LIVE Professional Development Programs

Martha Heineman Pieper, Ph.D. Seminar Series

Intrapsychic Humanism Core Concepts and Clinical Applications Seminars

Each seminar will combine presentations by experienced clinicians with discussion to illustrate and bring to life the core concepts of Intrapsychic Humanism, including use of clinical examples, in one-hour seminars, held over four months.

2024/25 Virtual Seminars

The Primary Need for Personal Meaning: Developing Self-Worth Through the Caregiving Relationship During the Regulatory-Intrapsychic Self Stage (Chapter 3)

with Applications to Childrearing and Clinical Practice

 
Carla Beatrici, Psy.D., Marian Sharkey, Ph.D., Patricia Walker, Ph.D.
and Q&A with Martha Heineman Pieper, Ph.D.

Over the course of six seminars, we will explore the groundbreaking developmental theory by Martha Heineman Pieper and William J. Pieper of how informed caregiving relationships can foster the development of internalized personal meaning and unconditional self-worth in early child development during the Regulatory-Intrapsychic Self Stage starting at 12-14 years of life. We will describe unique insights into the developmental process by which the young child gradually comes to recognize the superiority of the pleasure she feels in having her parents focused loving attention. We will explain the child’s frequently misunderstood “Intrapsychic no” response to her parents’ pursuit of personal motives and how it is truly a reflective “yes” seeking deeper closeness. We will discuss the crowning intrapsychic achievement of a child coming to know her parents’ ongoing unconditional commitment to love and care for her that forms the bedrock of her enduring experience of intrapsychic self-worth. We will describe parental responses that facilitate this important development, and how a lack of understanding of the intrapsychic needs during this phase, combined with uninformed responses, can thwart this developmental process. The seminar series will explore how these developmental concepts can be applied in child rearing, parent counseling, child play therapy, and adult psychotherapy to help children and adults acquire inner well-being and stable self-worth.

Program Terms of Use

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Learning Objectives

By the end of the seminar series, participants will be able to:

1. Describe how eidetic internalization helps the child maintain intrapsychic well-being as they begin to explore their physical world.
2. Describe how the child’s preference for her parents’ focused attention makes her vulnerable to the intrapsychic loss called transference caregetting anxiety.
3. Describe how parents can help their children mourn the loss of transference caregetting anxiety in ways that facilitate the child’s development of personal meaning and self-worth.
4. Describe how the “intrapsychic no” is a significant developmental achievement.
5. Describe how misunderstandings of the child’s “intrapsychic no” (e.g. that the child is being obstinate or disagreeable) thwarts the child’s development of personal meaning and self-worth.
6. Describe the developmental achievement that occurs by the end of the Regulatory- Intrapsychic Self stage.

Syllabus

October 2, 2024
An Overview of the Regulatory-Intrapsychic Self Stage (pages 69-70)
In this seminar, we will first provide a review of the developmental milestones that occur in the baby’s first year of life – the Pre-Eidetic Stage - which were explained in last year’s seminar series. We will then present an introduction and overview of the next developmental stage, the Regulatory-Intrapsychic-self Stage, from approximately 12-18 months. Concepts to be covered include caregetting anxiety, undifferentiated and differentiated phases, and intrapsychic no. We will consider how the infant’s need for the personal meaning of self-worth, which develops through the caregiving relationship, manifests during this stage. The relevance of these concepts to child rearing and to clinical practice will be discussed.

November 6, 2024
The Undifferentiated Phase: Phase One of the Regulatory-Intrapsychic Self Stage (pages 70-77)
In this seminar, we will discuss the first phase of the Regulatory-Intrapsychic Self Stage, the Undifferentiated Phase. We will consider how the baby’s newfound internalized capacity to call upon memories of her caregivers (eidetic internalization) facilitates intrapsychic development during this phase. We will also discuss the limitations of the baby’s internalized capacity for memory during this phase, and implications for how caregivers can respond accurately to the baby’s developmental needs. We will discuss applications for child rearing, parent counseling and psychotherapy.

December 4, 2024
Transference Caregetting Anxiety: The Developmental Advancement of Loss and Mourning within the Caregiving Relationship (pages 77-84)
In this seminar, we will discuss how, as development progresses, the child comes to recognize the superiority of the pleasure of having focused attention from her caregivers which then makes the child vulnerable to the intrapsychic loss called transference caregetting anxiety, which occurs when the parent is unavailable due to their personal motives. We will discuss how parents can accurately mourn this loss to facilitate the child’s intrapsychic development, and contrast this with inaccurate responses that thwart intrapsychic development. We will consider applications for child rearing, parent counseling and psychotherapy.

February 5, 2025
The Intrapsychic No: A “Yes” to the Pleasure of Caregiving Mutuality (pages 84-93)
In this seminar, we will discuss the Differentiated Phase of the Regulatory-Intrapsychic Self Stage in which the child ultimately comes to know that her parents have an unconditional motive to love and care for her, even when they are not able to respond to her at the moment. We will explain the child’s frequently misunderstood “Intrapsychic no” response to her parents’ pursuit of personal motives and how it is truly a reflective “yes” seeking deeper closeness. We will discuss how parents can respond accurately to the child’s motive for greater caregetting intimacy during this phase, as well as how uniformed responses can thwart the child’s intrapsychic development. We will consider applications for child rearing, parent counseling and psychotherapy.

March 5, 2025
The Regulatory-Intrapsychic Self: A Core Structure of the Mind (pages 93-99)
In this seminar, we will consider how the child’s ability to know with certainty her parents’ caregiving intentions, even when they are unable to respond to her, provides her with a stable sense of inner well-being and self-worth and becomes the core structure of her mind. We will consider how possessing this regulatory intrapsychic mind provides the child with a continuous and loss-free inner well-being and represents the single most significant milestone in the child’s psychological development. We will contrast the nontransference versus the transference mind as it relates to healthy development and psychopathology. Applications for child rearing, parent counseling and psychotherapy.

April 2, 2025
Q & A With Dr. Heineman Pieper
In this seminar, Dr. Martha Heineman Pieper, co-author of the theory of Intrapsychic Humanism, will answer participants’ questions, submitted in advance, about the Regulatory-Intrapsychic Self stage of child development.