood and women having multiple ideals.
February
Tuesday, February 4, 2025 | 8:00 am – Sunday, February 9, 2025 | 5:00 pm
2025 APsA National Meeting
2025 National Meeting, February 4 – 9, 2025
Palace Hotel, San Francisco
Visit https://apsa.org/meetings-events/ for more information.
Saturday, February 22, 2025 | 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
COWAP: “Women, The Longest Revolution”: Session 5: Material Body
Session 5: The Female Body: Passion and Peril
Participants: Rosemary H. Balsam, MD, Rachel Boué-Widawsky, PhD, Jeri Isaacson, PhD, Chair
Date: February 22, 2025
Time: 11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET
Registration Link: https://wbcp.memberclicks.net/registration_cowap_women_revolution_2024-2025
Click Here to View the Program Flyer
Registration Deadline: February 19, 2025
Description: Why do we pay so little attention to the role that the female natal body plays in the development of the psyche? This contrasts with how the birthing body holds psychic meaning that resonates throughout society. A graphic example is the fight for legal control over the female body in recent conflicts about abortion. Yet the procreative body remains relatively unexplored in psychoanalytic literature. In this discussion, Drs. Rosemary Balsam and Rachel Boué-Widawsky will consider ways of thinking psychoanalytically about the female body. Dr. Balsam will talk about the meaning of this absence in our field, and its impact for our understanding of psychological development. Dr. Boue-Widawsky will elaborate on this topic by discussing Julia Kristeva’s ideas about the maternal body as an object that is often experienced unconsciously – and consciously – with horror. What might we add to our understanding of internal, interpersonal, and sociocultural dynamics if we were to more fully incorporate these ideas into the larger body of psychoanalytic thought? We will consider societal dynamics that reflect internal psychic experience, particularly in light of the burgeoning misogyny we face today.
March
Saturday, March 8, 2025 | 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
COWAP: “Women, The Longest Revolution”: Session 6: Women and Literature
“Women’s Lives in Transition: Novelists Amy Bloom and Lisa Gornick in Conversation”
Date: March 8, 2025
Time: 11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET
Registration Link: https://wbcp.memberclicks.net/registration_cowap_women_revolution_2024-2025
Click Here to View the Program Flyer
Registration Deadline: March 5, 2025
Description: The presentation “Women’s Lives in Transition: Novelists Amy Bloom and Lisa Gornick In Conversation” provides a unique opportunity for participants to gain insights from two authors who are also psychotherapists. Their conversation offers dynamically rich and complex perspectives on women’s lives across various developmental stages, encompassing themes such as family dynamics, love, work, and mental health. By exploring the intersection of literature and psychology through the lens of these authors’ works, participants can deepen their understanding of women’s experiences over time and across the developmental spectrum, including birth and death, love and loss, work and home, and the complexity of women’s mental health concerns.
Anne Adelman, PhD, will facilitate a conversation between authors/psychotherapists Amy Bloom (In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, 2022; I’m Right Here, forthcoming Summer 2025) and Lisa Gornick (Ana Turns, 2023). As therapists and authors, they each have unique, dynamically rich and complex perspectives on women’s lives across the developmental spectrum, navigating the pulls of family, love, work, body and mind.