The Connecticut Society For Psychoanalytic Psychology
presents
Nancy Gerber and Donna DiCello
Poetry and Psychoanalysis Conference, April 5, 2025
Art: Claude Monet, Sunrise, 1872, Musée Marmottan Monet, Public Domain
Guilford Courier Article:
https://zip06.com/news/704080/nancy-gerber-letting-language-flow/
In Person & Zoom
Saturday April 5, 2025
Conference Schedule
Coffee hour and in-person check-in 10-11
Zoom check-in 10:45
Presentation 11-1
Lunch 1-2
Location
Albertus Magnus College,
Behan Community Room, New Haven, CT
Directions and Photo
Map of Albertus Magnus College
2 CECs (Division 39)
2 CECs, Social Work, LPCs & LMFTs
A Zoom link will be sent to all registrants the day before the event.
The Talk
The use of poetry in clinical practice and clinician care is a tool that expands the capacity for insight and transformation in both clinician and client, and is also a way to counteract burnout. The presenters will discuss how poetry can foster deeper empathic understanding, which can be particularly beneficial for those who struggle to articulate their feelings or experiences in conventional ways. Increased sense of connection, personal efficacy, and self esteem through the use of poetry will be explored as key elements to behavioral change.
Using poetry can additionally help practitioners explore their internal reactions to challenging cases, ethical dilemmas, and other concerns that often underlie their practice. Clinical work often involves emotionally taxing situations, leaving practitioners at risk for burnout and compassion fatigue. Poetry provides an alternative way to access and express difficult material, providing a means of critical self-care, as the presenters will expand upon.
Learning Objectives
1. Compare and contrast how poetry and clinical practice contribute to behavioral change.
2. Assess poetry as a complement to psychoanalytic practice.
3. Explore poetry as a source for self reflection and processing.
Meet the Speakers
Donna H. DiCello, Psy.D. is retired from full-time clinical practice and serves as voluntary clinical faculty with the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. She has had poems and essays published in a variety of literary journals, and was a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee for poetry. Along with her co-author, Lorraine Mangione, she has had a non-fiction release with New Harbinger/Impact Publishers, Inc. titled Daughters, Dads, and the Path through Grief:Tales from Italian America. She is currently enrolled in the New Directions in Writing program at the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis, where she is working on a text about retirement using a psychoanalytic and poetic lens.
Nancy Gerber, Ph.D. fell in love with language in second-grade, when her teacher asked her to write stories and read them to the class. She earned a Ph.D. in English at Rutgers University, and taught literature and Women’s Studies courses for eight years. After realizing she enjoyed listening to her students during office hours more than she liked lecturing, she left academia for psychoanalysis. She completed psychoanalytic training at the Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis, where she is a full-time faculty member. The author of eight books, including fiction, poetry and memoir, Nancy was a finalist for a Gradiva Award in poetry with her book Fire and Ice. Her most recent book, Language Like Water, was awarded an Independent Press Award for poetry. She lives in Madison and is the Eastern regional representative for CSPP.
Recommended Readings:
1. Freud, S. (1908). Creative writers and day-dreaming. Standard Ed., IX, 141-154. Link: HERE
2. Krausz, R. (2017). Poetry shrink-wrapped: A retired analyst compares poetry and psychoanalysis. Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, 25(2), 1642 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-31139-001
3. Mahon, E.J. (2018). The universal analogy: The complementary visions of poetry and psychoanalysis. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 87, 415-433. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00332828.2018.1495514
Participants
The conference is appropriate for professionals interested in the practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The instructional level of this conference is intermediate.
Continuing Education
This conference has been approved for for 2 continuing education credits by Div. 39. Division 39 maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Also approved - 2 CECs from NASW-CT.
If continuing education credit is desired, please mark the appropriate box on the registration page, for our records. In addition,100% attendance and a completed evaluation form is required to receive CEC certificates. The evaluation form will be sent in the form of an online survey to all registrants within a few hours after the event, and if you attend the full conference and return that you will be sent a certificate of attendance.
To Register and Pay
Members - remember to log in for member discount.
If you do not log in, you won't be recognized as a member.
All registrations must be made and paid for online.
You can pay with credit card and debit card.
If you are using a phone, you will need to register through the WildApricot app, which is designed for phone use and will allow you all the options. The app Wild Apricot for Members is available in your App Store for free. Just log in with your usual CSPP email and password.
Refunds will be given in full until the Monday before the conference. To receive a refund, cancel your registration online by going to your profile in the upper right corner, select "My Event Registrations" click on the event, then click on "Cancel Reservation." Questions/problems, please contact the registrar, Monique St. Paul.
Scholarship registrants: If you need the registration code, contact William Hartmann, MFT.
Members and Contacts - Need to update your information?
Please login to your profile, then click under your name at View Profile, to make any changes or additions, including changes of email addresses. If you have problems, contact Kelly Butler.
CSPP Membership: Membership is open to all mental health professionals ($85 annual dues); early career (10 years or less since degree, $50 annual dues); retirees ($30 annual dues); and graduate students ($20 annual dues). For further information on CSPP membership, please click here: CSPP.
Division 39 is committed to accessibility and non-discrimination in its continuing education activities. Participants are asked to be aware of needs for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods. If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them.
Please address questions or concerns to Ashley Warner, LCSW, BCD.
