Alumni Webinar Series | The Future of Therapy: An Introduction to Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)

Friday, September 26, 2025, 12:00 PM–2:00 PM ET

Online via Zoom

Note: This course is available for free to U-M SSW alumni as part of our Alumni Webinar Series, which features invited alumni speakers. Please know that non-alumni participants are welcome to register as well!

Continuing Education Offered

• 2 hours regular live interactive online

Description

This training will provide an introduction to Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), a form of brief experiential dynamic psychotherapy. This approach is affect-focused, attachment-based and experiential, providing in-the-moment change for the client in each therapy session. This overview will discuss how to identify and resolve the root cause of symptoms and problems through ISTDP-informed interventions. Primary interventions covered include how to deepen clients' experience of their emotions, identifying and regulating anxiety, and restructuring maladaptive defenses. These interventions unlock the unconscious mind, heal unresolved traumas and internal conflicts, and generate lasting change to their character, relationships, and life.

Objectives

1. Select effective interventions that address the root cause of mental health symptoms.
2. Describe how to use ISTDP to work with anxiety and defense mechanisms to uncover the innate health of mental health clients.

Agenda

Friday, September 26, 2025

• 12:00pm–12:30pm Understanding the Metapsychology of ISTDP
• 12:30pm–1:00pm Using ISTDP to Achieve Healthy Emotional Functioning
• 1:00pm–1:30pm Using Systems of Resistance to Guide Intervention
• 1:30pm–2:00pm Summary of ISTDP and Discussion

Instructor

Reid Depowski-Knowles, LMSW is a licensed clinical social worker. She graduated from University of Michigan’s School of Social Work with her Master’s Degree in 2018. She has worked as a psychotherapist in private practice at Therapy Today since 2019, when she began studying Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) under the leadership of Leslie Auld, LMSW, ACSW. Reid has attended weekly and monthly trainings in ISTDP since 2020, has been part of an Intensive Class cohort in ISTDP since 2022, and enrolled in Core Training, a 3-year training program in ISTDP in 2024. In 2022, Therapy Today opened Mindful ISTDP, a psychotherapy training institute, which Reid joined as the Program Coordinator and a trainer in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy. Reid is an instructor in the Psychology Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, teaching psychology students foundational clinical skills through the framework of ISTDP.

CE Approval Statement

The University of Michigan School of Social Work, provider #1212, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. The University of Michigan School of Social Work maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 5/15/2023-5/15/2026.

Social workers participating in this course will receive 2 general continuing education contact hours.