Over a century of experience and recent research have validated the importance of the relationship in psychotherapy.  What are the qualities present in therapeutic relationships that produce healing connections?  We will draw on the expertise of master practitioners and researchers to tease out what makes a relationship therapeutic.  The Academy continues to challenge theory and look deeply at practice, and particularly at the person of the psychotherapist, valuing working on ourselves as a key component of the therapeutic process.

We have lined up three featured speakers who will each explore, demonstrate and discuss their findings on important dynamics in the psychotherapy relationship.   Professor Anthony Bateman brings his work on mentalization, which speaks to the interactions between the internal worlds of both client and therapist.  Dr. Phillip Shaver will explore the psychotherapy relationship through the lens of attachment, and the interplay of the individual attachment styles of both therapist and client.   Our Keynote speaker,
​Dr. John Norcross, has studied the therapeutic relationship and identified common factors that are effective in all psychotherapies.  All featured speakers will also offer a smaller workshop following their plenary. 

We hope to offer participants attendees many opportunities to refine, refocus and energize their therapy process by highlighting some of what we already do, sharing what experience teaches with the research to back it up.