Projective identification in practice with Paul Terry

This workshop will be delivered via Zoom online.

Do you want to understand more about projective identification and how to work with it in clinical work? Do you want to learn more about using therapeutic technique to enable the retrieval of projective identifications?

By the end of the session you will expect: 

• To clearly define projective identification, transference and countertransference and what distinguishes these phenomena from one another.
• To gain knowledge of the different forms of projective identification and to understand the motives for projective identification.
• To learn about projective identification and the superego. 

This workshop will study projective identification as it is experienced in therapeutic practice. Projective identification will be examined in the transference and countertransference; in its different forms whether attributive, evocative or acquisitive; its various motives, whether to communicate, evacuate, possess, control, deny separateness or overcome loss; its relationship to introjective identification; how the superego drives projective identification and is often reflected in what is projected; and as projective identification operates interpersonally in therapeutic and other personal relationships, and intrapersonally between the ego and superego. Working through to enable the retrieval of projective identifications will be studied in relation to therapeutic technique of the framing and timing of interpretations.

These different aspects of projective identification will be illustrated through the presentation and discussion of clinical material. Workshop participants are encouraged to bring examples from their own practice for discussion.

Target audience:

This workshop is suitable for qualified and training psychotherapists and counsellors. The primary theoretical focus of the workshop will be psychodynamic, but practitioners of other modalities are welcome to attend.

Past participant comments

"Very well structured and presented session - excellent value and highly informative - very clear."
"An extremely important workshop for all therapists at whatever stage of their career."
"Paul is a skilful lecturer who makes a complicated subject very accessible."
"Excellent presenter who managed to deliver a serious subject in a friendly accessible ambience."
"A very knowledgeable training that one can take and use in all aspects of life."

Paul Terry is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. He has worked in child, adolescent, and adult mental health, and forensic settings, and most recently in a specialist mental health service for older people in the National Health Services. For many years, in tandem with clinical practice, Paul was Lecturer in Counselling at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Paul has written extensively about his clinical work and the application of psychoanalytical ideas to social and political themes. In 2004 Paul won the Annual Essay Prize of the Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the NHS for his article "Dangerous Liaisons: Psychosis and Violence - Working in a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit'. In 2008 he published a revised second edition of his book Counselling and Psychotherapy with Older People: A Psychodynamic Approach (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

Paul has a particular interest in projective identification because it has become a central concept in his teaching and publications. He finds it especially helping in illuminating clinical practice and various social and political issues. For the last several years he has led workshops on projective identification at WPF Therapy in London.

Applications must be received by Thursday, 4th February 2021. Booking will be final after receipt of payment.

Before booking, please read our terms and conditions for CPD events.

If you experience any problems during the application process, please email  events@wpf.org.uk.