Annual Conference – When Objects Meet: Identifications and Intersections in the Consulting Room (Hybrid Event)
Join us at Manhattanville University or by Zoom!
Conference Overview
This conference will focus on the intersection of therapist’s and patient’s subjective experiences. The wish to rescue and heal our parents is a widely recognized catalyst for choosing to become a therapist. However, the ongoing presence in the treatment room of not only the patient’s but also the therapist’s internal objects, a phenomenon that influences choice of theory, therapeutic technique and specific interventions is so ubiquitous (or imagined to have been thoroughly analyzed) that the implications are not always well-enough examined or understood.
Dr. Steven Kuchuck has written and presented extensively on the topic of the therapist’s subjectivity. He will deliver a paper describing his work with a patient traumatized by toxic, fragile objects in treatment with an analyst similarly impacted by parental fragility. He will consider a period of existential crisis for both parties in which events overlapped, finality hovered, and confusion enveloped the dyad. Senior analysts and discussants Hillary Grill, LCSW, and Rachel Sopher, LCSW, will help illuminate clinical and theoretical nuance and deepen the broader conversation.
In addition, Dr. Kuchuck will respond to a paper presented by Cara Maniaci, LCSW, exploring the impact of idealizing transference in psychoanalytic action. Maniaci builds on the concept of idealization as a point of identification and desire, and looks at how the resolution or mourning of an idealized transference between patient and analyst enables self-recognition. Her paper examines this process from various vantage points – using clinical material from her work with patients and drawing from her own experience as an analysand.
Click here for full brochureRegistration link to attend IN-PERSONRegistration link to attend on ZOOM
Speaker Biographies
Dr. Steven Kuchuck is former Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Perspectives, where he currently serves as Senior Consulting Editor; Past President of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP); current Editor of Routledge’s Relational Perspectives Book Series; and faculty, NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, NIP National Training Program, and other institutes. His book, The Relational Revolution in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, has been translated into numerous languages. He won the Gradiva Awards for best book of 2015 for Clinical Implications of the Psychoanalyst’s Life Experience and in 2016 for The Legacy of Sandor Ferenczi: From Ghost to Ancestor. His most recent book, The Workbooks of Masud Khan: Diary of a Fallen Psychoanalyst (co-edited with Linda Hopkins), is published by Karnac Books.
Cara Maniaci, MA, LCSW, is a 2026 graduate of the Advanced Program in Psychoanalysis at WCSPP. She has completed a two-year program in Relational Psychoanalysis at the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies. She is also a graduate of WCSPP’s Couples Therapy Training Program. Cara has written for The American Psychoanalyst and Psychoanalytic Quarterly. She is an active member of APsA’s President’s Commission on Artificial Intelligence. Cara has a private practice in Pleasantville, NY, working with adults, adolescents and couples.
Hillary Grill, LCSW, is a psychoanalyst practicing in New York City. She is a supervisor, faculty member and training analyst at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies and the Institute for Expressive Analysis. She is on the faculty and supervises at the Stephen Mitchell Relational Study Center. She writes and presents widely and is executive editor of the journal Psychoanalytic Perspectives. Areas of interest are the psychological aspects of women’s reproductive health, contemporary family-making, the impact of the socio-cultural environment on the individual and the genesis of creativity.
Rachel Sopher, LCSW, is Faculty and Supervisor, National Institute for the Psychotherapies Training Institute (NIP); Faculty and Supervisor, NIP’s National Training Program; and Faculty and Supervisor and on the Executive Committee of The Stephen Mitchell Relational Study Center. She is co-Editor with Amy Schwartz-Cooney of the collection Vitalization in Psychoanalysis and Senior Editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives. She writes and presents on reaching nonverbal states and vitalizing interactions in the psychoanalytic encounter and maintains a private practice in New York City.
Moderator – Carter Thornton, LCAT, LP, LPC, is a Psychoanalyst and Creative Arts Therapist in private practice in New York. He is faculty and clinical supervisor at Institute for Expressive Analysis, and is an instructor and co-chair of the film committee at the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He is also a Zen practitioner, a working musician, and a visual artist.
2 CE Hours available for NY Practitioners – LCSWs, LMSWs, LPs, LMFTs, LMHCs, LCATs, PHDs, PSYDs
Presented by WCSPP’s Child, Adolescent, Parent (CAPP) Psychotherapy Training Program
Parenting in Today’s World: Clinical Conversations
The Art and Science of Parenting and Grandparenting:
Raising Emotionally Healthy Children in a Challenging World
American children and American families are in crisis. Families are facing extreme stress, and our children, by almost every metric, are not doing well.
Helping our children and grandchildren succeed in life is less about teaching skills and more about having better conversations; less about earning rewards and more about learning to cope with painful feelings; less about individual achievement and more about helping others; less about clearing a path to success and more about strengthening an inner feeling of confidence and pride.
In this talk, Ken Barish, PhD, will offer guidance on many of the most important concerns of contemporary parents and grandparents: How we can protect our children’s emotional health, support their love of learning, solve family problems, and nurture feelings of empathy and kindness toward others. He will present practical suggestions for how, as parents and grandparents, and as child therapists, we can strengthen the quality of our family relationships and remain a vital source of encouragement and emotional support for our children and grandchildren.
Live on Zoom!
Ken Barish, PhD, is a graduate and faculty member of the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He is also on the faculty of the William Alanson White Institute Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Training Program. Ken is Clinical Professor of Psychology at Weill – Cornell Medicine and Visiting Professor at Tongji Medical College in Wuhan, China. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.
Ken is the author of How To Be A Better Child Therapist: An Integrative Model for Therapeutic Change. He also wrote a book on political dialogue, Bridging Our Political Divide: How Liberals and Conservatives Can Understand Each Other and Find Common Ground. Bridging Our Political Divide is winner of the 2025 International Book Award for Current Events.
Ken’s most recent book is The Art and Science of Parenting and Grandparenting: Raising Emotionally Healthy Children in a Challenging World.
In addition to his teaching, writing, and clinical practice, Ken plays jazz trumpet.
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Join us as we celebrate this year’s graduates and honoree at a beautiful and festive dinner in Westchester. All members are invited.
Watch the listserv for location and more details!
We invite all WCSPP members to come meet the incoming candidates.
Watch the listserv for location!
Mental health professionals, meet our Admissions Directors who will answer any questions you have about our programs, the application process, and the experience of our community. Join us at our final admissions event of the season!
Just a few spots remaining for the 2026-2027 academic year in:
Our Child, Adolescent, Parent Psychotherapy program weaves together the study of individual child & adolescent, and parent development through understanding the impact of psychological histories, relational patterns, intergenerational effects, and changing social contexts and constructs. Training is based on a psychodynamic, relational orientation to change, integrating parent guidance and advice as needed.
We welcome all mental health practitioners, whether your work is exclusive to children & adolescents, primarily serves adults or some combination. We never forget that there is, after all, a child’s history within each adult and the challenge of growing within every child, adult, and parent.
Our Couples Therapy Training Program is a one-year program which teaches both basic and advanced couples therapy techniques and theory with a combination of psychoanalytic and systems perspectives. Candidates are introduced to several different theoretical approaches including object relations and relational theory, self psychology, Bowenian theory and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with emphasis on the clinical work with couples. We also discuss issues pertaining to LGBTQ relationships, divorce, cross cultural relationships, and substance abuse. In addition to the didactic instruction, weekly supervision is provided by senior faculty for cases seen through our Psychotherapy Service.
The Couples Therapy Training Program provides a solid introduction to couples work and provides an opportunity to join the warm, supportive community at our institute, build your referral network, and be exposed to the many and varied learning opportunities provided at WCSPP.
Sign up to join us!
REGISTRATION LINK
Mental health professionals, join us to meet our program directors and ask questions of current candidates, graduates, and faculty.
Learn about our extensive training opportunities for Fall 2026 in: Child, Adolescent, Parent Psychotherapy
Our program weaves together the study of individual child & adolescent, and parent development through understanding the impact of psychological histories, relational patterns, intergenerational effects, and changing social contexts and constructs. Training is based on a psychodynamic, relational orientation to change, integrating parent guidance and advice as needed.
We welcome all mental health practitioners, whether your work is exclusive to children & adolescents, primarily serves adults or some combination. We never forget that there is, after all, a child’s history within each adult and the challenge of growing within every child, adult, and parent.
Who is eligible and should apply?
Applicants must be licensed Masters or Doctoral-level mental health professionals:
MD, PhD, PsyD, LCSW, NP, LMSW, LCAT, LMHC, LMFT and LP
Financial assistance is available for those who qualify.
CE hours available for some coursework for eligible NYS LCSW, LMSW, LMFT, LMHC,LCAT, LP and NYS Psychologists and CT Social Workers through NASW CT.
Timeline:
Rolling admissions with decisions made by July 30, 2026
Program begins September 2026
We will continue to be on Zoom for the 2026-2027 year.
Sign up to join us!
REGISTRATION LINK