This seminar series explores how therapists and patients engage with trauma in the therapy room. Trauma’s impact is not just about past events but the legacy both therapist and patient carry. Drawing from the work of Davies & Frawley (1994) and Philip Bromberg, we will discuss relational psychodynamic thinking and its role in working with multiple self-states.

A key focus will be the eight relational positions within four relational matrices, which repeatedly emerge in psychoanalytic work with trauma survivors.

The 7 Seminars

Fundamentals

1. June 28 - Setting the stage part 1:
   understanding unformulated experience, the difference between repression and dissociation, dissociation and self-states, the difference between inner child and dissociated child life

2. July 5 - Setting the stage part 2:
   role of the therapist (analytic third and the co-constructed relationship, including reveries, splitting, enactments, projective identification), the dilemma of the adult and the child 

Based on the rhythm of the group, one or two sessions might be added to support depthful learning. 

Delving deep into multiple self states (Advanced)

1. July 12 - Introduction of the 8 positions: working with multiple self states + Matrix position 1: unseeing, uninvolved parent and the unseen, neglected child 

2. July 19 - Matrix position 2: sadistic abuser and the helpless, enraged victim

3. August 2 - Matrix position 3: idealised, omnipotent rescuer and the entitled child

4. August 9 - Matrix position 4: seducer and the seduced 

5. August 23 and / or November 8 (to avoid clash with Diwali week) - A holding session for spillover material, questions, discussions