"I learn by going where I have to go": Personal Reflections on Creative Processes in Painting and Psychoanalysis (11/13/2026)

Fri, 13 Nov 2026 23:30:00 GMT

"I learn by going where I have to go": Personal Reflections on Creative Processes in Painting and Psychoanalysis

Event Price: This is a free event. CE fee is $10 for members and $20 for non-members.

Continued Education (CEU/CME): 1.5 Ethics Credits

Attendance: Hybrid Event - In Person & Virtual event via Zoom Meeting

Program Description:

Similarities between creative processes in painting and psychoanalysis come from the same source within us. I will describe my experience in both activities, recognizing a shared state of mind that is open, calm, and able to inhabit and intensify strong emotion in the act of painting and within the analytic interaction. I will describe creative expression as arising from internal, often unconscious work within oneself that is known only in the act of doing, in its expression. I will draw on the writings and work of Abstract Expressionist Robert Motherwell. Motherwell’s idea of the ‘aesthetic function’—an incubating process that condenses scattered feelings, making feelings live and be known—accounts for the analyst’s same function of incubation-condensation within an intersubjective matrix. ‘Emotional truth ’-Motherwell’s term-is then available for expression in a variety of modes by analyst and patient. I will describe in painting and analytic work a growing trust in disciplined spontaneity, in which a ripening sense of an emotional form is allowed expression before being entirely known. A clinical example illustrates these ideas.

Learning Objectives:

1) Participants will hone a sensitivity to internal processes that allow for greater freedom in their clinical work.

2) Participants will learn how to be more spontaneous in their clinical work.

Henry Markman, MD, is a Supervising and Training Analyst and Faculty Member at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association and a faculty member at The Wilhelm Reich Center for the Study of Embodiment. His recent book (2022), Creative Engagement in Psychoanalytic Practice, was published by Routledge. His published work includes play in adolescent analysis, embodied attunement, aesthetic experience, musical accompaniment in psychoanalysis, Bion’s late work, the analyst’s ethical commitments, and the relevance of Ferenczi’s mutual analysis. His most recent papers appear in JAPA, entitled The Analytic True Self for Another, in a special issue of Contemporary Psychoanalysis on Embodiment, entitled The Analyst’s Embodied Presence: Working Within an Aesthetic Matrix. He is in private practice in Berkeley, California, where he also consults and leads study groups.

CE information will be sent to all attendees the week after the event.

Refunds are available only with pre-event cancellation.

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

The Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center is approved by the Ohio Psychological Association-MCE Program to offer continuing education for psychologists.  The Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, as Approved Provider 18PO-341019020, maintains responsibility for the program.  This event provides 1.5 CE to psychologists. The State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage & Family Therapist Board accepts this approval for licensees. This event provides 1.5 CE to counselors and social workers only.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and, therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 1.5: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.

Ethics in Psychoanalysis: The Analytic True Self for Another (11/14/2026)

Sat, 14 Nov 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Ethics in Psychoanalysis: The Analytic True Self for Another

Event Price: Fees include CEs. This is a free event for CPC students and candidates, $60 for CPC members and $90 for non-members.

Continued Education (CEU/CME): 2.0 Ethics Credits

Attendance: Hybrid Event - In Person & Virtual event via Zoom Meeting

Program Description:

Beginning with a description of ethical commitments and how they show up in clinical work, this presentation will utilize the notion of an analytic ethos as a means of exploring how these commitments form the bedrock of the presenter's way of being with patients, especially during times of interpersonal stress, uncertainty, and confusion.

Learning Objectives:

1) Participants will describe various ethical approaches and their application to clinical work.

2) Participants will analyze and clarify participants' basic unconscious assumptions of therapeutic action.

CE information will be sent to all attendees the week after the event.

Refunds are available only with pre-event cancellation.

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

The Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center is approved by the Ohio Psychological Association-MCE Program to offer continuing education for psychologists.  The Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, as Approved Provider 18PO-341019020, maintains responsibility for the program.  This event provides 2.0 CE to psychologists. The State of Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage & Family Therapist Board accepts this approval for licensees. This event provides 2.0 CE to counselors and social workers only.

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and, therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 2.0: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support.

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"I learn by going where I have to go": Personal Reflections on Creative Processes in Painting and Psychoanalysis (11/13/2026)