In February this year Amita Sehgal delivered a paper at the International Family and Couple Conference in Washington DC, jointly organised by the International Psychoanalytical Association and the International Psychotherapy Institute, on working intensively with couples in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Her paper was entitled, “On increasing session frequency in psychoanalytic couple therapy: some clinical considerations’.
In March she gave an online seminar to over 20 Russian psychotherapists at the Institute of Practical Psychology and Psychoanalysis based in Moscow, in collaboration with the International Psychotherapy Institute, Washington, DC. Her topic of presentation was, ‘Working with Shame in Couple Psychotherapy’.
Later that same month she delivered an online seminar to the International Psychotherapy Institute, Washington DC, discussing her experiences of working with couples in co-therapy. She was joined by her co-therapist, Dr Christopher Clulow, who participated in the lively discussion that ensued over video conference with participants around the world.
In April, Amita Sehgal was invited by Resolution, formerly known as the Solicitors Family Law Association, to speak at their National Conference in Bristol (21 April 2018). Resolution comprises of 6,500 family lawyers and other professionals in England and Wales who believe in constructive, non-confrontational approach to family law matters. During her sold-out talk, Amita Sehgal offered family law professionals an understanding of the psychological aspects of separation and divorce, and how these can affect family lawyers in the work they do.
During May, she was invited by Tavistock Relationships to discus her new book, which she edited, on Sadism: Psychoanalytic Developmental Perspectives published by Karnac/Routledge in 2018 in their Forensic Psychotherapy Monograph Series. During the evening, she and Susan Irving (an author of one of the chapters in the book) talked about sadism and sexual phantasy in couple relationships.
Also In May, Amita Sehgal travelled to Brighton to give a talk to 20 psychotherapists there on ‘Working psychotherapeutically in the Digital Age’. The talk highlighted some of the issues that needed to be attended to when therapists offer online therapy. This was followed by a vigorous and animated discussion that included a recognition of the lack of professional training about these matters, and ways that these may be addressed to redress this situation.
Publications
Sehgal, A. (2018). Sadism: Developmental Psychoanalytic Perspectives. A. Sehgal (Ed.). Forensic Psychotherapy Monograph Series. Routledge:Karnac Books, London.
Sehgal, A. (2018). Exploring the role of blame in couple relationships within the triangular setting of couple psychotherapy. British Journal of Psychotherapy. 34(2): 255-269.
Sehgal, A. (2018). On Increasing Session Frequency In Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Some Clinical Considerations. Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. In press.
Sehgal, A. (2018). Book Review of A Web of Sorrow: Mistrust, Jealousy, Lovelessness, Shamelessness, Regret, Hopelesness by Salman Akhtar. Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling Psychology Reflections, 3(1).