Working with Enactment and Projective Identification in Psychodynamic Treatment
David Daskovsky, PhD
Focus Area
Consultation Group
About This Group
In this ongoing consultation group, members will share their work with challenging clients, while exploring the ways that difficult experiences can be evoked in the therapist and played out in the treatment relationship. One major focus will be on the transference-countertransference matrix, with particular attention to projective identifications and enactments, which can illuminate what is happening in the treatment relationship and how this might relate to the patient’s presenting problems and character issues. As group members take turns presenting case material, we will be able to discuss ways to recognize these phenomena, and how to address them directly in the treatment. In some instances, we will see how enactments can play a role in treatment impasses and what can be done in those circumstances. For those participants who care for patients in the context of an agency or treatment team, we will have an opportunity to see how enactments can play out among team members, and how this might be addressed helpfully. Case presentations will be informal and follow a format that helps to highlight the above issues, among others. This will involve describing sessions in some detail, including what it feels like to be in the room with this person (aka, your countertransference), and what difficulties are arising in the treatment. The emphasis will be on a safe, thoughtful, and enriching exchange, as group members share their work.