Topic: Finding Inspiration in the Clinical Hour

Presenter: Gavin Mullen, PsyD

Gavin Mullen, PsyD, is a member and former officer of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society.  She is a training and supervising analyst on the faculty of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and Board Certified by The American Psychoanalytic Association.  She has served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and the American Journal of Psychoanalysis - and also on the Certification Board of the American Psychoanalytic Association.  Dr. Mullen edited The Selected Papers of Arnold Goldberg (IPBooks, 2017).  She maintains a fulltime practice in Northbrook, IL, as a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist.

Description:  Gavin Mullen, PsyD, will describe several clinical moments that required something beyond technique. She calls them moments of inspiration. Where does this come from, the psychotherapist's inspiration? When we make our interventions with our patients, we draw on our own training, our knowledge of technique, as well as our own good internal objects and receptive states of mind. Dr. Mullen will explore these areas that contribute to inspired interventions, as well as moments when inspiration fails. She will invite the audience members to join with her in searching into each clinical vignette and finding their own sources of inspiration.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the presentation, attendees will be able to:

1. recognize moments that call for an intervention beyond technique;
2. describe possible interventions that can be used in such situations.

Admission is free. Continuing Education Credits are offered exclusively to Society members in all membership categories and those intending to join.

The presenter, Gavin Mullen, PsyD, and the organizer, James W. Anderson, have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to report.

Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. The Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. CPI is licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to sponsor continuing education credits for (license numbers in parentheses): Social Workers (159.000122), Professional Counselors (197.000202), Marriage and Family Therapy Therapists (168.00204), and Clinical Psychologists (268.000091). 

Eligible professionals will receive 2.0 continuing education credits for attending the entire program. To receive these credits an evaluation form must be completed online. Learners must claim the amount of time spent in the educational activity and that will be the amount of credit they will earn. 

Continuing Education credits (CMEs) are not available for physicians for this program.  The Chicago Psychoanalytic Society has made arrangements to provide credits for physicians for future programs.