From Breakdown to Breakthrough: Psychoanalytic Treatment of Psychosis with Danielle Knafo, PhD

ABOUT ISPS-US
ISPS-US promotes psychological and social approaches to states of mind often called "psychosis" in treatment, education, and advocacy through collaborations between service providers, experts by experience, and family members. Join us in our mission by becoming a member at www.isps-us.org

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION
This webinar will focus on the basic principles of psychoanalytic treatment of psychosis, developed by Dr. Knafo during her 40 years of working with psychosis in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
Dr. Knafo's approach to meeting the challenges of working with individuals experiencing extreme states focuses primarily on providing safety, forging a working alliance by meeting the patient where they are and allotting them maximum personal agency, understanding their symptoms as attempts at adaptation and restoration of the self, coping with loneliness, and working with the transference and countertransference. There is a focus on strengths as well as weaknesses. Most importantly, Dr. Knafo’s approach to therapy involves viewing the patient as a whole person rather than a collection of symptoms, prioritizing subjective experience and affect and on seeing the patient as a true collaborator in their own treatment. Clinical examples will illustrate her points.

The webinar is primarily designed to educate practitioners, however, persons with lived experience and their families may find it helpful as well.

About the presenter(s)
Danielle Knafo, PhD
Danielle Knafo, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with expertise in the treatment of psychosis. During her tenure as professor at LIU's Clinical Psychology Doctoral program for 22 years, she chaired a concentration that trained doctoral students on how to work therapeutically and psychodynamically with serious mental illness. Currently, she is faculty and supervisor at NYU's Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Adelphi’s Postgraduate Program. She has written and lectured extensively on the topics of art and creativity, psychoanalysis, trauma and psychosis, sexuality and technology. From Breakdown to Breakthrough: Psychoanalytic Treatment of Psychosis, (written with Michael Selzer) is her tenth book.