fine line: a psychoanalytic seminar | Thursdays on zoom 8am pst beginning August 6th

Beginning. Being. Begin. Bring.

Bring your being.

We’ll begin there.

Inspired by the psychoanalyst Michael Eigen’s long-running seminars on Wilfred Bion, I’ve been quietly wanting to make a room like this for years.

Now, in my 14th year of practice, I am.

A room for those moved by psychoanalysis—
students, therapists, supervisees, supervisors, colleagues, friends—

to gather, and set something of themselves down.

Not to master.
Not to perform.

But to read.
To linger and listen.
To think together.

We’ll spend time with the writers who have most shaped my clinical life and mind and being:

Neville Symington. Michael Eigen. Marion Milner. Adam Phillips.

Donald Winnicott. Jessica Benjamin. Harry Stack Sullivan. Erich Fromm.

This is a weekly close reading seminar, meeting whenever I’m in practice at the office.

You come when you feel called.

No texts required (though they may tend to find their way into your hands).

Sessions are recorded, in case you miss a week—or want to return.

The format is simple, but not rigid:

a kind of seminar/salon,
following the text,
and following what the text stirs in us.

Think less “coverage,” more dwelling—
like letting a good wine open slowly in the glass.

Cost is $20 per session.
Pay as you go, later, or what you can.
We’ll trust each other.

Just bring your being—

and we’ll begin.

positions: the making of a psychotherapist | thursdays on zoom 7pm-8:30pm pst oct + Nov 2026

With all of the theories, ideas, and accumulated wisdom of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy at our fingertips—perhaps now more than ever—what do we actually do with them when we are sitting with another complicated human being? How do we begin to digest and distill these many intellectually interesting, albeit cognitive, ideas so that they become something lived in us, rather than simply something we know about? How do we become the kind of psychotherapist who is not only kind and helpful, but also alive, grounded, challenging, and available for transformation?

In this deeply thoughtful and beautifully pragmatic book, one of my psychoanalytic heroes Neville Symington turns toward these very questions and offers us a guide to the lifelong task of becoming a creatively useful psychotherapist. Symington, a remarkably experiential and wide-ranging thinker, gathers into this text the living spirits of Freud, Klein, Bion, Winnicott, Fairbairn, Jung, and Fromm, among many others. He writes with a rare blend of depth, clarity, practicality, and soul—making the book as helpful to those just beginning in psychotherapy as it is to those who have been practicing for many years and wish to return to the foundations of our strange, difficult, and beautiful work.

Over eight weeks together, we will read the entirety of this rich and provocative text, while also making generous space to reflect, converse, and workshop alongside one another. We will wrestle with exploratory questions, bring in real clinical material, and practice how these ideas might actually sound and feel in the consulting room. The hope is not simply to understand Symington’s book, but to let it work on us—to sharpen us, deepen us, and help us become more balanced, courageous, and creatively alive in the presence of those who come to us for help.

Class Schedule:
Week One: Your Voice & Beginnings
Week Two: The Various Traditions & Applications of Psychotherapy
Week Three: The Development of Curiosity, Imagination & the Care of Pain
Week Four: Complex Modes of Transference & Countertransference, part 1
Week Five: Complex Modes of Transference & Countertransference, part 2
Week Six: A Cure for a Lifetime: Our Lofty Aim
Week Seven: Narcissism as Root of All Mental Pain
Week Eight: Your Voice & Endings

Learning Objectives:
1) Understand and contrast the rich and varied context of psychoanalytic origins, theory, and practice—including Symington's contribution.
2) Comprehend more fully, and practically, how to embody the position of being an effective, holistic, truthful psychotherapist using my concept of the "tightrope".
3) Differentiate the various forms of complex transference and countertransference experiences that arise in a clinical encounter.

Exchange:
$550 for Alliance Members/ $600 for Non-Members (sliding scale available upon request, please contact me directly)

Required Text:
The Making of a Psychotherapist, Neville Symington