Ethics and Countertransference

Author Bio

Subject Matter Experts:

Lisa Ferentz, LCSW-C, DAPA, is a Diplomate of the American Psychotherapy Association. She has been in private practice for 30 years, specializing in adolescent and adult survivors of trauma, abuse, and neglect. She uses many creative modalities in her work to address issues of affect regulation, co-dependency, addictions, eating disorders and self-destructive behaviors, depression, anxiety, countertransference, ethics, professional burn-out, and self-care.

As founder and president of The Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy Training and Education, Inc., Ms. Ferentz is the guiding force behind a team of seasoned clinicians and educators whose mission it is to provide mental health professionals with continuing education encompassing a wide variety of clinical issues, client populations, and practice settings. In 2009 she was voted the ???Social Worker of Year?? by the Maryland Society for Clinical Social Work.

Along with managing The Institute and running a very active clinical practice, Ms. Ferentz is a locally and nationally known author, speaker, and consultant. She has written numerous articles for journals and publications including New York University's Child Study Center and the Psychotherapy Networker Journal. Most notably, Ms. Ferentz participated in a documentary entitled The Multiple Personality Puzzle, which was produced for the Learning Channel, and she also took part in a series of educational videos focusing on eating disorders, available through Cavalcade Videos.

Ms. Ferentz??s newest book, Letting Go of Self-Destructive Behaviors: A Workbook of Hope and Healing, was released in September 2014. Her first book, Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Traumatized Clients: A Clinician??s Guide, is in its third printing.

Frank Summers, PhD, is Professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University and holds faculty positions both at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis and the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis. He is president of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Summers has published extensively and lectured nationwide on object relations theories and their application to the process of psychoanalytic therapy. The emphasis of his contributions has been on the translation of insight into concrete emotional and behavioral changes by bringing to fruition the latent potential of the patient. His books and papers in professional journals elucidate his theory that psychoanalytic therapy is a process of self-creation in which the therapist plays a dual role of understanding current patterns and facilitating the creation of new ways of being and relating.

His previous book, Object Relations Theories and Psychopathology: A Comprehensive Text, has been hailed as the best available survey of contemporary psychoanalytic theory and technique. In his current book, The Psychoanalytic Vision: The Experiencing Subject, Transcendence, and the Therapeutic Process, Dr. Summers argues that analytic therapy is a worldview that stands in clear opposition to the dominant cultural value system of objectification, quantification, and materialism. The Psychoanalytic Vision situates psychoanalysis as the voice of the rebel.

Dr. Summers maintains a private practice in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Chicago.

Interviewer:

Barbara Alexander, LCSW, BCD, is a graduate of the Smith College School for Social Work and the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Program of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis. After working for 13 years in child psychiatric settings and 30 years in private practice, she is now founder and president of On Good Authority, and an expert interviewer.