Center for Object Relations

03/10/2026

Saturday Dialogue
New Registration Policy!

3/14/26
The Slow Rhythm of Connection: Infant Observation and Therapeutic Work with Autism
with Sean Jackson & Pam VanDalfsen

Saturday Dialogues The Saturday Dialogues stand as one of the oldest traditions at COR. In fact, COR began as a Saturday Dialogue in the home of Mel Knight in the mid 1990's. The overarching goal, then and now, is to share our clinical experience working within the British Object Relations framework...

02/18/2026

Contemporary British Object Relations

with Collin McFadden & Eric Borgh

In this course, we will be exploring recent iterations, evolutions, and dialogues within the theory of British Object Relations. Building on the Foundations courses, this class will delve into current dialogues and considerations amongst historical and modern British Object Relations thinkers positioned within the broader field of psychoanalysis. Students will be invited to bring clinical material and their own perspective to the task of grappling with the history and present of the theory. Covering work from Thomas Ogden, Judy Eekhoff, Avner Bergstein, Neville Symington, Anne Alvarez, and others, students will deepen their understanding of how British Object Relations is employed and engaged within the present day. The material presented is meant to be a brief survey.

8 Sessions In-Person & Online on Thursdays at 7:30 – 9:00 pm

3/12, 3/26, 4/9, 4/23, 5/7, 5/21, 6/4, 6/18 [2026]

Contemporary British Object Relations Instructors: Collin McFadden & Eric Borgh In this course, we will be exploring recent iterations, evolutions, and dialogues within the theory of British Object Relations. Building on the Foundations courses, this class will delve into current dialogues and consi...

04/04/2025

Saturday Dialogue on 4/5/25

A Baffled Mind: Musings on Wendell Berry, Wilfred Bion and Working in the Caesura

Presenter: Eric Borgh

Discussant: Terry Hanson

Wendell Berry wrote, “The mind that is not baffled is not employed.” Psychotherapy is often, perhaps most often, a vexing task. In this Saturday Dialogue, I’ll offer some clinical reflections around silence, confusion and the diligent work of returning to emotional, affective communication. Wendell Berry, Wilfred Bion, and others have offered some guiding light and reassurance in this commitment.

Saturday Dialogue on 4/5/25 A Baffled Mind: Musings on Wendell Berry, Wilfred Bion and Working in the Caesura Presenter: Eric Borgh Discussant: Terry Hanson Wendell Berry wrote, "The mind that is not baffled is not employed." Psychotherapy is often, perhaps most often, a vexing task. In this Saturda...

01/15/2025

The Agora-Claustrum of Dream Processes: A Psychoanalytic Online Workshop

Online Series with Franco Scabbiolo

This class is an opportunity to follow the psycho aesthetic-analytic process with patients through a five-part online workshop. There will be alternating group supervision between Scabbiolo’s patients and the selected patients of other attendees. As a team, Scabbiolo and the workshop attendees will explore the unfolding psychotherapeutic treatment, revealing the evolution of the work on Feeling in Time. In this workshop, we will explore the experiential side of psycho aesthetic analytic work, the force of the emergence of “the feeling of the passions of the feeling” of transference/countertransference, and the emergence of new thoughts and imagination in therapy. Images of phantasies and dreams are generated because of these processes of “feeling of the feelings.” Patients and analysts become alive during these sessions.

We will pay particular attention to therapeutic moments when no transference or countertransference feelings are present and detect when we are trapped in the other’s dream.

Begins February 22

The Agora-Claustrum of Dream Processes: A Psychoanalytic Online Workshop This class is an opportunity to follow the psycho aesthetic-analytic process with patients through a five-part online workshop. There will be alternating group supervision between Scabbiolo's patients and the selected patients....

11/08/2024

New COR Series!

Object Relations: Origins

Rikki Ricard, Jeff Eaton, & Barb Sewell
January 18, March 15, & May 5

The “Origins” Series at the Center For Object Relations will explore several of the most impactful object-relational theorists and the complex and fascinating interplay between their unique ideas and the personal stories that shaped them (in conscious and unconscious ways). Our series will begin with three legendary theorists – Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion, and Donald Winnicott – and the ways in which their biographies, each shaped by triumphs and tragedies, indelibly influenced the ideas they have offered us and that we have continued to work with in our consulting rooms, and ourselves, for decades.

Object Relations: Origins This is a new COR series looking at our foundational thinkers and how their ideas continue to influence our practice. Classes will be in-person on Saturdays at 10:00 am – 1:00 pm. Melanie Klein and the Manic Defense Presented by Rikki Ricard January 18, 2025 This course w...

09/11/2024

Saturday Dialogue on October 5th

"Considering Sadomasochism"

Presenter: Collin McFadden

Discussant: Terry Hanson

Saturday Dialogue on 10/5/24 Considering Sadomasochism Presenter: Collin McFadden Discussant: Terry Hanson Sadomasochistic processes appear to be inherent and universal dynamics within object relations. What is commonly referred to as “sadomasochism,” “S & M,” or “SM” in popular culture ...

08/31/2024

Psychoanalytic Perspective in Helping a Patient Transform from Psychic Pain to Mental Suffering

Online Series with Avedis Panajian beginning September 14th

This series will focus on patients who are chronically stuck in psychic pain and unable to suffer in creative ways. Dr. Panajian will make use of contributions from Bion, Klein and Winnicott in exploring what makes a patient repeat psychic pain and be unable to live creatively.

Visit our website for more details:

Psychoanalytic Perspective in Helping a Patient Transform from Psychic Pain to Mental Suffering This series will focus on patients who are chronically stuck in psychic pain and unable to suffer in creative ways. Dr. Panajian will make use of contributions from Bion, Klein and Winnicott in exploring....

08/29/2024

British Object Relations II: From Theory to Practice

In-Person Course Beginning in 2 Weeks!

In this course, we will be progressing the study of British Object Relations theory by applying it to clinical practice. The aim of this course is to cultivate a clinical mind and body through experiencing OR concepts as they present themselves in the consulting room, moving from intellectual to embodied understanding. Students will be encouraged to bring in clinical material from their practice for group exploration in order to flesh out various clinical concepts and techniques...

Visit our website for more details:

British Object Relations II: From Theory to Practice In this course, we will be progressing the study of British Object Relations theory by applying it to clinical practice. The aim of this course is to cultivate a clinical mind and body through experiencing OR concepts as they present themselves in...

08/24/2024

The Surviving Object: Psychoanalytic Clinical Essays on Psychic Survival-of-the-object

Online Series with Jan Abram starting September 7th

The main aim of this 5-seminar series is to explore my proposal of the dual concept of an intrapsychic surviving and non-surviving object. What is psychic survival-of-the-object and what difference does it make to the infant’s sense of self and emerging personality? For the beginning of each seminar the author will present the key points of the argument set out in the weekly reading. This will be followed by the participants’’ comments and questions. The focus will be on how to understand Winnicott’s clinical paradigm and how to apply it in the clinical situation. All Readings are from The Surviving Object unless otherwise stated.

Visit our website to see more details:

The Surviving Object: Psychoanalytic clinical essays on psychic survival-of-the-object The main aim of this 5-seminar series is to explore my proposal of the dual concept of an intrapsychic surviving and non-surviving object. What is psychic survival-of-the-object and what difference does it make to...

08/22/2024

Psychoaesthetics: On the Art of Conducting a Psychodynamic Process

Begins in less than 2 weeks!

*UPDATED COURSE INFO*

In this course we explore the questions: how do we facilitate a psychodynamic process? What is psychodynamic therapy, considered as a living process with a natural history? What is the art which corresponds to the science of psychoanalysis? What does transference look and feel like, and how is it fielded and followed? How do we work with dreams, prior to knowing how to interpret them? How do we conduct each session? How do we “preside” over the process, week to week and season to season?

Visit our website to see more updated information about this course.

https://centerforobjectrelations.org/psychoaesthetics-on-the-art-of-conducting-a-psychodynamic-process-2024-25/

08/19/2024

Foundations of British Object Relations

This upcoming course will span the academic year –18 sessions– and will explore the context and development of the basic but complex object relations concepts arising from Freud and expanded upon by Klein and later theorists and clinicians. We will also consider necessary conditions for growing a mind, and the clinical implications when that process is affected by neglect or trauma.

Starts on Thursday, September 19th

Foundations of British Object Relations This course will span the academic year --18 sessions-- and will explore the context and development of the basic but complex object relations concepts arising from Freud and expanded upon by Klein and later theorists and clinicians. We will also consider nece...

09/15/2023

Mark your calendars!

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