PSYCHOANALYTIC BROOKLYN
“When a Child is Pulled from Therapy – An Elegy”
Presenters:
Barbara Sabbeth, PhD, Christopher Kido, LCSW and
Holly Johnston, PhD
Friday, March 6, 2026
2:00-3:30pm
Online via Zoom
1.5 CEUs Available
This panel discussion explores the impact of losing child patients. Discussion follows exploring the impact of these unique losses on the clinician and its counter transference and clinical reactions will be explored.
Barbara Sabbeth, PhD is a supervising and training analyst at the Contemporary Freudian Society. She completed adult training at CFS, and child and adolescent training at the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research at Columbia University. Following a PhD in clinical psychology from Long Island University, she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and an associate research scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at Yale University. There she studied and published papers on the relationships between families of chronically ill children and their doctors. At NewYork Medical College, she worked as a member of teams providing integrated medical and psychological care to patients. Currently she supervises and sees adults, adolescents and children in psychoanalysis and psychotherapy in her New Rochelle office.
Christopher Kido, LCSW is a supervising and training analyst at the Contemporary Freudian Society. He has been a faculty member at the Contemporary Freudian Society, and in the Child and Adolescent Program at IPTAR. He co-founded and continues to direct the Grief Project, a pro bono public school based trauma and bereavement group intervention. Prior to entering psychoanalytic training he worked in community mental health clinics for the Jewish Board of Famiky and Children’s Services in South Brooklyn and Washington heights with its emphasis in trauma and bereavement work. He supervises and sees adults, children and adolescents in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis on the Upper Westside of Manhattan.
Holly Johnston, PhD, is a child and adult training analyst at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute (CPI), where she is a faculty member. She teaches Object Relations and Writing in the Adult Psychoanalytic Education Program and Child technique in the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Education Program at CPI. She received her PhD from the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago. Her dissertation was published as a book, Assessing Schizophrenic Thinking, co-authored by Philip Holzman. Her clinical specialization is in early childhood disorders and the psychoanalytic treatment of primitive mental states. She supervises and sees children, adolescents, and adults in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. She recently authored and co-authored two papers in a special pandemic issue of Psychoanalytic Psychology: Falling out of the World and The Real, the Virtual and the Pandemic.
Program Fee: $60 General / $50 CFS Members / $30 Candidates & Students
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this seminar, participants will be able to:
1. Identify Psychological and Developmental Risks
Describe the potential emotional, relational, and developmental risks associated with abrupt or poorly managed termination of intensive psychotherapy with child patients, including reactivation of attachment traumas.
2. Recognize and Assess Trauma Reactions
Identify signs and symptoms of traumatic withdrawal in children, such as regression, somatic complaints, dissociation, or heightened separation anxiety, and assess their severity using developmentally appropriate clinical tools.
3. Integrate Attachment Theory and Psychoanalytic Perspectives
Apply psychoanalytic and attachment-based frameworks to understand the child’s internal experience of therapeutic rupture, including transference phenomena and re-enactments of earlier loss or abandonment.
Peer Reviewed Articles/Readings:
Viorst, J. (1982) Experiences of Loss at the End of Analysis: The Analyst’s Response to Termination. Psychoanalytic Inquiry 2:399-418
Kantrowitz, J. L., Balsam, R., Greenberg, J., Jacobs, T., Kulish, N., Nunberg, H. & Orgel, S. (2017) What It Means to an Analyst When Analyses End. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 70:257-272
Delgado, P. et al. (2025). Specific and common therapeutic factors in psychodynamic psychotherapy with children and adolescents. In: Frontiers in Psychology 16, 1525849.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.
Tanzilli, A., Gualco, A., & Satir, D. (2024). Countertransference conceptualization from Freud to the modern era. Journal of Psychology and Clinical Psychiatry.
Frankiel, R. V. (1985) The Stolen Child: A Fantasy, a Wish, a Source of Countertransference. International Review of Psychoanalysis 12:417-430
Who Should Attend:
The instructional level for this activity is advanced. Mental Health Professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, e.g. LPs, LCATs, and pastoral counselors) and those with an interest in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic thinking and clinical applications.
Continuing Education Credits:
NY Social Workers: The PTI-CFS is recognized by the NYS Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0087
NY Psychoanalysts: The PTI-CFS is recognized by the NYS Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P-
NY Licensed Psychologists: The PTI-CFS is recognized by the NYS Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provide of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0017.
Psychologists: The Contemporary Freudian Society is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The CFS maintains responsibility for this program and its content. (DC, MD and VA Psychologist licensing boards accept CE credits provided by an APA approved Sponsor. All other psychologists should check with their licensing boards.)
DC, MD and VA Social Workers: The Social Work Boards of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia will grant continuing education credits to social workers attending a program offered by an APA authorized sponsor.
CE credits will only be granted to participants with documented attendance of the entire program and completed online evaluation form. No partial credit will be offered. It is the responsibility of the participants seeking CE credits to comply with these requirements. Upon completion of this program and online evaluation form, participants will be granted CE credits.
Important Disclosure Information: None of the planners and presenters of this program have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.