Skip navigation

ANNOUNCEMENTS

DVD AVAILABLE

  • Visit our Resources page for instructions on how to order the DVD: Psychotherapy Case Formulation from the Perspective of Control-Mastery Theory w/ George Silberschatz and Susan Badger.

SPEAKERS AVAILABLE

  • SFPRG is happy to provide speakers on Control Mastery theory to groups of therapists, students, or other interested parties. Contact the office to make arrangements.

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

  • Sign up for our monthly email newsletter. Enter your email address below:
 


LOW FEE PSYCHOTHERAPY

  • Seeking low fee psychotherapy? Any person seeking psychotherapy and unable to afford private fees is eligible to request consultation from the Clinic Program.Click here for more information.

Courses

Saturday Workshops below

Looking at Psychotherapy Outcome:

The Therapeutic Relationship and Treatment Outcome

(scroll down for info or click here)

Coming October 27, 2012:
David Wallin & Steven Foreman
Attachment Theory & CMT

and on November 17th:
Couple Therapy with Dennis J. Zeitlin, M.D.

All classes are appropriate for licensed therapists that practice individual psychotherapy or analysis. Students are also welcome.

 

To register online with Visa or MC or to print out the registration form click "Registration" on menu to the left. Prices are on the Registration page and on the registration form.

Prices subject to $20 increase at the door.

 

2012 Winter/Spring Case Conferences

Post-Graduate 2-semester course in San Francisco

Post-Graduate Course in Control Mastery Theory, Part 2

  • Steve Foreman, M.D.; John Gibbins, Ph.D.; Irwin Gootnik, M.D.; Peter Schumacher, MFT plus invited faculty.
  • Wednesday 7-9:15pm 22 CE hours. Dates: Pt. 2 resuming January 25 through April 18
  • SFPRG conference room, 9 Funston Ave., SF
    A comprehensive presentation of CM Theory. Easch session features a didactic portion followed by a case conference. The fall sememster will cover basics in Control Mastery Theory and the second semester will cover special topics.

  • More info here.

Understanding Control Mastery Theory: a Case Conference II
  • Peter Schumacher, MFT
  • February 6 - May 21, 2012, Mondays, 10:30 - 12:00 noon (22.5 CE hours)*
  • SFPRG, 9 Funston Avenue, The Presidio, San Francisco

This seminar will be a forum for developing an individualized approach to treatment based on each patient's unique history, with a focus on working with difficult patients. Using principles of Control Mastery Theory, we will make sense of the complex and often counterintuitive interactions and behaviors presented by patients who seek our help. We will discuss treatment by attitude, and look at how the therapist's use of self in the therapeutic relationship is at the core of the healing experience. Participants will learn how to: 1) carefully make hypotheses about the nature of the patient's problems and the patient's goals from the first several sessions; 2) test these hypotheses by studying the patient's reaction to the therapist's interventions, and continue to check these as the therapy progresses; 3) identify the patient's tests and possible ways to successfully pass them; 4) offer interpretations that will facilitate movement towards the patient's goals; 5) track therapeutic progress by noting changes in the patient's behavior and feelings outside of therapy; 6) interpret the meaning and origin of the patient's symptoms and character disorders

Schema Therapy and Its Relationship to Control Mastery Theory II   <-------- NEW CASE CONFERENCE!
Larry Hetrick, M.D.
February 7 - May 22, 2012, Tuesdays, 9:30 - 10:30 am ( 15 CE hours)*

Control Mastery theory is a powerful approach to understanding  maladaptive behaviors, psychopathology and the therapeutic processes in which a person works in treatment.  Jeffrey Young’s Schema Therapy is a highly useful complement  to Control Mastery theory in understanding a patient’s specific pathogenic beliefs and maladaptive coping behaviors as well as tailoring more specific techniques to disconfirming pathogenic beliefs and passing a patient’s unconscious tests in therapy. Schema Therapy is compatible  with and augments Control Mastery Theory.

By the end of the class participants will 1)  acquire the schema therapy conceptual model developed by Jeffrey Young, Ph.D. and his colleagues including the 5 broad domains of unmet emotional needs, the  18 early maladaptive schemas and the  specific maladaptive coping responses for each schema as well as the  schema modes. 2 ) learn the schema therapy treatment methods of cognitive strategies, behavior strategies , experiential methods , and use of the therapist-client  relationship to change the maladaptive schemas and disprove pathogenic beliefs. 3)  be able to apply Schema therapy and Control Mastery  concepts and treatment methods to their cases through case discussion. 4) be able to recognize the interrelatedness and compatibility of Control Mastery’s theory of unconscious mental functioning, pathogenic beliefs, and testing with Schema Therapy’s  concepts of the development of early maladaptive schemas, the specific schemas and the  treatment methods.


Wednesday Case Study Group II
  • Norman Sohn, Ph.D., LCSW, & Alan Rappoport, Ph.D
  • January 18 - May 23, 2012, Wednesdays, 9:00 - 10:00 am (17 CE hours)*
  • SFPRG, 9 Funston Avenue, The Presidio, San Francisco

In this course we study psychotherapy cases as a way of educating ourselves about the therapeutic process. We will follow cases verbatim, and formulate and test hypotheses about the nature of the interactions between therapist and client. We will attempt to understand how the interactional process may be furthering and/or hindering the client's progress, and also evaluate how well Control Mastery principles help us understand the client and the therapy. By the end of the class participants will be able to: 1) evaluate what kinds of interactions may be helpful and unhelpful in psychotherapy, 2) use Control Mastery theory to understand the nature of passed tests and pro-plan interpretations and how the patient may respond to them, 3) develop and test hypotheses about the therapeutic process;4) formulate cases in case specific ways.


The Therapeutic Process II- SF
  • Steven Foreman, M.D
  • February 1 - May 30, 2012, Wednesdays, 2:30-4:00 pm (25.5 CE hours)*
  • SFPRG, 9 Funston Avenue, The Presidio, San Francisco

This course will use continuous case presentations, along with selected readings and group discussions, to deepen participants' understanding of the therapeutic process. We will study closely how the therapist's comments, interpretations, attitudes towards the patient's goals, hopes and fears and reactions to the patient's testing facilitates (or in some instances may hinder) the patient's progress. By the end of the class, participants will be able to: 1) explain the therapeutic process from a Control Mastery perspective 2) discuss how the psychotherapist actually contributes to the patient's progress, 3) analyze the sequential unfolding of the therapeutic process over an extended period of treatment, and 4) detect connections between the therapist's attitudes, actions and interpretations on the patient's progress and/or failure to progress.



How Control Mastery Theory Works II(East Bay)
  • Michael Lowenstein, M.D.
  • January 27 - June 1, 2012, Fridays, 9:30 - 11:00 am (27 CE hours)*
  • Dr. Lowenstein's Office in Orinda- Call (925) 258-9302 for details

This course is designed for all clinicians (experienced or not) who wish to further their understanding of Control Mastery Theory. We will examine it as both a theory of the mind as well as a clinical theory. We will look at CMT's strengths and limitations and compare it with other contemporary theories. By the end of the class participants will be able to: 1) apply Control Mastery theory to their work with patients in order to understand a patient's psychological problems, 2) infer what kinds of interventions will be helpful to the particular patient, 3) formulate how to track the process and progress of treatment, and 4) develop and enhance their clinical skills so that the individual therapist can creatively solve clinical problems using their individual strengths.


Friday Afternoon 2pm Research Group
  • Marshall Bush, PhD
  • September 9 - May 25, 2012, Fridays, 2:00 - 3:00 pm (35 CE Hours)* resumes January 6, 2012
  • SFPRG, 9 Funston Avenue, The Presidio, San Francisco - no cost.

This class is intended for SFPRG members and graduate students who would like to participate in the task of designing and carrying out a variety of new clinical research projects. Participants will learn how to 1) implement new research projects to expand, validate, and correct (if necessary) control mastery therapy, 2)to systematize and operationalize the basic principles of control mastery therapy so that it can be further validated as an empirically supported therapy, 3) to compare control mastery theory to other theories of therapy, 4) to develop a control mastery, theory approach for understanding and treating specific clinical populations, and 5) to develop process and outcome measures for studying transcripts of the case of AR.


Saturday Workshops - Spring 2012 Back to Top

Pre-registration prices listed - cost increases by $20. one week before class.


    Introduction to Control Mastery Theory
    Steven Foreman, MD; Steven Kanofsky, PhD; Jan Schrieber, PhD

    Saturday, March 3, 2012, 9 am - 4:15 pm. 6 CEs   $50   $20 for students/interns
    Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St. San Francisco

This course is intended for therapists and therapists in training who wish to deepen their understanding about how psychopathology develops and how psychotherapy works.  The conceptual framework is Control-Mastery theory, an integrated cognitive-psychodynamic-relational theory that has been empirically supported. In addition to lectures and clinical case material presented by the instructor, there will be question and answer periods that offer participants an in-depth dialogue with the presenter.  The participants will 1) learn how pathogenic beliefs are acquired and how they produce psychopathology; 2) learn the patient’s primary motivation in psychotherapy; 3) learn how patients work unconsciously in therapy to solve their problems and how the therapist can help them in their work; 4) learn how to infer a patients plan; and 5) learn how patients treat their pathogenic beliefs in the therapeutic relationship.

Dr. Foreman is a Child and Adult Psychiatrist who has been in practice in San Francisco for over twenty-five years.  He is currently president of the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group.  He has conducted research on the process and outcome of psychotherapy with adults and children.  Dr. Foreman has published numerous clinical and research papers and has lectured nationally and internationally on the subject of psychotherapy.  He has recently finished his first book, for parents and professionals, Breaking the Spell: Understanding Why Kids Do the Very Thing That Drives You Crazy.

Dr. Kanofsky is a Psychologist and MFT who has been practicing in Berkeley and Dublin since 1987.  He is also a professor at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, where he teaches Case Conference, Family  Therapy, and Clinicians to Society.   He has published articles on Control Mastery Theory and its integration with Narrative Therapy and Family Systems Theory, and most recently, a psychological understanding of American Jews and their reactions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  

Looking at Psychotherapy Outcome:
The Therapeutic Relationship and Treatment Outcome

Louis Breger, PhD, Suzanne Gassner, PhD and George Silberschatz, PhD

Saturday, June 2, 2012
JCC, 3200 California St., SF
9:00 am - 4:15 pm - 6 CE hours. Registration: $80 for SFPRG & ICP members; $95 for others; $20 for students/interns Plus $5 credit card fee. After May 1 price increases by $20.

This workshop focuses on the fundamental question of how psychotherapy works. Louis
Breger presents work from his new book, Psychotherapy: Lives Intersecting in which patients that he treated during his 50 years of practice report, in their own words, what was helpful and what was not helpful in their therapies. George Silberschatz will present findings from his recent process-outcome research, which systematically evaluated how the therapeutic process is linked to treatment outcome. Suzanne Gassner will discuss Breger and Silberschatz’s papers and lead a panel discussion with them and the audience.

Learning objectives:
· Conference attendees will learn what patients regard as most helpful about their experience in psychotherapy.

· Conference attendees will learn about an approach to formulating a patient’s particular problems, needs, and therapeutic goals and how such formulations can be used to optimize the effectiveness of psychotherapy.

Louis Breger, PhD , is a Professor Emeritus of Psychoanalytic Studies at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He has been a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, and is the founding president of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles. He has written a number of scholarly articles and books — including the acclaimed biography, Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision, as well as From Instinct to Identity (Transaction, 2009), Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst (Transaction, 2008), and A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis.

Suzanne Gassner, PhD, is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis, and has also served in that function at the Institute of Contemporary psychoanalysis. During the last 35 years she has published research and clinical papers on Control-Mastery theory, and has taught many courses in the Bay Area on psychoanalytic theory and research, and on comparative psychoanalysis. Prior to her joining the research group in l975, she was the Chair of the Department of Human Growth and Development at the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts.

George Silberschatz, PhD, is a Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. Internationally recognized for his psychotherapy teaching and research, Dr. Silberschatz has given over 300 presentations at professional meetings and workshops throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and has published some 60 papers in various professional journals and books. He currently divides his time between a private practice in San Francisco, teaching and supervising psychotherapy, and writing clinical and research papers. His book on psychotherapy, Transformative Relationships, was published by Routledge in January, 2005.

*Continuing Education credit has been approved for all of the listed classes.

PSYCHOLOGISTS: SFPRG is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. SFPRG maintains responsibility for these programs and their contents.

SFPRG does not report your attendance to the MCEPAA.

L.C.S.W.s/M.F.C.C.s: SFPRG is a provider approved by the Board of Behavioral Sciences, Provider Number PCE104, for CE credit on an hour-for-hour basis.

Please note: due to increased cost and mounting paperwork, SFPRG will no longer provide CE hours to psychiatrists after 2011 when our current provider status expires.

* Continuing Education credit earned on an hour for hour basis. These are maximum offered if no class is missed. Please check the rules of your licensing board for claiming continuing education credit.

Cancellation and Refund Policy

If you cancel 15 days or more before a program, your fee will be refunded, minus a $25.00 administrative fee, or you may apply the full amount paid to another program(s) with no penalty. If you cancel less than 15 days before a program, you will receive a credit voucher, minus a $25.00 processing fee, which may be applied to another program(s) with one (1) year of the date of issue.

Paying by credit card will increase cost by $5 per Conference for processing/bank fees.