Child’s Play & Emotional Heath of Children and Adolescents
Individual Course & a part of the 3rd Year of Full Training in Object Relations Psychoanalysis, also a part of the Child-Parent Development Program @ ORI – 11 hrs of post-graduate education credit
Instructor: Charles Bonerbo, LCSW
Location: 19 W 34th street at the Sociometric Institute, Penthouse suite, NYC, 10001 OR Virtual participation
Dates & Time: March 27th through May 8th, 2013; 7 weeks; 10:15. to 11:55 am
This program will focus on children’s and adolescents’ play as an essential ingredient of healthy emotional development and integrated personality and whole relatedness.
Each week we will focus on a child’s phase-specific development and highlight, discuss and explore the specific ”play tasks” that is relevant for that phase.
Participants will have a greater understanding of the essential elements of play and how it directly effects a child’s and adolescent’s emotional development. Also, the notion of spontaneous gesture will be explored and understood as a goal of emotional development.
Other topics to be explored will include:
- Precociousness and it’s vicissitudes;
- Traumatic Experience, Cumulative Trauma, and Pre-mature exposure as it pertains to the overwhelm of the ego and the subsequent foreclosure of symbolism;
- Concreteness and lack of spontaneity…(Anxious and Autistic States), and others.
Course Outline:
Week 0ne: Of blankets and teddy bears…the infants need for play. Peek a Boo, Hide and Seek. Attachment and cognitive development.
Week Two: Latency: Sublimating the impulses… Toy soldiers and Doll houses…”I’ll be the Mommy and You’ll be the Daddy”.
Week Three: Pre-teen…and “Tween-agers.” Gender identity formation. Of Princes and Princesses, Cowboys and Indians…, Barbie and Ken…
Week Four: Early to middle adolescents: “Not that anymore…That is for babies!”… The deepening of symbol and metaphor; Star Wars, Harry Potter and the adolescent journey…
Later adolescents: First loves, Losses and longings…Twilight saga, Sports, Heroes and Heroines…Competitive play… Mind-body integration.
Week Five: Special areas of concern… The effects of trauma and cumulative trauma and the foreclosing f symbolic play.
Week Six: Discussion of D.W. Winnicott and his ideas on the necessity of play and spontaneous gestures in infant development.
Week Seven: Continuation of discussion and examples of play and spontaneous gestures.
Week Eight: When make believe goes awry!. Pathology and the blurring of boundaries between playing and reality. Examples from adolescent stories and movies.
Week Nine: Concreteness and lack of spontaneity… Anxious and autistic states. Reading and discussion of the work of Francis Tustin.
Week Ten: Open discussion and review.
Please note that this course outline was developed for the 10-week course (1hr 15 min per class), but in 2013, it will be offered through the span of 8 weeks, 1hr 35 min/ class.
Bio of the instructor:
Charles Bonerbo, LCSW is in private practice with individuals, couples, and families. He is a Chair of the Training Committee at Object Relations Institute (ORI); a training supervisor and a consultant at Metropolitan Center for Mental Health (MCMH) and Metropolitan Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (MIPP); and an instructor and supervisor of Chinese American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA), as well as a Board member at CAPA. In 2011, Charles was providing teaching and clinical supervision in Kazakhstan (former USSR) and in China.
For more information, please email the administrator at admin@orinyc.org; call the administrator at 646-522-1056.