To register for this workshop, scroll down to the registration section, etransfer your registration fee and complete the registration form.

ISTDP is a practical and evidence-based therapeutic approach that targets deep-seated emotional conflicts and maladaptive patterns of behaviours contributing to various mental health presentations. ISTDP has demonstrated efficacy with various issues, including depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and chronic pain and other psychosomatic problems within a relatively brief timeframe.

In this full-day workshop, we will focus on treatment with patients who have a limited capacity to engage in a direct approach to emotional processing and instead require a graded format of ISTDP. These patients fall in the highly resistant with repression and fragile spectrum and have lower anxiety thresholds. 

Common mental health concerns experienced by those with repression include major depression, treatment resistant depression, conversion disorder, gastrointestinal problems, and migraines. Those with fragility can present with projective defenses and splitting that are common amongst personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder and paranoid personality disorder. They can also present with pseudoseizures, or problems involving disruption of the senses (e.g. psychogenic blindness) and/or cognition. 

Without careful monitoring of anxiety pathways and defense mechanisms, there is a risk that these patients can experience a worsening of symptoms as well as treatment drop out.

We will provide a review of the ISTDP metapsychology with an emphasis on the repressive and fragile spectrum. Each of the presenters will show a video-based case presentation of real sessions to demonstrate how to recognize anxiety thresholds and defense mechanisms presented by patients with repression and fragility and how to intervene safely. 

Presenters: Dr. Karen Dinsmore, C.Psych., Ryan Dinsmore, M.Ed., R.P., and Dr. Behnia Haghiri, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Karen Dinsmore is a clinical and counselling psychologist and co-founder of the Dynamic Psychotherapy & Psychology Centre. She is adjunct faculty at the Queen’s University Department of Psychology and a board member of the International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association. Clinically, she works with adults in individual and group therapy. She specializes in ISTDP and she is passionate about training clinicians and students in ISTDP and psychodynamic therapy. She began her training in ISTDP in 2017. She completed a 3 year core training, advanced training, and individual training with Dr. Allan Abbass and Dr. Joel Town, as well as a year of advanced training with Jon Frederickson. She continues to receive regular training from Dr. Abbass.

Ryan Dinsmore is a Registered Psychotherapist and co-founder of the Dynamic Psychotherapy & Psychology Centre. He specializes in ISTDP and psychodynamic therapy for anxiety disorders, chronic pain, and psychosomatic disorders. Ryan began learning ISTDP in 2015, completed a 3 year core training with Dr. Allan Abbass and Dr. Joel Town in 2021 and he has engaged in individual training with Drs. Abbass and Town as well as Dr. Steve Shapiro. Ryan is a co-founder and teaching faculty of ISTDP Ontario. He has provided individual consultation to trainees interested in learning ISTDP and psychodynamic psychotherapy and continues to provide training to mental health clinicians. 

Dr. Behnia Haghiri is a psychiatrist and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Queen’s University. He graduated from Queen’s psychiatry residency program in 2013 and has worked in various psychiatric settings and with diverse populations. He started learning ISTDP in 2017 by attending courses and receiving supervision from Dr. Allan Abbass and recently, supervision from Dr. Jonathan Entis. Currently, he practices in an outpatient hospital-based clinic at Hotel Dieu Hospital, mainly working with patients referred from the emergency room and post-secondary students, amongst other general referrals. He is passionate about learning ways to incorporate ISTDP in outpatient settings and teaching and supervising residents and other clinicians.

WORKSHOP REGISTRATION:

To register for this workshop:

1. Please e-transfer your registration fee (see Registration fee rates) to istdpontario@gmail.com

2. Complete the registration form below.

Once we have received both your etransfer and completed form, we will send you a confirmation email.

Registration fee rates:

• $260 for registered health practitioners

• $200 for psychiatry residents/ psychology, psychotherapy, or social work students

• If you are attending in a group of 6 or more, there is a group rate available. Please contact us if you need more information about this option.

REGISTRATION FORM:

Sign-in will start at 8:30 am on the day of the workshop.

Location: Queen's University, Ellis Hall 226, 58 University Avenue, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N9

Parking: Permit parking is available at the underground parking garage on Union Street under Tindall Field and the surface lot. There are 3 accessible meter spots on Alfred Street at Union Street.

Food and beverages: A mini continental breakfast will be served at the start of the workshop. Refreshments will be served in the afternoon.

For more information about the facilities and accessibility features, please visit: https://www.queensu.ca/facilities/accessibility/building-directory/ellis-hall

Cancellation policy: Refunds will not be available if cancellation occurs less than 2 weeks before the date of the workshop.

You may opt to transfer your registration to a colleague as long as they are a registered health practitioner licensed to practice the act of psychotherapy or a psychology/ psychotherapy/ psychiatry student. If transferring your registration, please email us to let us know who you are transferring it to including their full name, license number and licensing body/ university program if a student, and if they have had any ISTDP training.

ISTDP is a practical and evidence-based therapeutic approach that targets deep-seated emotional conflicts and maladaptive patterns of behaviours contributing to various presentations, including depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and chronic pain and other psychosomatic problems within a relatively brief timeframe.

ISTDP was developed in the 1970s by Dr. Davanloo and his colleagues to help patients with treatment-resistant and psychoneurotic problems who present with resistant and avoidant patterns resulting from emotional conflicts and disruptions in early attachment. Later, ISTDP evolved to address fragile character structure in those with a low capacity to tolerate complex emotions and associated anxiety due to early complex attachment disruption.

In this full-day workshop, we aim to introduce ISTDP to registered clinicians, mental health practitioners and students. We will review ISTDP metapsychology, its unique features and common interventions and attempt to demystify dynamic therapy.

We will focus on patients with character resistance and psychoneurotic disorders and will discuss various approaches to effectively empower our patients to identify and overcome resistance within the therapeutic setting. Various video case presentations of treatment sessions will be reviewed to demonstrate the concepts presented. There will be time for questions and answers and to reflect on how we can incorporate learned concepts into our clinical work to aid treatment effectiveness.

Presenters: Dr. Karen Dinsmore, C.Psych., and Dr. Behnia Haghiri, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Karen Dinsmore is a clinical and counselling psychologist and co-founder of Dynamic Psychotherapy & Psychology Centre. She is adjunct faculty at the Queen’s University Department of Psychology and a board member of the International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association. Clinically, she works with adults in individual and group therapy. She specializes in ISTDP and she is passionate about training clinicians and students in ISTDP and psychodynamic therapy. She began her training in ISTDP in 2017. She completed a 3 year core training, advanced training, and individual training with Dr. Allan Abbass and Dr. Joel Town, as well as a year of advanced training with Jon Frederickson. She continues to receive regular training from Dr. Abbass.

Dr. Behnia Haghiri is a psychiatrist and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Queen’s University. He graduated from Queen’s psychiatry residency program in 2013 and has worked in various psychiatric settings and with diverse populations. He started learning ISTDP in 2017 by attending courses and receiving supervision from Dr. Allan Abbass and recently, supervision from Dr. Jonathan Entis. Currently, he practices in an outpatient hospital-based clinic at Hotel Dieu Hospital, mainly working with patients referred from the emergency room and post-secondary students, amongst other general referrals. He is passionate about learning ways to incorporate ISTDP in outpatient settings and teaching and supervising residents and other clinicians.

Location: Robert Sutherland Hall 202 is on the Queen’s University campus, located on Union Street between the Law Building and Tindall Field.

Food and beverages: A mini continental breakfast will be served at the start of the workshop. Refreshments will be served in the afternoon.

Parking: Permit parking is available at the underground parking garage on Union Street under Tindall Field and the surface lot. There are 3 accessible meter spots on Alfred Street at Union Street.

For more information about the facilities and accessibility features, please visit: https://www.queensu.ca/facilities/accessibility/building-directory/robert-sutherland

Eventbrite Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/introduction-to-istdp-working-with-resistance-tickets-847754655997

Cancellation policy: Eventbrite’s service fees are not refundable. Refunds will not be available if cancellation occurs 2 week or less before the date of the workshop.

Presenters: Dr. Karen Dinsmore, C.Psych., and Ryan Dinsmore, M.Ed., RP