Sat, Jan 31, 2026
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Target Audience & Level: 

This intermediate course is suitable for more seasoned clinicians as well as beginner therapists seeking exposure to treatment for personality structure.

Cancellation & Refund Policies: 

Enrollees who cancel at least SEVEN DAYS prior to the event date will receive a refund minus a $35 administrative charge. No refunds will be allowed after this time.  Transfers of registrations are not allowed.

Contact Information: 

For program related questions, contact Katherine Eng, Ph.D., at KEng@ncspp.org.

For questions related to enrollment, locations, CE credit, special needs, course availability, to obtain the grievance policy or report a grievance, or any other administrative issues contact Niki Clay by email or at 415-496-9949.

Committee: 

Community Mental Health Committee

This committee is a group of clinicians who are interested in the relationship between Community Mental Health (CMH) and psychoanalysis.  Psychoanalysis is anchored in a quality of close care and attention that is often systematically denied to members of disadvantaged communities and difficult to locate in stressed, under-resourced public mental health clinics.  CMH clinicians hold the tension between a variety of institutional, social, and political pressures and constraints. Meanwhile, psychoanalytic thinking sometimes misses the significance of these systemic influences on individual lives.

There is important work to be done in bridging the theoretical and concrete gaps between community work and psychoanalytic practice. The CMH committee aspires to create a more inclusive home for CMH clinicians within the NCSPP community. In turn, we advocate for greater investment from psychoanalysis in the projects of CMH practitioners- in terms of both theory and practical engagement.

We seek to identify the needs and interests of our various partners both in CMH and NCSPP.  We invite our community members to engage with us by emailing us.

Katherine Eng, Ph.D., Chair
Geetali Chitre, Psy.D.
Naomi Kosman-Wiener, Psy.D.
Hoa My Nguyen, LCSW
Early Registration Deadline: 
January 17, 2026
Register Now
Registration Notes: 

NCSPP offers online course registration and payment using PayPal, the Internet’s most trusted payment processor. All major credit cards, as well as checking account debit payments, are accepted.

Instructor: 
Jonathan Shedler, Ph.D.
Workshop
CE Credits: 
6.00
Participant Limit: 
200
Tuition: 

$270 General Public
$210 Full Members
$193 CMH Members
$180 Associate Members
$90 Student Members

Tuition listed above is for early registration ($40 discount off full fee, $15 discount for NCSPP Student Members). For registrations received after the deadline, full tuition will be applied to all registrations.

 

PERSONALITY STYLES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY:
A Roadmap to Deep and Lasting Change

Course Overview: 

Master clinicians know that deep and lasting psychological change does not come from focusing on surface symptoms, but from addressing the personality dynamics and relational patterns underlying them. In the morning lecture, “Personality Pathways to Depression,” Dr. Shedler will discuss the personality styles most often seen in clinical practice (e.g., narcissistic, borderline, depressive, obsessive–compulsive), integrating longstanding clinical wisdom with contemporary empirical findings. He will discuss how each personality style represents a unique psychological pathway to depression that requires a distinct treatment focus, and offer clinical strategies for deepening the treatment.

The afternoon session will build on these concepts with a strong hands-on clinical focus. Participants will deepen their skills in recognizing and working with personality dynamics through clinical case presentations by selected attendees, with case discussion, live supervision, and role-playing to demonstrate effective intervention. Dr. Shedler will emphasize how personality dynamics and relational patterns play out in real time play out in the therapy relationship through transference and countertransference, and how to use the therapy relationship constructively to bring about deep and lasting change.

Commitment to Equity: 

NCSPP is aware that historically psychoanalysis has either excluded or pathologized groups outside of the dominant population in terms of age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, disability, and size. As an organization, we are committed to bringing awareness to matters of anti-oppression, inequity, inequality, diversity, and inclusion as they pertain to our educational offerings, our theoretical orientation, our community, and the broader world we all inhabit.

Presenter's Response:

Many writings in past formulations on personality structure have been based on clients that have been able to afford treatment. This workshop will include discussion on treatment with marginalized populations and factors that affect personality formation within broader cultural contexts.

Course Objectives: 

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  1. Explain how common personality styles represent distinct pathways to depressive disorders
  2. Describe how narcissistic, paranoid, and borderline personality styles create psychological vulnerability to depression
  3. Differentiate borderline personality as a distinct psychological pathway to depression
  4. Describe the defining features of depressive personality as a diagnostic construct and discuss implications for treatment
  5. Describe the rationale for the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP) for personality diagnosis and case formulation
  6. Develop a deeper understanding of the role of personality in psychotherapy and apply it through case discussion, role play, and live clinical supervision
Empirical Reference: 
  • Feinstein, R. (Ed.) (2022). Personality Disorders. Oxford University Press.
  • McWilliams, N. & Shedler, J. (in press). Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, third edition (PDM-3): Personality Syndromes. NY: Guilford Press.
  • Peebles, M.J. (2022). What to do when treatment feels stuck. Routledge.
  • Shedler, J. (2022). That Was Then, This Is Now: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for The Rest of Us. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 58:2-3, 405-437. https://doi.org/10.1080/00107530.2022.2149038
  • Shedler, J. (2022). The personality syndromes. In R. Feinstein (Ed.), Personality Disorders. Oxford University Press.
  • Shedler, J. (2022). That Was Then, This Is Now: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for The Rest of Us. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 58:2-3, 405-437.
  • Westen, D., Shedler, J., Bradley, B., DeFife, J. (2012). An empirically derived taxonomy for personality diagnosis: Bridging science and practice in conceptualizing personality. American Journal of Psychiatry, 169, 273-284.
Instructor(s): 

Jonathan Shedler, Ph.D., is known internationally as an author, clinical consultant, and master teacher. He is the author of over 100 scientific and scholarly articles; the creator of the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP) for personality diagnosis and clinical case formulation; and co-author, with Nancy McWilliams, of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco and a Training and Supervising analyst at SFCP, Dr. Shedler has more than 25 years’ experience teaching and supervising psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts.

Continuing Education Credit: 

LCSW/MFTs: Course meets the requirements for 6 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and/or LEPS, as required by the CA Board of Behavioral Sciences. NCSPP is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (Provider Number 57020), to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCS, and/or LEPs. NCSPP maintains responsibility for this program /course and its content.

Psychologists: Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for these programs and their content.

Certificates of Attendance for CE credits will be sent to those participants who attend the entire workshop and return a completed course evaluation.