“I invite you to not another training course, but a real experience. Most workshops teach concepts. This one lets you live them. Over three days we will not define intimacy; we will encounter it. Not as an abstract statistic state but as a process that emerges through rupture, courage, and repeat.”
Misha Bogomaz
“Welcome all! As someone who has attended many conferences both in person and online, and as a group leader and as a group member, I can only say that the experience you are about to have is completely unpredictable: Provocative? Probably. Inspirational? Hopefully. Educational? Almost certainly. I very much look forward to being with you over these few days to see what we, as a group, create.”
Jeffry Price
“Greetings from Rochester, New York! I am looking forward to our shared experience this coming November. As the first lecture of the weekend, I will establish a framework for understanding how psychotherapy and interpersonal process groups create an opportunity for people to learn how to navigate relationships and emotional intimacy with more skill and poise. I will touch on how clinicians working from a Modern Analytic orientation approach their work in an effort to increase emotional contact, reduce defensive distancing, and build tolerance for emotional connection. The “Breath of Contact” includes the breadth and depth of the full range of human emotions. We will explore ways that we can get there.”
Howard Markus, Ph.D., CGP
Intimacy is often understood as safety, acceptance, and warmth. Yet this view of intimacy can be a trap—a kind of "pseudo‑intimacy" where there is no room for aggression or difference. In relationships, we gradually move from imitation of contact (a safe but "dead" exchange) to live contact (the risky breath of "I–Thou").
Contact functioning in a group is the ability to engage in a living, breathing exchange—one that includes anger, rupture, and repair. It is a process, not a state. Intimacy does not tolerate smoothness; it requires the capacity to hold the tension of contact.
During this intensive, we will explore how contact is born, dies, and is restored in groups and dyads. The focus is on progressive communication and contact functioning in contemporary analysis.
How are contact and intimacy related in a group?
We will not give a simple answer. Instead, together we will learn, through the real contact of the group, to:
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see where contact "breathes" and where it is frozen by rules;
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work with isolation as an active process (not merely the absence of people);
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distinguish between intimacy based on fusion and intimacy based on the recognition of difference.
Program
Friday-Saturday-Sunday
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5 process groups of 90 minutes each
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1 large group of 90 minutes
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2 lectures with discussions on articles, theoretical approaches, and practical cases
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Supervision
November 13, Friday
8.00 AM – 1.20 PM EST Eastern Standard Time UTC-5
8.00–8.15 Intoduction
8.20–9.50 Small process groups
9.50–10.10 Break
10.10–11.10 Lecture "The Breath, Breadth, and Depth of Contact" - Howard Markus
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Howard will provide a foundation for understanding how psychotherapy and interpersonal process groups help people learn emotional intimacy and interpersonal communication by providing an environment where thoughts, feelings, and relationship patterns can be explored safely and honestly. In effect, therapy becomes a living laboratory for the creation of intimacy. He will explore theoretical perspectives and clinical techniques that seek to increase emotional contact, reduce defensive distancing, and build tolerance for true emotional closeness. From a Modern Analytic perspective, treatment is about emotional maturation and the development of one's emotional capacity within relationships. Treatment helps people develop a more comfortable relationship with their own emotions as well as other people's emotions in order to navigate relationships more effectively.
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11.30–1.00 Small process groups
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1.00–1.20 Logs
November 14, Saturday
8.00 AM – 1.00 PM EST
8.00–9.30 Small process groups
9.30–9.40 Break
9.40–11.00 Supervision
11.00–11.20 Break
11.20–12.40 Large group. Leader – Jeffry Price
12.40–1.00 Logs
November 15, Sunday
8.00 AM – 1.30 PM
8.00–9.30 Small process groups
9.30–10.00 Break
10.00–11.00 Lecture "The Art of Wasting Your and Others Time" - Misha Bogomaz
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This presentation will be focused on discussing the subtle and highly refined art of wasting one's one time - and the time of others - during intensives, meetings, and other social events. In this 60-minute collaborative session, participants will explore common strategies used (often unconsciously) by group members who have mastered this craft. Through presentation and discussion of attendees lived experiences, we will examine familiar patterns such as circular processing, performative insight, strategic lateness, intellectualization, excessive self-disclosure, and the well-timed theoretical monologue. Together we will consider how time-wasting behaviors function as forms of resistance, anxiety management, status negotiation, and fear of belonging.
11.00–11.30 Break
11.30–1.00 Small process groups
1.00–1.30 Logs
Articles for Preparation (will be sent to participants before the intensive)
Program Director
Ekaterina Belokoskova-Mikhailova
Ph.D., Group Psychotherapist, Psychoanalyst, Director of the Institute for Psychodynamic Coaching, Member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA).
Faculty
Alice Brown
А psychologist in private practice in New York City, specializing in group treatment and training in addition to individual and couples work. She is a Licensed Psychologist, Certified Group Psychotherapist and a long time member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association.
Jeff Price
Psychotherapist (M.A.) in Colorado, U.S. A member and Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA). Co-founder of the Center for Courageous in Boulder, Colorado (private practice). Former Adjunct Faculty at Naropa University where he taught Small Group Process and Large Group Process graduate classes. Psychotherapist and group leader at the Boulder Alcohol Education Center (Boulder) for the prevention and assistance in recovery of drug and alcohol addiction.
William H. Watson
Licensed Psychologist; Certified Group Psychotherapist - American Group Psychotherapy Association; Approved Supervisor - American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy; Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA); 2009 APA Family Psychologist of the Year, Past President of the Society for Family Psychology, recipient of numerous URMC teaching awards.
Misha Bogomaz
Director of University of North Florida Counseling Center. Licensed Psychologist, Board Certified in Group Psychology, and a Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association.
Howard Markus
Howard Markus is a psychologist in full-time private practice and clinical assistant professor at the University of Rochester Department of Psychiatry. He is a Licensed Psychologist, Certified Group Psychotherapist. Howard has taught an array of group therapy topics nationally and internationally over the past 30 years.
Simon Neo
Dr Simon holds a PsyD in Group Psychotherapy and is a Certified Group Psychotherapist (CGP) with the American Group Psychotherapy Association. Based at The Psychotherapy Clinic in Singapore, he has witnessed time and again the transformative power of groups. Having facilitated groups across Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, China, and beyond, he continues to be inspired by the courage, authenticity, and connection that emerge when people come together. He believes the unique dynamics within groups can spark profound healing, personal growth, and lasting change, making group work not just his profession but his passion.
Target Audience
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Group Analysts
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Coaches
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Psychologists
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Psychoanalysts
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Managers and Business Leaders
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Specialists Working with Groups in Various Modalities
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Professionals Seeking a New Career
You Will Be Able To
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Become a leader or moderator of psychological and psychotherapeutic groups and work with business groups.
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Enhance your qualifications and become familiar with the specifics of psychoanalytic group leadership.
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Organize effective participant interaction and manage the group process.
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Assess the effectiveness of applying different approaches to group psychotherapy and group coaching.
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Make the group an instrument for developing awareness and psychological assistance.
Participation fee
Before July 31 – 500 USD
August 1 - Nov 5 – 600 USD
Applications will be accepted until November 5
To pay via PayPal use email sales@ipdc.online
Registration
Please fill out the form and we will get back to you with participation details soon!
For any questions please send a message to sales@ipdc.online