Upcoming Events

Community Workshop 2

I’m All Shook Up: On Becoming A Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist

Program is Open to: Current Two-Year Program participants, Two-Year Program graduates, Western Penn Community Faculty

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER- requested by June 4th

Facilitators:  Steven Heskey, Ph.D.; Catherine Maihoefer, MS, NCC, LPC; Colleen Peddycord, LCSW; and Jay Wiggin, LCSW

Date: Sunday June 7, 2026

Time: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm 

Location: 145 44th Street Pittsburgh, PA 15201

Seminar 4.0 CE Credits 

For general programming questions email: inquiries@wpacommunity.org

*Lunch will be included - please indicate your dietary restrictions, if any, on the registration

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER- requested by June 4th

Description:  In this workshop, we will be reflecting on our process of becoming psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists.  Participants, learners, graduates and faculty of the Western Pennsylvania Community for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies will join to explore what “shakes us up.” Psychoanalytic work creates upheaval—it disrupts, upends, and unsettles. This is as true for therapists conducting psychoanalytic therapy as it is for patients receiving it. To take in something genuinely new is itself a breakdown. 

As part of the workshop preparation, participants will read/watch the required materials and spend time reflecting on their own upheavals along the way of becoming a psychoanalytically-oriented therapist. Try to recall a particular moment – clinical, supervisory, or personal – when something gave way in the development of a sense of yourself as a clinician, and bring it with you. 

On the day of the workshop we will be in small groups, listening to facilitators share their experiences of the inevitable unsettledness that comes with the development of the sense of one’s self as a psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapist, and expand the discussion to invite participants to reflect on their own experiences with regards to the program.

Program Objectives: At the end of the program, participants will be able to:

1.  Acknowledge specific thoughts, feelings and awareness of how they experience themselves as psychotherapists in process of changing how they see themselves as psychotherapists. 

2.  Identify two aspects of psychoanalytic theory that have impacted the way they think and feel about being a psychoanalytic psychotherapist.

3.  Identify and acknowledge how the theoretical principles they are being exposed to are both helpful and hindering their being in a clinical encounter with a patient. 

4. Identify one conundrum they find themselves encountering as they absorb psychoanalytic     theory.

5. Explain how some aspects of the clinical encounter seem to be non-problematic in spite of the new theoretical and ideological frame of analytic theory. 

References/Readings

Required): 

Maroda, K. J. (2018). Core competency six: Repetition and working through. In R. E. Barsness (Ed.), Core competencies of relational psychoanalysis: A guide to practice, study, and research (pp. 158–178).

McWilliams, N. (2024, May 28). Between Us:Grist for the mill (J. Totten, Interviewer; M. Neely, Ed.; season 5, episode 45). Retrieved May 14, 2026, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhogSpQeU94

Kite, J. (2021). [Jane Kite Essay 37]. In F. Busch (Ed.), Dear candidate: Analysts from around the world offer personal reflections on psychoanalytic training, education, and the profession (pp. 255–261).

Optional:

McWilliams, N. (2004). Psychoanalytic psychotherapy: A practitioner's guide. Guilford Press. -Chapters 3: The Therapist’s Preparation pp. 46 – 72.

The Facilitators: 

Steven Hesky, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in private practice with 50 years of experience in psychoanalytic approaches to psychotherapy.  He has trained in Freudian psychoanalysis, Jungian psychoanalysis, Existential psychoanalysis, and Object Relations approaches. At Point Park College, he taught Theories of Personality, Theories of Psychotherapy, Techniques of Psychotherapy, and Psychological Research.  He graduated from Lake Forest College in 1972 with a degree in Philosophy and a minor in religion.  In 1984, he graduated from the clinical track in Existential Phenomenological Psychology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.  His dissertation was on Effective and Ineffective Insight.  Though he started out working with children and adolescents, his current work is entirely in psychotherapy with adults and supervision of other psychotherapists. 

Catherine Maihoefer, LPC is a licensed professional counselor in private practice. She earned her degree in Counseling Psychology from Chatham University. She is a graduate analyst from the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center. She has been a full-time clinician for over 20 years and has worked in a variety of clinical settings: research (evaluations and therapies), community mental health, university counseling, and consulting. She is a faculty member at the Western Pennsylvania Community for Psychoanalytic Therapies. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association and the International Psychoanalytic Association. 

Colleen Peddycord, LCSW is experienced working with adults, children, and families from diverse backgrounds. Colleen has worked with sexual assault survivors through Oregon’s Sexual Assault Resource Center, in community and school based behavioral health with children and families through The Matilda Theiss Childhood Trauma Treatment Center, with adults with chronic health conditions in various integrated healthcare settings and more recently with adults and children in private practice. She specializes in anxiety, depression, stress, parenting, interpersonal conflict, women’s issues, and trauma. 

Jay Wiggin, LCSW is a social worker and psychotherapist working for the University of Pittsburgh Counseling Center. Jay provides individual and group therapy to undergraduate and graduate students at the university and also sees clients in private practice. He is in his fifth year of working as a therapist and has worked in many different settings including at a crisis line, in a residential treatment facility, and for college counseling centers. He studied philosophy at Rutgers University and received his master’s degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh. Jay has had a longstanding interest in psychodynamic and existential psychotherapies and is excited to learn more about contemporary psychoanalysis and its clinical applications.

Who Should Attend and Instructional Level of Activity: Psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors with interest in advancing their understanding and application of contemporary psychoanalytic concepts. Instructional level is suited for practicing mental health clinicians.  Intermediate level of instructional programming.

Continuing Education Credits: 4.75. The Western Pennsylvania Community for Psychoanalytic Therapies is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.  The Western Pennsylvania Community for Psychoanalytic Therapies maintains responsibility for this program and its content. 

Attendance: To receive continuing education credit, you must sign in and be present for the entire seminar. You will be asked to complete an evaluation at the end of the session.

The Western Pennsylvania Community for Psychoanalytic Therapies values cultural and social diversity. Full participation in the educational activities of the Community is available to any qualified individual regardless of age, race, creed, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnic background.

The Community conducts seminar series and free-standing seminars in venues that are able to accommodate participants with physical disabilities.  Accommodations, such as visual or hearing, are specifically tailored to participant needs upon request.  For those enrolled in our programming please request accommodations through contacting inquiries@wpacommunity.org

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION on the background and experience of faculty, on fees and cancellation/refund policies, our general Continuing Education procedures, and complaint procedures, email inquiries@wpacommunity.org, or write to  Western Pennsylvania Community for Psychoanalytic Therapies, 145 44th Street, Pittsburgh,  PA 15201, or go to our website at www.wpacommunity.org

There is no commercial support or potential conflict of interest for this program.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER- requested by June 4th

Contemporary Psychoanalytic Concepts in Everyday Life: One-YEAR LONGITUDINAL PROGRAM

Start: September 21, 2026
End: April 19, 2027

Classes are held in-person the third Monday of every month, 6:15pm-9:00pm

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
PROGRAM TIMELINE