OC CAMFT Presents An Exclusive 6-Hour Webinar: The Call of Darkness: A Relational Listening Approach to Suicide Intervention

The Call of Darkness:

A Relational Listening Approach to Suicide Intervention

Presented by Lawrence Hedges, Ph.D., Psy.D., ABPP

WHEN:  Saturday, October 17th, 2020 |  9:00 am - 4:00 pm (PDT)

This intermediate to advanced course for mental health professionals begins with the awareness that our ability to predict suicide is little better than chance and that at present there are no consistently reliable empirically validated treatment techniques to prevent suicide. However, Dr. Hedges will demonstrate that in the past three decades much has been learned about the dynamics of suicide and many promising treatment approaches have been advanced that are slowly yielding clinical as well as empirical results.

Dr. Hedges will present the groundbreaking work on suicidality of Freud, Jung, Menninger and Shneidman as well as the more recent work of Linehan, Kernberg, Joiner and the attachment theorists along with the features in common that these treatment approaches seem to share. He will put forth a Relational Listening approach regarding the origins of suicidality in a relational/developmental context and will consider their implications for treating, and managing suicidality.

Learning Objectives: 

• Define what is meant by “psychache”.
• Describe Joiner’s interpersonal approach to understanding and managing suicide.
• State how the attachment-abandonment dynamic can lead to instrumental suicidality.
• State how the connection-withdrawal dynamic can lead to lethal suicidality.
• Explain why suicide is thought to be always dyadic despite the appearance of isolation and loneliness.
• Define “suicidal career”
• State the difference between “a cry for help” and “a cry of pain”.

Presenter's Bio: 

LAWRENCE E. HEDGES, Ph.D., Psy.D., ABPP is a psychologist-psychoanalyst in private practice in Orange, California, specializing in the training of psychotherapists and psychoanalysts. He is director of the Listening Perspectives Study Center and the founding director of the Newport Psychoanalytic Institute in Tustin, California where he is a supervising and training psychoanalyst. He has been awarded honorary membership in the American Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Hedges is author of numerous papers and books including Cross- cultural Encounters: Bridging Worlds of Difference (2013), Listening Perspectives in Psychotherapy (1983 & 2003), Interpreting the Countertransference (1992), Strategic Emotional Involvement (1996), and Facing the Challenge of Liability in Psychotherapy: Practicing Defensively (2000 & 2007). To learn more about Dr. Hedges and his work, go to www.listeningperspectives.com