SUMMER RETREAT
This year's summer retreat workshop "Writing and Critical Thinking from a Psychoanalytic Perspective" will be held August 14-19, 2011, at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. The writing workshop for mental health professionals and laypeople brings to Omega for the first time the creativity-releasing approach developed by the New Directions program of the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. In the past decade, New Directions has helped scores of aspiring writers perfect - and publish - their writing.
A unique aspect of this workshop is that it helps those who want to bring increased psychological depth to their writing. Beginning and advanced writers working on professional papers and articles, short stories, memoirs, and books are all welcome. The range of subjects can be as broad as the sweep of the human imagination: memory, dreams, gender, trauma, evil, and grief, to name a few. What matters is the writer's commitment to digging deeper. Morning writing workshops help us prime the pump of imagination. In the afternoons, we take part in small groups, where we share our work and exchange suggestions for revisions. A reading list and information about continuing education credit will sent upon registration.
The faculty includes David Cooper, PhD., and Michaele Weissman. David, a psychoanalyst with interests in writing, baseball, and group dynamics, serves on the faculties of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute and the Modern Perspectives in Psychotherapy program of the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. He cochairs the New Directions program. Michaele is a professional freelance journalist who specializes in food, families, and small business. She is the author of the "coffee narrative" God in a Cup, and she coauthored A History of Women in America. She has long led writing groups and workshops at New Directions.
Tuition for the workshop is $495. The course number is SM11-3805-672. Click here to redirect you to the Omega website page where you can register. Food, accommodations and transportation to Omega are additional. Click here for information on: accommodations, cancellation policy, and Registration. If you have any questions, please contact David Cooper at dcooperphd@verizon.net. Take a tour of Omega at http://www.eomega.org/omega/visitors/.
WINTER RETREAT
The optional winter retreat, held for the first time in December 2006 at the Tabard Inn in Washington, DC, from Wednesday night through Sunday, is more intensively focused on writing. Participants spend the daylight hours working independently on their writing projects, and meet in the late afternoon with a different faculty member each day to review the days efforts. After a communal dinner, the participants break up into small groups, co-led by an analyst and a writing teacher, to continue the discussion of their work. The retreat ends Sunday afternoon with a group reading. Plans for the December 2011 retreat will be announced in the fall.
