Online IOP for College Students and Emerging Adults in MA

Educational Events

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

December 5, 2025 at 6:30 PM to December 6, 2025 at 8:00 PM Eastern

FREE / 1.5 CE/CME Credits

Brin Grenyer, PhD, overviews 30 years of studies from his and other research groups that includes studies of transference, attachment, mastery of self-understanding and self-control, and emotional and cognitive change.
2025-26 Friday Night Guest Lecture Series - Sheila Hafter Gray Memorial Lecture
Speaker: Brin Grenyer, PhD
The Sheila Hafter Gray Memorial Lecture is underwritten by ACPEinc and honors Dr. Gray's role in advancing the importance of psychoanalytic education.
The mechanisms of patient change have been described in detail by prominent psychoanalytic thinkers over the last 130 years. These descriptions form the basis for analytic training and are often grounded in the wisdom learnt from single case studies. Along with these papers on technique is a growing set of empirical research studies demonstrating psychoanalytic psychotherapy across multiple groups of patients is an effective treatment for mental health disorders. In parallel to these traditional therapy descriptions and outcome studies, has been another form of research: psychotherapy process research. Process-outcome studies aim to discover if patient changes observed in treatment can be understood in more detail using validated research measures applied to empirical data - usually transcripts of audio or video from therapy sessions. This talk overviews 30 years of studies from the author's and other research groups that includes studies of transference, attachment, mastery of self-understanding and self-control, and emotional and cognitive change. Recent work will be highlighted describing changes in Erikson's psychosocial maturity conflicts - particularly the resolution of Mistrust and Constraint and growth of Industry and Affiliation studied over five years of treatment for patients meeting criteria for borderline personality disorder. A final reflection will be learnings from a subsample of patients who do not improve over time.