list of speakers and titles for 2025-26 FNGL series

The Erikson Institute for Research, Education, and Advocacy of the Austen Riggs Center announces its 2025-26 Virtual Friday Night Guest Lecture series. Lectures are held from 6:30-8:00 p.m. (Eastern) via Zoom, designed for mental health professionals, offered free of charge, and provide 1.5 continuing education credits (see registration pages for specific guild information). Pre-registration is required and available at 

The Paternal Function in Anorexia Nervosa

 with Tom Wooldridge, PsyD, ABPP, FIPA, CEDS-C 

Sun, Soil and Rain: Research on Patient Growth in Psychotherapy

The Question of Unworthy Life: Eugenics and Germany's Twentieth Century

Working Clinically with Overwhelm: The Cost and Growth-Inducing Possibilities of Undoing the Self

Becoming Raced-Psychic Consequences of Transgenerational Racial Trauma

For a complete list of live and recorded CME/CE courses and events, visit 

News

Speakers, dates, and topics for the 2025-26 Virtual Friday Night Guest Lecture series have been finalized.

Speakers and Dates Announced for 2025-26 Virtual Friday Night Guest Lecture Series

We all grow up in families where, inevitably, moments arise when a child’s needs exceed a parent’s capacity to meet them. In many cases, these mismatches remain minor and manageable. With time and communication, families adjust, and development continues.

But some mismatches disrupt development because they are emotionally overwhelming, unacknowledged, or simply too frequent. A child’s innate neurological makeup may lead them to be chronically out of sync with their parents. Or a parent’s previous trauma may limit their emotional availability. Or families may unconsciously carry the effects of trauma that were never recognized or understood in previous generations.

Children adapt to preserve the caregiving relationship, which they need to survive. If they decide a traumatic experience is their fault, they can still believe their parents are good. Over time, survival strategies like this continue to shape expectations, relationships, and identity long after the original context has changed.

Why Some Patients Receive the Label “Treatment-Resistant”

Although these adaptations once helped children cope, they often complicate adult relationships, including in treatment. Many of our patients find themselves unconsciously reenacting early family dynamics, experiencing their therapists or other staff members repeating the roles of misunderstanding or injurious caretakers. Even minor misattunements—an ambiguous tone, a missed cue—can trigger intense reactions: withdrawal, rage, or despair.

Clinicians in traditional settings may misinterpret these responses as resistance, defiance, or dysfunction, labeling patients as“noncompliant” or “untreatable.” At Riggs, we see these reactions not as pathology, but as meaningful expressions of unmet developmental needs and unresolved trauma. When such patterns emerge in the therapeutic relationship, they offer an opportunity for understanding and change.

Riggs’ Therapeutic Stance: Empathy and Accountability

At Riggs, we approach intense emotional reactions not as problems to be suppressed but as communications to be understood. This means approaching intense reactions with empathy while also holding ourselves and our patients accountable.

Empathy means asking: What might we have done that triggered this? Where did we fail to listen or understand? We seek the truth in the patient’s experience, validating emotional reality and helping them bear what once overwhelmed them. Understanding the present moment often frees patients to join in reflecting on the impact of their past.

Accountability reflects our confidence in each person’s capacity for adult insight and responsibility. By holding patients accountable for their behavior and helping them recognize their impact on others, we support their developing capacity for broader perspectives and more flexible relationships.

Balancing empathy and accountability foster psychological integration, trust, and a sense of agency.

We conduct treatment in a completely open setting—without locked units, seclusion, or restraints—because we trust our patients to share responsibility for their care.

In more restrictive environments, control measures like locked doors or restraints often unconsciously mirror the traumatic conditions many patients endured in childhood—conditions where autonomy was denied, emotions were punished, or the caregiver inspired both fear and dependence. These measures can retraumatize.

At Riggs, we respond to intense affect—rage, despair, suicidal feelings—not with coercion, but with shared emotional labor. Patients, families, and staff bear it together. This strengthens agency, mobilizes mature capacities, and deepens trust in the therapeutic process. We intervene more actively only when a patient’s safety is at risk.

Community Life: Creativity, Responsibility, and Strengths

Healing at Riggs extends beyond the therapy room. Our therapeutic community includes an 

 that fosters creative expression through art, music, writing, and performance. A work program gives patients the opportunity to contribute meaningfully in settings such as the nursery school, greenhouse, library, and kitchen, taking up roles that reinforce responsibility, competence, and connection. Through patient government, individuals help shape community life and exercise leadership.

These programs promote recovery by enhancing strengths, encouraging engagement, and restoring dignity through work, creativity, and shared governance. They support a shift from helplessness to agency.

Patients don’t just repeat early dynamics with their therapists; they live them out across the community. They may idealize some staff and hate others, unconsciously recreating childhood divisions. These enactments can strain the staff system itself.

At Riggs, we use a systems psychodynamic lens to understand these patterns. Rather than blaming individuals, we treat the staff system as a therapeutic instrument. We reflect, interpret, and metabolize the dynamics together.

In outpatient settings, patients often react strongly to people outside the therapist’s reach—family members, colleagues, or friends. At Riggs, where patients and therapists are members of the same community, we can often observe these dynamics as they unfold, making them readily available for exploration and understanding. The community becomes a living extension of the patient’s internal world, enabling deeper insight and fuller integration.

We don’t aim simply to relieve symptoms or change behavior. We join patients in exploring how they became who they are and how they might change. This frees them to identify and pursue their own goals.

In a community that fosters emotional honesty, mutual responsibility, and genuine participation, patients can become active agents in their healing. They can move from being passive recipients of care to active authors of their lives.

Patients walking around the open setting campus of the Austen Riggs Center on Main Street in Stockbridge, MA.

Voluntary Residential Treatment in an Open Setting

In a community that fosters emotional honesty, mutual responsibility, and genuine participation, patients can become active agents in their healing. 

Understanding Treatment at the Austen Riggs Center 

Learn the crucial differences between crisis stabilization and treatment aimed at recovery that allows one to live a self-directed life.

Understand how high-acuity mental health symptoms often reflect underlying developmental struggles, especially in college students and emerging adults.

Explore the essential components of a psychodynamic systems and team-based approach to intensive outpatient treatment (IOP), including the analysis of group dynamics, integration of dyadic and social learning, and promotion of trust, agency, and identity development.

In today’s fast-paced mental health system, treatment often begins and ends with crisis stabilization. Yet, for college students and emerging adults facing complex psychiatric challenges, this approach falls short of delivering long-term healing and personal growth. At the Austen Riggs Center, the 

online Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)

 offers a groundbreaking psychodynamic systems approach that goes far beyond symptom reduction.

This blog draws from a free CE/CME course led by Riggs staff 

, and unpacks how this model fosters the development of a self-directed life, revealing why IOPs that integrate identity work, emotional meaning, and team collaboration are uniquely positioned to support sustainable recovery in young adults.

If this topic is of interest to you, check out the 

Toward a Self-Directed Life: A Psychodynamic Systems Approach to Treatment of College Students

 course in its entirety on our online catalogue and receive free CE/CME credit.

Crisis Stabilization vs. Recovery-Oriented Psychodynamic Treatment

One of the most misunderstood aspects of mental health care is the assumption that crisis stabilization equals recovery. Crisis stabilization refers to the short-term management of psychiatric emergencies—suicidal ideation, psychosis, or dangerous disorganization. While necessary, this intervention is not designed for long-term change.

In contrast, the goal of recovery in modern mental health—aligned with 

 standards—is to support individuals in living a self-directed and meaningful life. This requires restoring both psychological and functional capacities.

The Riggs online IOP uses a recovery-focused lens, particularly for individuals who cannot fully utilize conventional outpatient therapy. These include patients whose ability to attend, participate in, or benefit from therapy is compromised by deeper issues like trauma, developmental conflict, or comorbid conditions. IOPs become a transitional and restorative space—not just a holding tank between crisis and independence, but an engine for long-term growth.

Interpreting High-Acuity Symptoms as Developmental Striving

Rather than viewing acute psychiatric symptoms as random or purely biological, the psychodynamic systems model understands them as meaningful expressions of internal and social conflict. For emerging adults, symptoms often represent tensions between dependency and autonomy, perfection and failure, or connection and rejection.

A vivid example is Jane, a composite patient in the Riggs online IOP. Jane’s self-harm and depressive collapse did not merely signify distress—they were her unconscious strategies to express unmet attachment needs, grief over inconsistent caregiving, and rage she couldn't verbalize. Her symptoms were powerful attempts at adaptation, not just signs of illness. Understanding acuity as

developmental striving shifts the treatment approach. Instead of suppressing the symptom, the online IOP therapists work to decode its function, uncover the emotional truth it conceals, and support patients in discovering new, more adaptive ways of engaging the world.

Core Elements of a Psychodynamic Systems and Team-Based IOP

A psychodynamic IOP goes far beyond individual therapy or skill-based groups. At Riggs, the treatment structure integrates multiple services—individual therapy, group work, psychiatry, and family engagement—anchored by a team of clinicians working from a shared developmental and psychodynamic lens.

Patients with trauma or chronic relational disruptions often mistrust the intentions or reliability of others. Establishing epistemic trust—the belief that others can provide useful, reliable information—is an essential step, one typically preceded by taking seriously the sound reasons a person has for being mistrustful. Trust opens the door to deeper therapeutic work.

Coping skills are necessary, but insufficient. Patients need to explore how they came to be overwhelmed in the first place: How have early relationships shaped their responses to stress? Which strategies have helped or hurt? How does the form of their struggles reflect a family or social role? What’s at stake in their relationships if they change?

To live a self-directed life, patients need a coherent and flexible sense of self. This emerges not just in therapy sessions but through group interactions, feedback, and the cumulative experience of being seen, and learning to see oneself more fully, across different relationships.

Agency is not the same as compliance. It requires the freedom to act intentionally, to tolerate ambiguity, and to engage developmentally appropriate challenges with insight and flexibility.

5. Team-Based Containment and Interpretation

A unique strength of the psychodynamic Riggs online IOP is its capacity to hold multiple realities at once. Teams meet frequently to reflect on individual presentations, compare perspectives, and interpret the meaning within and behind behaviors. For example, when Jane became withdrawn after another member took on her caretaking role, the team helped her process her loss of identity and access her anger constructively.

Patients often relate differently to different staff members—idealizing some, fearing others, withdrawing from still others. Rather than pathologizing this, the team uses it as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool, helping patients integrate conflicting internal states into a fuller picture of themselves.

The Developmental Lens: Anchoring Complexity in Growth

What transforms a multifaceted treatment plan into a coherent therapeutic journey is a developmental focus. For the population served by the Riggs online IOP—college students and emerging adults in Massachusetts between the ages of 18 and 30—the key developmental challenge is transitioning from dependence within the family to autonomy in the world.

Holding this task in mind allows clinicians to interpret the torrent of data—behaviors, symptoms, group dynamics—as expressions of growth or resistance related to identity, belonging, effectuality, and loss. It also gives patients a narrative framework for understanding their experience and tracking their progress.

Case Illustration: Jane’s Path from Collapse to Agency

Throughout her time in the online IOP, Jane shifted from perfectionistic control to authentic emotional expression. Initially motivated by guilt and driven to earn care through self-sacrifice, Jane slowly began to name her anger, acknowledge feelings of neglect, and explore fantasies previously too shameful to voice.

As she learned to relate to others more honestly—expressing frustration and allowing herself to be vulnerable—her sense of agency deepened. Therapy helped her discover not just how she was hurt, but how she tried to control others through withdrawal or self-harm. The multidisciplinary team’s coordinated response allowed for a consistent and richly nuanced holding environment that catalyzed her development.

Final Thoughts: Learning to Live a Self-Directed Life

The Austen Riggs Center’s online IOP model offers a new approach for treating complex psychiatric issues in young adults. It does more than contain crises—it cultivates meaning, mastery, and the essential skills to live a self-directed life. By understanding symptoms through a developmental lens and offering integrated, team-based psychodynamic care, this model empowers emerging adults to reenter their lives with clarity, confidence, and psychological resilience.

For clinicians, educators, and mental health professionals seeking a roadmap to deeper recovery for their clients, the Riggs online IOP provides a research-aligned blueprint.

To hear the full presentation and receive CE/CME credits, please visit the 

oward a Self-Directed Life: A Psychodynamic Systems Approach to Treatment of College Students

To learn more about the Austen Riggs Center Online IOP for College Students and Emerging Adults in Massachusetts, visit our 

Online Training

Toward a Self-Directed Life: Redefining IOP Treatment for Emerging Adults

The Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA.

Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy

 has announced the recipients of the 2025 Evelyn Stefansson Nef Scholarship, an annual honor that celebrates academic excellence, commitment to the social sciences and healthcare fields, and local community service.

This year’s $1,000 scholarships have been awarded to three outstanding graduates from Berkshire County high schools:

 will pursue humanities and social sciences studies at 

The Evelyn Stefansson Nef Scholarship has been awarded annually since 2000 to one graduating senior from each of the three high schools—Lenox Memorial, Monument Mountain, and Lee—based on their academic performance, plans to pursue social sciences or pre-medical studies, and history of leadership through community involvement. Recipients receive the funds after completing their first semester of college.

Evelyn Stefansson Nef, the scholarship’s namesake, was a multifaceted figure: author, Arctic explorer, psychotherapist, patron of the arts, and a dedicated philanthropist. A longtime supporter of the Austen Riggs Center, she passed away in 2009, but her legacy continues to uplift the next generation of socially engaged scholars in Berkshire County.

Austen Riggs Center

The Austen Riggs Center’s Erikson Institute for Education, Research, and Advocacy has announced the recipients of the 2025 Evelyn Stefansson Nef Scholarship.

Riggs Awards Three Berkshire County Students $1,000 Evelyn Stefansson Nef Scholarships

June is Pride Month, a time to recognize and celebrate LGBTQ+ community members, their diverse cultures, their many accomplishments, and to acknowledge the systemic barriers and discrimination that persist. Recognizing that the social context in which one exists can be a critical component of one’s mental health, the Austen Riggs Center advocates for not only equal access to mental health care, but also for a treatment approach that meets each individual wherever they are and however they identify. 

Being LGBTQ+ isn’t a mental illness. However, many LGBTQ+ people experience mental health struggles linked to societal stigma, discrimination, and denial of their civil and human rights.

Below is a list of LGBTQ+ resources and articles from a variety of associations and organizations:

National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

Five Ways to Support LGBTQ+ Mental Health

LGBTQ Youth Face Mental Health Challenges: Social Support and Safe Spaces Make a Difference

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)

Human Rights Campaign - Mental Health Resources in the LGBTQ+ Community

Progress Pride Flag - an image from Daniel Quasar via UnSplash.

Progress Pride Flag

June is Pride Month, a time to recognize and celebrate LGBTQ+ community members, their diverse cultures, their many accomplishments, and to acknowledge the systemic barriers and discrimination that persist.

Pride Month 2025 - Information and Resources

The meaning and clinical relevance of an 

 are essential when addressing therapeutic impasses

 for beginning therapy with a mistrustful patient

Techniques in the Psychotherapy for Psychosis

” – part two in a two-part series – Austen Riggs Center Director of Testing and Associate Director of Admissions

, talks about how psychosis remains one of the most challenging experiences to address in psychotherapy, not only for patients but for clinicians navigating fragile therapeutic terrain. Rooted in paranoia, fear, and emotional disconnection, psychosis can sever the thread of human relatedness. However, a transformative approach rooted in intersubjectivity, openheartedness, and hope provides an essential roadmap for recovery.

Understanding Intersubjectivity: A Relational Reality

Intersubjectivity refers to a shared space of meaning-making between people. It recognizes that our understanding of reality is not a solitary experience, but a co-created phenomenon built through relationships. In the context of psychotherapy, particularly with psychotic individuals, this orientation emphasizes the mutual, relational construction of the therapeutic encounter.

Recovery, therefore, arises not from control or correction, but from compassionate presence and attunement to the other’s experience.

The Power of Openheartedness and Vulnerability

When working with individuals experiencing psychosis, openheartedness and vulnerability are not luxuries—they are necessities. These qualities help establish a secure relational environment where mistrust can begin to soften.

Patients with psychosis often arrive in therapy with deeply ingrained expectations of betrayal or abandonment. Their life stories may be shaped by trauma, neglect, or repeated invalidation. In response, they have learned to protect themselves by retreating into internal worlds or projecting distrust onto others.

To engage meaningfully with these patients, therapists must be willing to show up authentically. This includes acknowledging their own limitations, being affected by the patient’s pain, and relinquishing the need to “fix” them. Compassion is not passive—it is an active stance of non-defensive engagement. Vulnerability in the therapist makes emotional safety possible for the patient.

This compassionate stance also helps therapists manage therapeutic impasses. Rather than reacting with frustration or distancing, an openhearted therapist approaches these moments with curiosity, asking: What is being protected here? What fear lies beneath this anger or silence?

Understanding the Developmental Roots of Mistrust in Psychosis

Mistrust is typically the outcome of developmental trauma, relational inconsistencies, and a life history where others were sources of threat rather than safety.

Children raised in environments where caregivers are neglectful, intrusive, or frightening often develop maladaptive internal working models. These models teach them that the world is unsafe and that others cannot be relied upon. Over time, these beliefs can crystallize into paranoia or delusional systems—attempts to make sense of a world that feels inherently dangerous.

As a result, the very presence of the therapist—someone who offers interest or concern—can be experienced as deeply threatening. The therapist may be perceived as manipulative or part of a broader conspiracy. Recognizing this developmental trajectory helps therapists remain patient, grounded, and compassionate in the face of extreme reactions.

Strategies for Engaging a Mistrustful Patient

Starting therapy with a mistrustful patient requires a nuanced, slow, and respectful approach. Here are three key strategies:

Early in the therapeutic relationship, emotional safety must take precedence over interpretation or confrontation. Trying to challenge delusional beliefs too quickly can reinforce the patient’s sense of danger and distrust. Instead, offer consistent presence, respect boundaries, and prioritize emotional containment.

Rather than dismissing or denying the patient’s suspicions, it is helpful to acknowledge them with empathy. For example, saying “It makes sense that you might be wary of me” helps validate their experience without endorsing delusions. This can open the door to more honest dialogue.

When inevitable ruptures occur in therapy—such as misunderstandings or missed sessions—the therapist can model repair. Apologizing, checking in, and demonstrating accountability show the patient that conflict does not always lead to abandonment. These micro-repairs can challenge long-standing expectations of relational danger.

Hope is often confused with blind positivity or the expectation of a good outcome. However, in the context of psychotherapy—and particularly with psychosis—hope is something more profound and resilient.

Unlike optimism, which depends on circumstances turning out well, hope is an internal capacity to imagine possibilities even in the face of despair. It is a relational phenomenon, born not from logic, but from connection. 

Hope does not require a promise that things will improve. It only requires the belief that one is not alone, that their suffering is seen and honored, and that their pain has meaning. For many patients, simply having someone sit with them in their darkest hour—without judgment or agenda—can rekindle this fragile spark.

What Restores Hope for People with Psychosis?

Drawing from the lived experiences of those with psychosis, several key factors emerge as essential for restoring hope:

Many patients describe profound relief in being met with curiosity rather than scrutiny. When therapists make the effort to understand the patient’s inner world, without rushing to label or fix, the patient begins to feel human again.

Isolation is both a cause and consequence of psychosis. Finding community—whether through group therapy, peer support, or meaningful relationships—offers a vital antidote. Belonging tells the patient, “You are not alone. You matter.”

Empowerment is central to recovery. When patients are included in decisions about their care and given space to express their needs and preferences, they begin to reclaim agency. This contrasts sharply with the often disempowering experiences they may have had in mental health systems.

Conclusion: Recovery Through Relationship

The intersubjective approach offers a powerful lens through which therapists can co-create meaning, nurture emotional safety, and ignite hope.

By meeting mistrust with humility, openheartedness, and clinical skill, we offer patients more than insight—we offer them the chance to feel human again. And in that shared humanity, recovery begins.

To hear Ridenour’s presentation in full and receive CE/CME credits, please visit the

how the Austen Riggs Center treats psychotic disorders

Austen Riggs is a psychiatric residential treatment facility in Stockbridge, MA.

Psychiatric Residential Treatment

A transformative approach rooted in intersubjectivity, openheartedness, and hope provides an essential roadmap for recovery from psychosis..

Intersubjective Approach to Psychosis Treatment

 Making Meaning: Growth and Artistic Expression in the Activities Program at the Austen Riggs Center 

 Thursdays-Saturdays, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. (Eastern), June 7-October 13, 2025 

 Corner House Community Exhibition Space at 48 Main Street, Stockbridge, MA 

In honor of Joan Erikson’s reimagining of the 

 and founding of the Austen Riggs Center 

 75 years ago, the exhibition opening in June will look at the ways the activities program has shaped the patient experience at the Austen Riggs Center for over 100 years. The exhibition will showcase art of former patients and staff, and in August will host the Alumni Art exhibition in collaboration with an exhibition of current patient work in the Lavender Door.

Visitors are invited to stop by during regular exhibition hours.

For questions, please contact Alison Lotto at 413.931.5249 / alison.lotto@austenriggs.net 

Making Meaning: Growth and Artistic Expression in the Activities Program at the Austen Riggs Center - Exhibition to Open Summer 2025.

Making Meaning: Growth and Artistic Expression in the Activities Program at the Austen Riggs Center

An exhibition looking at the ways the Activities Program has shaped the patient experience at the Austen Riggs Center for over 100 years.

Making Meaning: Growth and Artistic Expression in the Activities Program at the Austen Riggs Center - Exhibition to Open Summer 2025

Six months after philanthropist Harold Grinspoon provided a landmark matching gift to create a patient aid fund, that support has enabled nearly a dozen young adults in Massachusetts to access top-level mental health treatment from the Austen Riggs Center 

The Harold Grinspoon IOP Patient Aid Fund began in November 2024, when Grinspoon gifted $250,000 to the Center. His financial support, which Riggs is matching, provides up to 13 weeks of treatment to individuals who qualify for 

 or who do not have an out-of-network benefit.

To date, 11 patients from four counties (Barnstable, Berkshire, Hampshire, and Middlesex) have used the assistance to participate in the program. 

“Many young adults go without the treatment they need because they lack insurance or have restrictive plans that bring them costs without suitable benefits,” said online IOP Director 

. “The Grinspoon fund is bridging this gap to help deliver outstanding, tailored clinical care to these individuals.”

Established in 2021, the online IOP provides key elements of Riggs’ 

 to patients aged 18-30 who live throughout Massachusetts. Riggs’ approach is centered on 

, in which the patient works to develop enough perspective on their painful past experiences so that they don’t allow those experiences to dominate their lives and are freer to make their own choices.

Since its founding, the online program has treated 124 patients, 47% of whom identified as BIPOC and/or gender diverse. Additionally, 62% of all patients identified as needing financial aid, and 56% of college students identified as needing financial aid.

The online IOP features nine hours of group meetings and two hours of individual psychotherapy with a doctoral-level clinician each week. In addition, it offers medication management, family therapy, and coordination with other health resources, all of which are integrated in three-times-a-week multidisciplinary team meetings. Without Grinspoon’s matching gift, Riggs’ online IOP costs approximately $2,400 per week per patient. Nearly all those seeking treatment lack private resources to support access to the program and approximately 15% do not have applicable insurance coverage. (The online IOP is in-network with 

 and works with other providers on an out-of-network basis.)

“I am pleased to see the impact this aid is having on individuals, as well as in helping to expand the use of psychotherapy, which I have benefitted from personally,” Grinspoon said.“ I am encouraged by these initial results and hope more young adults can take advantage of this type of treatment.”

, one of the top 50 privately-held national real estate firms. He is a signatory to the Giving Pledge, a movement of philanthropists who commit to give the majority of their wealth to charitable causes. Additionally, he has created 

 that bear his name and support a wide range of charitable initiatives nationally as well as in Western Massachusetts.

Beyond his support for Austen Riggs’ Online IOP program, Grinspoon has established the 

Harold Grinspoon Endowed Chair of Psychiatry

 at the Baystate Health Foundation. He is also an accomplished artist, with works on display in numerous public and private venues, including an outdoor sculpture at Riggs’ “Corner House” building in the heart of Stockbridge.

Some 40% of the online IOP patients have a history of prior hospitalization and many have been compelled to drop out of college or halt their careers due to their mental health challenges. Patient surveys have charted significant improvements among respondents, including: 95% indicating their behavior has changed for the better; 93% reporting having benefitted from their treatment in the online IOP; 98% feeling interpersonally connected with their therapists via Zoom; and 97% feeling cared for by their peers. Some 88% of patients who responded to surveys about their health care upon discharge from the online IOP said they went to a lower level of care after treatment.

The online IOP is currently accepting applications for admission and support via the Grinspoon fund. To find out more or to apply, call 

, online IOP Program Coordinator, Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. (Eastern) at 833.921.5700 or via this 

 is a vital therapeutic community, open psychiatric residential treatment center, and institute for education, research, and advocacy in the field of mental health. Located in the Berkshire Hills of Western Massachusetts, Riggs has been serving adults since its founding in 1919. Riggs’ mission is to promote resilience and self-direction in those with complex psychiatric problems. In addition to the clinical mission, the 

 of the Austen Riggs Center studies individuals in their social contexts through research, training, and education, and conducts outreach programs in the local community and beyond. For more information, visit 


John Zollinger
Director of Communications
Austen Riggs Center
413.931.5816


Nearly a dozen Massachusetts young adults have received care that was potentially out of financial reach.

Harold Grinspoon Scholarships Provide Access to Austen Riggs Center Online Psychiatric Treatment

A man standing alone, looking out of a window.

Common fears experienced by individuals with psychosis, including fear of harm, recurrence of psychotic episodes, and social stigma

How therapists may also experience fear when working with people experiencing psychosis

The difference between loneliness and social isolation, and why it matters

The relationship between psychosis and loneliness

Four common types of losses people face following a psychotic episode

Various recovery styles and how they influence the healing process

Therapeutic strategies for building trust, addressing fear, and fostering meaningful recovery

” – part one in a two-part series – Austen Riggs Center Director of Testing and Associate Director of Admissions 

, talks about psychosis as a deeply complex and often terrifying experience that affects not just the individual, but also those around them—including mental health professionals. He suggests that understanding the emotional undercurrents of psychosis is essential for fostering meaningful recovery and explores key emotional elements—fear, loneliness, and grief—through the lens of psychotherapeutic insights, to help identify the nuanced challenges of psychosis and recovery.

 in its entirety and receive free CE/CME from our online catalogue.

Common Fears Among Individuals with Psychosis

Fear is a central feature of the psychotic experience, often overwhelming and distinct from anxiety. While anxiety may be diffuse, fear in psychosis is typically linked to perceived threats—either from within (such as voices) or from external agents (like surveillance or persecution).

 Many individuals describe the onset of psychosis as terrifying, with fears of losing control, confusion about reality, and the dread of recurrence. After diagnosis, nearly half will experience another episode within five years, heightening anxiety about relapse.

 Auditory hallucinations can include hostile or denigrating voices, which individuals may interpret as omnipotent and malicious. Paranoid beliefs further exacerbate this fear, leading to an overwhelming sense of vulnerability and a heightened perception of threat.

 Social stigma often portrays people with psychosis as dangerous or irrational. This societal judgment can lead individuals to hide their symptoms, resist treatment, and suffer in silence, further isolating them.

Therapist Fears When Witnessing Psychosis

Therapists are not immune to fear when working with psychotic patients. Their professional role requires them to manage their emotional responses, but this is easier said than done.

Jeremy Ridenour, PsyD, ABPP, talks about psychosis as a deeply complex and often terrifying experience that affects not just the individual, but also those around them—including mental health professionals.

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