David P. Celani, PhD

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 continuing education workshops throughout the United States on Object Relations theory and on Fairbairn’s developmental model of the human psyche and object relationships, including the new structural model of psyche based on attachment to bad objects proposed by R. Fairbairn.

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. His fifth book, Ronald Fairbairn: A Contemporary Introduction, was published by Routledge in 2024.

Dr. Celani has been teaching at ORI since 2020. His presentations, workshops and seminars at ORI include:

• 9/2/26 – 9-30-26 (Wednesdays, 7:30pm – 9:30pm ET/NYC): Fairbairn in the Consulting Room: Structural Theory, Clinical Formulation, and Masterclass Supervision (with David P. Celani, PhD). 14.5 CE hours for APA, NYS SW, NYS Psychologists.
  
• 4/15/26 – 6-17-26 (Wednesdays, 7pm – 8:15pm EDT): Clinical Masterclass Supervision Informed by W.R.D. Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory (with David P. Celani, PhD)
• 1-18-26 (Sunday, 11:30am-3:45pm ET): A Fairbairnian Inner World and Early Chronic Emotional Trauma (virtual live seminar with Dr. David P. Celani)
• 9/20/25 (Saturday, 11:30am-3:45pm EDT): Understanding and Treating Personality Disorders with Fairbairn’s Object Relations Model (seminar with David P. Celani) 6 CEs
• 6/29/25 (Sunday, 11:30am-3:45pm EDT): Working with Fairbairn’s Metaphors of the Human Mind in Mental Health Treatment Setting (with Dr. David P. Celani)
• 3/7/25 – 4/4/25 (Fridays, 12-2pm EST): Clinical Supervision Informed by W.R.D. Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory (with David Celani, PhD)
• 2/2/25 (Sunday, 12-3:15pm EST):  The Impact of Early Family Relationships on Child Development: A Fairbairnian Perspective (with David P. Celani, PhD)
• 1/10/25 – 2/14/25 (Fridays, 12-2pm EST): Clinical Supervision Informed by W.R.D. Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory (with David Celani, PhD)
• 9/22/24 – The Dissociation of Childhood Abuse as the Antecedent of the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma: A Fairbairnian Analysis (interactive seminar with Dr. David P. Celani) [8.5 CEs]
• 4/7/24 (Sunday, 10am-3:30pm EDT): Bringing Fairbairn’s Structural Theory into the Consulting Room to Meet Your Patient (interactive seminar with Dr. David Celani)
• 10/08/2023 Childhood Trauma and Psychological Development of a Mass Murderer Through the Lens of Fairbairn’s Object Relations Theory (with David P. Celani, PhD)
• 6/11/2023 An Object Relations Approach to Parent-Child Interactions That Impact the Child’s Emotional Development (with David P. Celani, PhD)
• 6/10/2023 An Object Relations Approach to Parent-Child Interactions That Impact the Child’s Emotional Development (with David P. Celani, PhD)
• 10/02/2022 Fairbairn’s Paradigm Shift to Developmental Model of Psychoanalysis as a Method and a Clinical Tool (with David Celani, PhD)
• 5/15/2022 Application of Fairbairn’s Structural Metaphors for Diagnosis and Treatment of Personality Disorders: Hysteric, Obsessive, Narcissistic, and Borderline (with Dr. David P. Celani)
• 9/26/2021 Childhood trauma and psychological development of a mass murderer through the lens of Fairbairn’s Object Relations theory (with David Celani, PhD)
• 10/08/2020-12/17/2020 Ronald Fairbairn’s Psychoanalytic Model of the Human Psyche and Its Clinical Applications