ISTDP was developed by Habib Davanloo, M.D. ISTDP spawned a number of compatible forms of therapy grouped under the umbrella term “Experiential Dynamic Therapies” (EDTs).
ISTDP is represented by a variety of organizations in different parts of the world including: www.iedta.net, www.istdpnortheast.com, www.istdp.org.uk, www.istdp.de, www.istdpsweden.se, www.istdp.no, and www.reachingthroughresistance.com
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A BRIEF WRITTEN INTRO TO ISTDP
INTRODUCTORY VIDEO TUTORIALS
INTERMEDIATE/ ADVANCED VIDEO TUTORIALS
ISTDP DEMONSTRATION SESSIONS
UPCOMING LIVE ISTDP TRAININGS
THE ISTDP DISCUSSION FORUM
Brief Introduction:
The following brief description of ISTDP is a synthesis of quotes from www.iedta.net:
ISTDP was developed by Habib Davanloo, MD, working at McGill University in Montreal, starting in the 1960s and continuing in the following decades.
Davanloo showed that transformative and lasting therapeutic change can be achieved when patients
are able to fully experience their unconscious complex feelings toward early attachment figures; and
have sufficient insight into the defenses that they have habitually used to avoid these feelings, and avoid emotional closeness with others.
Davanloo describes two competing forces within each patient, which he calls the resistance and the unconscious therapeutic alliance (UTA). When patients enter therapy, resistance is dominant; the task of therapy is to mobilize the UTA to the point where it is able to dominate the resistance and support a new, healthy adaptation to the patient’s life. One of Davanloo’s central insights is that this can be achieved by rapid mobilization of both the resistance and “complex transference feelings”: that is, the mixed feelings that arise toward therapists as a result of their persistent efforts to relate directly to the patient rather than the patient’s destructive defenses.
Davanloo discovered that when patients experience these complex feelings, the resulting state of low unconscious anxiety results in an “unlocking” of the unconscious, allowing patients and therapists to understand the origins of patients’ problems, and also to achieve lasting therapeutic change. Davanloo’s method for achieving this unlocked state and exploiting its therapeutic potential are summarized in his “central dynamic sequence.”
Introductory Video Tutorials:
In this series of five videos, Founder of the ISTDP Institute Jon Frederickson, MSW and Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D. present a clear and concise introduction to ISTDP
Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Part 1 with Jon Frederickson, MSW and Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D. (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Part 2 with Jon Frederickson, MSW and Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D. — get the link to this video by subscribing to the ISTDP list here.
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Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Part 3 with Jon Frederickson, MSW and Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D. (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Part 4 with Jon Frederickson, MSW and Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D. (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
Intensive Short Term Dynamic Psychotherapy Part 5 with Jon Frederickson, MSW and Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D. (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
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Intermediate/Advanced Tutorials:
In this series of 18 videos, Founder of the ISTDP Institute Jon Frederickson, MSW gives instruction on more specific elements of ISTDP:
VIDEO 1 Anxiety Assessment Part 1 with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 2 Anxiety Assessment Part 2 with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 3 Anxiety Assessment Part 3 with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 4 Anxiety Regulation with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 5 How to Assess if Anxiety is Too High with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 6 What to do when Anxiety Regulation Does not work! with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 7 The Neuroscience and Biophysiology of Anxiety with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 8 Projection with Jon Frederickson, MSW. (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 9 Projection: How to Intervene with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 10 Repressive Defenses with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 11 Somatization with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 12 Externalization with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 13 Denial with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 14 Denial in Deed with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 15 Denial in Fantasy with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 16 Denial in Words with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 17 Denial Per Se with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
VIDEO 18 Co-Creating Change: Effective Dynamic Therapy Techniques with Jon Frederickson, MSW (permission for use granted by the ISTDP Institute)
ISTDP Demonstration Sessions:
Demonstration session with detailed explanations by Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D. (Cost: $29)
This session is one in a series in which expert therapists from a variety of experiential schools work with this client on the same presenting issue. An unparalleled opportunity to compare and contrast the strategies and techniques of the different schools!
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ISTDP Demonstration Session - Complicated Bereavement with Patricia Coughlin, Ph.D. (Cost: $59)
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Upcoming Live Training Events for ISTDP:
The online tutorials on this site do not qualify you for ISTDP certification and are not a substitute for the comprehensive in-person training offered by the official organization(s) representing ISTDP. See their schedule of upcoming trainings here: