Lunch and Learn: Child Therapy as a Dual Process: Working Across the Child-Parent Matrix (Virtual)
1.5 hours, 1.5 CEUs
$25 for Members
$50 for Non-Members
Description:
When working with children, clinicians are faced with dual therapeutic demands: attending to the child’s inner world while responding to the parents’ expectations, which both authorize and constrain treatment. This workshop introduces a psychodynamically informed framework for understanding and working within this child–parent matrix. Drawing on the work of the Novicks (Novick & Novick, 2005; 2001), participants will explore a dynamic model of family functioning that understands symptoms within relational context. The workshop will differentiate between open (flexible, reality-based) and closed (defensive, repetitive) systems, and examine how shifts between these modes shape clinical presentation and inform intervention.
Attention will be given to the therapist’s positioning with both the child and parents, including maintaining a distinct therapeutic space for the child while engaging parents reflectively. Through case discussions and open dialogue, participants will identify strategies for integrating parent work into child psychotherapy and locating points of intervention across the child’s play, parent meetings, and parental affective states.
Our Presenter: Damla Tuzcu, LMHC
About our presenter:
Damla Tuzcu, LMHC, is a psychodynamically oriented psychotherapist in private practice in Brookline, MA. She works with children, adolescents, adults, and couples, integrating modern psychoanalytic perspectives with relational and developmental approaches. Damla is currently pursuing advanced psychoanalytic training at BGSP and is engaged in ongoing clinical supervision and professional development within the psychoanalytic community.
Friday, August 14, 2026 from 11:30am-1:00pm
Registration is required-This workshop is being offered virtually on zoom
1.5 CEUs
Members: $25 - All levels of membership
Non-members: $50
Registration closes 5 business days before the event even if there are open spaces.
Some workshops have limited 'seats' by request of the presenter.
When that limit is reached, registration will close.
