Programas de Formación y Talleres
de Psicoterapia Integrativa

Internal Criticism, Shame, and Relational Withdrawal are core components of a “”. The compounded dynamics of this self-stabilizing internal dynamic present the psychotherapist with complex challenges. A “Splitting of the Self” can be present, yet unrecognized, in the psychotherapy of many clients who are plagued by Internal Criticism and where Shame becomes a protective dynamic to avoid vulnerability, humiliation, and the loss of contact-in-relationship with others. Of-ten such clients fear intimate relationships and withdraw into a protective internal space that requires a sensitive attunement to their private experience.

On Thursday and Friday, the first two days of this Master Class, Dr. Erskine will make use of PowerPoint illustrations and formal teaching to provide an understanding of the Schizoid Process. He will not only teach about the therapeutic significance of both Internal Criticism and Shame, he will also provide an understanding of the Schizoid Process and how it may relate to some of your clients who are depressed, shy, reticent, or fear intimate relationships. Dr. Erskine will illustrate the self-stabilizing process of internal-splitting, the various forms of the Self, five components of shame, the dynamics of compliance and withdrawal, alternating attachment patterns, and the function of internal-criticism.

On Saturday evening, the third session of this Master Class, Dr. Erskine will engage participants in discussions of their own therapy cases in order to master the therapeutic methods required for working with each part of the Self.
He will emphasize the importance of understanding the client’s phenomenological experience, the significance of silence, attunement of various parts of the Self, and the need for patience with the client’s difficulty in voicing their internal sensations and feelings. As a group we will continue to explore the various methods of a Developmentally-based, Relationally-focused Integrative Psychotherapy that are effective for the resolution of shame, internal criticism, compliance, and relational withdrawal.

Participants are requested to bring therapy examples for a case discussion.
Participation in these case discussions requires that each person
makes an ethical commitment to client confidentiality.


Richard G. Erskine, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist and Training Director of the Institute for In-tegrative Psychotherapy. Originally trained in client-centered child therapy, Dr Erskine also stud-ied Gestalt therapy with both Fritz and Laura Perls. He is a certified clinical Transactional Analyst and a Licensed Psychoanalyst who has specialized in psychoanalytic self-psychology and ob-ject-relations theory. His work is an integration of these concepts and fifty years of clinical expe-rience which has included working with disturbed children, inmates in a maximum security pris-on, borderline and narcissistic clients, post-traumatic stress and dissociative identity disorders. Recently his research and clinical practice have focused on the treatment of the schizoid pro-cess and on the psychotherapy of obsession. He is the author of several books and scores of articles on psychotherapy theory and methods. His best-selling book (with Jan Moursund and Rebecca Trautmann) is " Beyond Empathy: A Therapy of Contact-in-Relationship " (1999, Brunner/Mazel). His recent book is entitled "Relational Patterns, Therapeutic Presence” (2015, Karnac Books).