You’re the best! I don’t need you! Navigating narcissistic idealization and devaluation as a new therapist
Nov 14, 2025
6:00 - 7:30pm ET
Location: Virtual
Source/ Event Link: Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
“This clinical presentation describes a four-year treatment with a woman in her late 50s who sought out therapy to address feelings of depression and anxiety related to multiple, concurrent major life transitions. A key feature of the treatment was the intersection of the patient’s narcissistic defenses and my insecurities as a new therapist, which created periods of false peace, facilitated enactments that threatened the treatment, and undermined my confidence as a clinician. This presentation will focus on observable phenomena in the consultation room that may be indicative of a patient's narcissistic organization, as well as on how to work with such patients while simultaneously seeking to establish a stable sense of “professional self” as a new therapist.”