The Education Committee
of the
Metropolitan Chapter of the NYSSCSW presents
“Let’s Get To Know Each Other Better”
BRUNCH
CELEBRATING THE WOUNDED HEALER PSYCHOTHERAPIST:
PAIN, POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH AND SELF-DISCLOSURE
There are no contact hours offered for this program
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 2016
TIME: 11:00am – 2:00pm (11-11:30Networking)
LOCATION: PPSC – 80 Fifth Avenue, NYC (14th St) Room 1408C
PRESENTER: Sharon K. Farber, PhD
Description
The archetype of the wounded healer psychotherapist was developed by Carl Jung, who thought an illness of the soul could be the best possible form of training for a healer and wrote that only a wounded healer who had healed his own wounds could heal effectively. Although it is commonly known within our field that most psychotherapists are motivated to do this work because they suffered adverse experiences and often were helped to heal through their own psychotherapy, we tend to keep this knowledge a secret outside the field, generating a sense of shame. That we have healed and experienced sufficient post-traumatic growth to help others is nothing to be ashamed about; it is something to be celebrated.
A wounded healer psychotherapist, however, may become a wounding healer, violating the boundaries of ethical practice and hurting those he is meant to heal. The most egregious boundary violation occurs when the therapist has sexual relations with a patient. This can happen to any one of us, when certain circumstances in our personal life join with difficulties in the treatment of a certain patient to create intense issues of power and control. It happened to Freud and to Jung. In fact, through Freud 's determination to overcome his traumatic past as a poor Jew in anti-Semitic Europe by becoming a hero, his ruthless behavior towards colleagues, mentors, and some patients was in flagrant violation of his written principles. He became the prototype of the wounding healer
Learning Objectives
Participants will be able to state Jung's concept of the archetype of the wounded healer psychotherapist as well as the origin of the concept of celebrating the wounded healer psychotherapist.
Participants will be able to describe how the therapist's efforts in healing others can result in the patient helping to further heal the therapist.
Participants will be able to compare the wounded healer psychotherapist with the shaman, witch doctor, or tribal healer, demonstrating their similarities and differences.
Participants will be able to understand how any wounded healer can become a wounding healer psychotherapist.
Participants will understand how both Freud and Jung were wounded healers who became wounding healers
Participants will understand how Freud's efforts to overcome his traumatic past led to ruthless behavior that became a template for his followers to become wounding healers themselves.
Participants will understand the concept of the hero's journey being a journey from trauma to post-traumatic growth.
Participants will be able to describe the occupational hazards of the profession of psychotherapy.
Biographical Information
Sharon K Farber, Ph.D. is in private practice in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. She has taught at medical schools, schools of social work, training institutes, and the Cape Cod Institute and has been an invited speaker in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Israel. She is author of several papers and three books: When the Body Is the Target: Self-Harm, Pain, and Traumatic Attachments (2000, 2002), Hungry for Ecstasy: Trauma, the Brain, and the Influence of the Sixties (2013), and Celebrating the Wounded Healer Psychotherapist: Pain, Post-Traumatic Growth and Self-Disclosure (in press). Her blog for Psychology Today, the Mind-Body Connection, can be found online at She teaches creative non-fiction at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center.
Bibliography
Breger, L. (2000).Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision--An Analytical Biography. New York: Wiley.
Breger, L. (2009). A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis. New York: Basic Books.
Celenza, A. (2007).Sexual Boundary Violations: Therapeutic, Supervisory, and Academic Contexts. Lanham, MD: Jason Aronson.
Celenza, A. (2014). Erotic Revelations: Clinical Applications and Perverse Scenarios.New York/London: Routledge.
Coffey, R. (2014). Hysterical: Anna Freud's Story, a Novel. Berkeley, CA: She Writes Press.
Farber, S. (in press). Celebrating the Wounded Healer Psychotherapist: Pain, Post-Traumatic Growth and Self-Disclosure. New York/London: Routledge.
Jung, C. (1951). Fundamental Questions of Psychotherapy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
It is respectful to the organizers of this event to RSVP early. Registration will be on a first come, first served basis. Space is limited.
E-mail Susan Appelman @
*****REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED*****