The Institute for Expressive Analysis grew out of the expressive therapy movement and was designed for those practitioners who wished to apply their theory and practice to a more depth-oriented, psychoanalytic treatment model. This integration of non-verbal, sensory motor communication and expression of unconscious material, within the psychoanalytic process, has now become the focus of the latest neuro-psych research, and is currently described as implicit memory function. This research is showing how the infant’s brain perceives the world on a sensory motor level and stores affective experiences within the primitive part of the brain, on this sensory motor level. These very early experiences, (often including even pre-natal perceptions), are internalized during the most formative years of brain development, and become the internal template through which all future experience will be filtered. Early attachment experience is at the very core of this structure. As the brain continues to develop, cognition and explicit memory become the overlay to this more primitive core of our brain, attempting to ‘understand’ what is ‘felt’ but not recognized or clearly remembered. This often leads to reenactment of dysfunctional experiences without insight into the cause of this behavior.
We have been, initially as expressive art therapists, and now expressive analysts, intuitively working on this more primitive level of experience by being open to and working with all forms of non-verbal communication with our patients. We are now finally able to have scientific research validate our experience.
Our next step, as a profession, is to articulate our unique perspective and expand our voice within the analytic community. We need to offer other, more classically trained analysts, insight into our unique way of working and encourage the expansion of the use of non-verbal, sensory motor expression within the analytic frame of treatment.
The IEA/Parkmore Affiliation
We at the Institute for Expressive Analysis have developed an affiliation with the Parkmore institute that will enable our students and members to pursue further training that can lead to a doctoral degree in Psychoanalytic Studies. This training is specifically designed to help expressive analysts publish their clinical work in highly recognized professional, psychoanalytic journals, creating a pathway to showcase their unique clinical process.
Until now, doctoral programs available for psychoanalysts have been mostly focused on academic research and less on innovation in clinical practice. This post graduate training will provide a structure that will help our students and members prepare for the presentation of their innovative clinical work on a high level of both clinical and academic excellence.
For more details of this Affiliation please visit:
www.parkmoreinstitute.org
Dr. Robert Irwin Wolf
President
The Institute for Expressive Analysis
New York City