Author | Educator | psychologist

About

Someone once asked me why we [therapists] do this for a living

Because to us, to do anything else would not be living. For who else is granted the sacred gift of tending to another person’s tattered and broken soul? Who else is called as witness to discover the depth and beauty of a person, when they or others can no longer see? Who else is called to listen to all that has been left unsaid, seeking voice? Who else is called to become entangled in the story so that a new story can be written? And who else discovers their own soul, when they have touched the soul of another? Why do we do this for a living? How can we not? 

About Roy

 Dr. Barsness is a Clinical Psychologist, Professor and the Founder of Relationally-Focused Psychodynamic Therapy (RFPT). He is also the author of Core Competencies in Relational Psychoanalysis: A Guide to Practice Study and Research (Routledge, 2018; Italian trans. 2020).

“Originally a reaction against the constricting orthodoxy and authoritarianism of an entrenched psychoanalytic establishment, relational psychoanalysis has evolved into a sophisticated and comprehensive paradigm representing the leading edge of psychoanalytic thought. This masterful volume, with contributions by luminaries of the relational movement, elucidates the core assumptions and competencies of relational psychoanalysis. Simultaneously sweeping in scope and scholarly in detail, it is essential reading for students and experienced clinicians alike.”
– Jonathan Shedler, Ph.D.
University of Colorado School of Medicine
“While reading this book, I felt like I had entered the mind of the relational analyst. Both the carefully constructed mindset and the overall honoring of the work comes through in every chapter. As a director of the Masters in Counseling program at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, I am always looking for texts that convey both the passion and the skill associated with analytic work to be an inspiration to my students. I have found it.”
– Francesca Giordano, Ph.D.
Program Director, Clinical Professor, The Counseling Program, The Family Institute at Northwestern University.
“Roy Barsness and his co-authors have undertaken the difficult task of presenting a text of Core Competencies in Relational Psychoanalysis to guide younger and more experienced therapists to an integration of theory and practice. The authors outstanding success lies in their skilled address of the challenge in Relational Psychoanalysis to offer an approach that is flexibly attuned to the individuality of each patient/analyst dyad while practiced with a disciplined intent, form, and rhythm. The what and how to do is presented in seven competencies with a coda on love – all becoming enlivened for the reader by clinical narratives. A difficult task well mastered.”
– JOSEPH D. LICHTENBERG, M.D.
Director Emeritus of The Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, Author of Craft & Spirit, Editor-in-Chief of the Psychoanalytic Inquiry Book Series

Contact Dr. Barsness

Phone: 206-329-3370

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