Finding Ourselves in Uncertain Times:

Emergent Processes of Change and Transformation

Dear Colleagues,

We look forward to welcoming you to Washington, D.C., October 20-23, 2022, for IAPSP’s first hybrid conference featuring in-person events in Washington, simultaneous live streaming, and recorded virtual events. This new format provides expanding opportunities for participants around the world to participate in the conference. Our conference theme, Finding Ourselves in Uncertain Times:  Emergent Processes of Change and Transformation, builds on the way the world and our lives have changed since we gathered together in Vancouver, B.C. three years ago. These changes have affected our personal and family lives, our professional practices, and our collective experience as an international organization. We come together now in our shared experience of ongoing uncertainty, threat, and loss that has deeply affected all of us even as it provides us as a community with new opportunities for hope and connection.

In this conference, we will explore how we can meet the demands and challenges of uncertain times, both clinically and organizationally. This conference will directly address the core mission of IAPSP—improving the lives of individuals and societies by exploring the emergent processes of growth and transformation. A focus on the potential for recovery and growth even in the face of worldwide loss and trauma is an essential self psychological attitude.

While we very much hope you can join us in-person in Washington DC, we recognize that this may not be possible for everyone. Offering hybrid options to reach IAPSP members and other colleagues around the globe will broaden our reach and support us as we come together with an ongoing dedication to relieve suffering and to make a difference in people’s lives.

For those attending in-person, we will host an opening night reception in order to joyfully greet old friends and make new ones. The reception will be followed by a tribute to the late Joseph Lichtenberg, with his friends and collaborators sharing memories and expressing appreciation for Joe’s important contributions to contemporary self psychology.

An exciting and diverse array of four plenaries will address a number of important themes including the role of play and playfulness in the evolving ways we are conducting our clinical practices during these uncertain times. We will also explore what transformation could look like in the theory, practice and institutional life of psychoanalysis following this tumultuous period. Coming next will be a moving clinical case in which a young woman’s developmental trauma intersects with a pandemic-induced experience of isolation and disconnection, deeply affecting both members of the dyad. In the final plenary, we explore how can we help our patients live with human tragedy and the inevitable contingencies and necessities of the human world.  We are proud to inform you that the four plenary sessions will be live-streamed to offer global participation.

The main conference will be preceded by a full day of pre-conference workshops where attendees will have an opportunity for an in-depth exploration of an array of topics including couples therapy, teaching virtually, evolution, and other clinical topics. We also will offer 22 paper sessions that engage a broad range of topics and clinical challenges.

We look forward to your participation at the conference!

2022 Conference Co-Chairs:
Elizabeth Carr, APRN, MSN,BC, and Roger Segalla,PhD

2022 Pre-Conference Chairs:
Denise Davis,LCSW and Gabriela Mann, PhD

2022 Paper Co-Chairs:
Jacqueline Gotthold,PsyD and Joshua Burg, PsyD

2022 Program Committee:
Jacqueline Gotthold, PsyD; Gabriela Mann, PhD; Gianni Nebbiosi, PhD; Joye Weisel-Barth; PhD, PsyD; Sandra Hershberg, MD; Joshua Burg, PsyD; Denise Davis, LCSW