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Clinical Supervision Informed by W.R.D. Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory

with David P. Celani, PhD
5-week Course: Masterclass Supervision
Dates: Fridays, March 7, 2025 – April 4, 2025 (12-2pm EST)
Location: Virtual Live (via Zoom)
Tuition: $300/ 5-week course

To Register for this course, please complete the Registration form

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This ongoing group supervision class is designed for both professionals and students who are interested in using Fairbairn’s Object Relations theory in their clinical work. It will combine short discussions of Fairbairn’s theory and then apply his structural model to clinical cases presented by the attendees. Fairbairn’s theory, though generally respected by the analytic community, has never been used widely as a clinical model in the treatment of adult psychopathology.

The supervision will focus on two fundamental developmental issues negatively impacted by cumulative trauma: differentiation of the child from the parent and integration of the child’s perception of the parent into a single view that contains both loving and frustrating memories. This developmental approach examines how parental failure to support and encourage the child leads to massive feelings of deprivation and abandonment. These powerful emotions bind the child to the parent as they await the love and support that would allow them to explore the external world incrementally. Without this support, the child falls behind their peers, fearing engagement in activities that demand increasingly differentiated behaviors, remaining stuck at an earlier developmental age.

The reliance on Fairbairn’s model as the single approach to treatment will illustrate how this model, which has little commonality with classical or other analytic approaches, can be used effectively on patients with serious psychopathology. This approach will not use classical concepts such as the libido/drive theory, the Oedipal conflict or energic metaphors, but instead will focus on the dissociation of traumatic parental failures, the creation of dissociated sub-selves that contain memories of toxic interpersonal events, and developmental frustration which prevents both differentiation from the object and integration of good and bad object memories. This model falls into two general categories, including trauma/dissociation model as well as a developmental failure model.

At the beginning of the first session of this 5-week course, Dr. Celani will review Fairbairn’s structural model of the psyche, and then, at the beginning of all the following sessions, he will offer a 20-minute review of some parts of Fairbairn’s model.

The following are suggested readings for this course:

  • Celani, D.P. (2010). Fairbairn’s Model in the Clinical Setting. Columbia University Press.
  • Celani, D.P. Fairbairn’s Metaphor of The Human Mind [Handout]. Object Relations Institute, NYC.

[Recordings of Dr. Celani’s prior presentations on this topic will be also available, as per request.]

LEARNING POINTS:

At the end of this educational activity, its participants will be able to:

  • Describe and analyze clinical cases through Fairbairn’s trauma/dissociation model.
  • Describe and analyze clinical cases through Fairbairn’s developmental failure model.
  • Discuss how to construct a clinical narrative that is focused on parental failures that have been ignored, minimized, excused, or partially dissociated.
  • Utilize the patient’s relationships with external objects to illustrate both lack of differentiation and/or splitting to minimize intense transferences.
  • Utilize Fairbairn’s structural model to understand the specifics of the patient’s inner world, and to communicate with dissociated sub-selves when they emerge during clinical interviews.
  • Utilize Fairbairn’s Object Relations theory in their clinical work with patients/clients with developmental / childhood trauma.
  • Utilize Fairbairn’s Object Relations theory in their clinical work with patients/clients with personality disorders.

SCHEDULE (for each day of the course)

Morning:
9:30am -12pm EDT

Lunch:
12pm – 12:30pm EDT

Afternoon:
12:30pm – 2:30pm EDT

REFERENCES:

For April 13, 2024:

  • Baranger, M. and Baranger, W. (1961-1962/2008). The Analytic Situation as a Dynamic Field. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 89(4): 795-826.
  • Cassorla RMS (2012). What happens before and after acute enactment? An exercise in clinical validation and broadening of hypothesis. Int. J. Psychoanal, 93, 53-89.

For April 20, 2024:

  • Ferro, A. (2009). Transformations in dreaming and characters in the analytic field. Int J Psychoanal., 90, 209-230.
  • Stern, D. B. (2013b). Field theory in psychoanalysis, Part 2: Bionian field theory and contemporary Interpersonal/Relational psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 23, 630-645.
  • Ogden, T.H. (1994a). The Analytic Third: Working with Intersubjective Clinical Facts. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 75, 3-19.
  • Celenza, A. (2019). From relation to the field: Modes of unconscious fantasy elaborations. Int. Forum Psychoanal., 28, 203-211.

ELECTIVE READINGS

  • Celenza, A. (2022). Stance, set, transference: The differentiation of two modes of clinical technique. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assoc., 70(2), 283-305.
  • Donnet, J-L (2001). From the Fundamental Rule to the Analyzing Situation. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 82(1), 129-301
  • Langs, R. (1979) Interventions in the bipersonal field. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 15, 1-54.
  • Stern, D. B. (2013a). Field theory in psychoanalysis, Part I: Harry Stack Sullivan and Madeleine and Willy Baranger. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 23, 487-501
  • Stern, D.B. (2013c). Relational Freedom and Therapeutic Action. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 61(2): 227-255.
  • Stolorow, R.D. (1998). Clarifying the Intersubjective Perspective: A Reply to George Frank. Psychoanal. Psychol., 15, 424-427.
  • Stone, L. (1967) The psychoanalytic situation and transference: Postscript to an earlier communication. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 15, 3-58.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO:

David P. Celani, PhD, is a licensed psychologist who practiced for more than twenty-five years in Burlington, Vermont. In treatment, he focused on his patients’ “attachment to bad objects”, which manifested through their inability to separate from parents, friends, or marital partners who demeaned, criticized, or abused them. Celani now presents workshops throughout the United States on Object Relations theory. His books with Columbia University Press include Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory in the Clinical Setting, The Illusion of Love: Why the Battered Woman Returns to Her Abuser, and Leaving Home: How to Separate From Your Difficult Family.

CONTINUING EDUCATION:

Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis
2025 Winter Masterclass Series
January 10, 2025 – February 16, 2025
Live Online

Session #1: Clinical Supervision Informed by W.R.D. Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory – David Celani, PhD (12.0 CE)
Session #2: The Impact of Early Family Relationships on Child Development: A Fairbairnian Perspective – David P. Celani, PhD (3.0 CE)
Session #3: The Psychodynamic Case Study: Theory and Practice – Aner Govrin, PhD, Moderator & Inna Rozentsvit, M.D., PhD (8.0 CE)

Joint Accreditation Statement

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by Amedco LLC and Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis (ORIPP).  Amedco LLC is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Amedco Joint Accreditation #4008163.

Professions in scope for this activity are listed below.

Psychologists

This course is co-sponsored by Amedco and Object Relations Institute for Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis.  Amedco is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.  Amedco maintains responsibility for this program and its content. 23.0 hours.

The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Psychologists/Counselors: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, IO, KS, MA (LEP ONLY), ME, MO, NC, ND, NH, NE, NJ, NM, NV, OK*, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, WY
The following state boards accept courses approved by any other state for Psychologists/Counselors: CO, MD
MI: No CE requirements.
*OK: Accepts APA credit for live, in-person activities but not for ethics and/or online courses.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for MFTs: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, MD, ME, MO, NE, NC, NH, NJ, NM, NV, OK*, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WDC, WI, WY
AL MFTs: Credits authorized by NBCC or any other state licensing agency will be accepted.
MA MFTs: Participants can self-submit courses not approved by the MAMFT board for review.
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Addictions Professionals: AK, AR, CO, CT, DC, DE, GA, IA, IN, KS, LA, MD, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NY (held outside NY ONLY), OK*, OR, SC, UT, WA, WI, WY
The following state boards accept courses from APA providers for Social Workers: AK, AR, AZ, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, KY, ME, MN, MO, NE, NH, NM, OR, PA, VT, WI, WY

New York Board for Social Workers (NY SW)

Amedco SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0115. 23.0 hours.

New York Board for Psychology (NY PSY)

Amedco is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0031. 23.0 hours.

To receive CE certificates for the actual hours attended – please request them at the time of registration or any time prior to beginning of the conference. CE certificate fee: $25 (in addition to the registration fees). No fees charged for PD (Professional Development) certificates from ORI.

REGISTRATION AND FEES:

Tuition: $300/5-week course/trimester (can be paid in 2 installments, upon request)
Registration fee: $25/course (waived for ORI’s candidates in training)

Request weekly installments by writing to

SPECIAL SCHOLARSHIPS are available for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as for retired or disabled practitioners, or need-based or/and those who live outside of the USA.
To apply for your scholarship, please go to the registration form below.

CANCELLATION POLICY:
Full refund until the 1st session.
50% refund before the 2nd session.
No refund from the day of the second session, but 50% of the full paid tuition will be applied to any further ORI events.

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