Preston Lear, PsyD LCSW
Fee
All Attendees — $25
On Changing the Holding Environment
When Treatment Programs Can Facilitate a Psychoanalytic Treatment
with Preston Lear PsyD, LCSW
D.W. Winnicott’s concept of a holding environment concerns a parental provision that promotes healthy development in the child, and by translation, an optimal therapeutic provision for the patient. There may be occasion in a psychoanalytically-informed therapy when an individual outpatient setting is insufficient for a patient’s needs, and a referral to a “higher level of care” (inpatient, residential, or intensive-outpatient treatment) is indicated. This can be a vulnerable decision for the psychoanalytic practitioner, one who has developed a deep relationship with their patient. The thoughtful referral on the analyst’s part may be felt as a rupture by the patient—with clinicians less familiar with the patient and with practitioners potentially less experienced and less clinically sophisticated.
Dr. Lear has experience in a range of treatment settings including private practice. He is sensitive to the fraught decision of enlisting others when a patient’s regression necessitates more support than the analyst can provide. In this discussion Dr. Lear will discuss the indicators of the need for a time-limited treatment to a higher level of care. He will address when might it be better to exercise a faith in the ‘regression in the service of…’ within one’s practice, and when taking action toward a referral is a course for the thoughtful analyst.
Additional questions to be addressed:
How does the private practice therapist maintain contact with their patient while they are in a structured setting?
What are the benefits of a titrated transference, with maternal and paternal functions afforded the patient by a team of collaborative clinicians rather than all being held by a sole practitioner during a patient’s breakdown.
How does one reintegrate the patient back into outpatient treatment?”
It is hoped that a good enough referral unfolds to an eventual return to outpatient therapy; a return in which the patient has more capacity to make use of the object in private practice. It is Dr. Lear’s hope that this discussion promotes an expansion of the frame of psychoanalysis’ potential contributions for individual patients, their families, and society.
All Attendees — $25
We want to thank WILA for genoursoly providing the venue for these events.
Program Committee
Thomas P. Helscher, Ph.D., Chair
Lisa B. Crilley, M.F.T., Co-Chair
Committee Members
Scott Shapiro, Psy.D.
Sandra Wilder-Padilla, Ph.D.
Rachel Katz
Keith Bernstein
Simone Kiboudi, LPC
Psychoanalytic Conversations
The Psychoanalytic Conversations Series offers more informal, in-person meetings in which a LAISPS candidate, member, or training and supervising analyst presents a case and leads a focused conversation on important clinical topics.
For Winter-Spring 2025, the Psychoanalytic Conversations will address the “Failure to Launch” phenomenon and the developmental challenges posed to adolescence and young adulthood, particularly in this social media saturated, post-Covid environment that has created unusually stressful conditions for an already fraught transitional period.
Target Audience
This program is on an advanced level and meets the needs of all mental health professionals, including Psychiatrists,Psychologists, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists.
Refunds/Cancellations: Refunds, less a $10 administrative fee, will be made if cancellation notification is phoned or postmarked three (3) business days in advance of this program. There will be no refunds on requests received after the refund deadline. Full refunds are made in the event that LAISPS must cancel this program.
Returned Checks: A $35.00 service charge will be assessed for checks returned by the bank.
Confidentiality: By registering for this educational event, attendees agree to strictly maintain confidentiality of any clinical material shared and will not distribute or convey such confidential material outside of the conference.
About the Presenter
Dr. W. Preston Lear is a psychoanalyst with training in clinical social work and clinical psychology. He has over 25 years of experience working with patients in a range of treatment settings: non-profit, community mental health, schools, and private practice. He is a founder of Community West Treatment, a primary mental health intensive treatment program (IOP/PHP) serving the needs of youth and young adults.