Part of our Brown Bag Lunch Series
with Patricia Harte Bratt, PhD
Thursday, April 16, 2026
On Zoom or Onsite at ACAP
Participation is FREE
$17 Admin Fee for each CE
Registration closes Thursday, April 16th at 10:00 AM EST
“Sometimes the hardest part of listening is resisting the urge to be the one who knows.”
Therapists often feel pressure to understand quickly, offer insight, or help patients find solutions. Psychodynamic listening asks something different—and often more difficult: to resist the urge to know and instead remain creatively curious, tolerating uncertainty long enough to discover how the patient experiences their own mind.
Rather than rushing to explain or define symptoms, experienced clinicians develop unique tools for listening that open space to explore the landscape of a patient’s inner world. Through this stance of curiosity emotional meaning surfaces and patients gradually recognize themselves within the therapeutic relationship. The process is like solving a puzzle together—an engaging and meaningful journey—yet it can also feel challenging, counterintuitive for therapists accustomed to trying to be helpful by giving answers rather than tolerating frustration, uncertainty, and not-knowing.
“There is something spectacular in realizing you held your silence, listened, questioned, and the person across from you suddenly recognized, welcomed themself.”
Course Objectives – Participants will be able to:
- Describe the role of curiosity and not-knowing in psychodynamic listening.
- Identify how premature explanations or solutions may interrupt therapeutic understanding.
- Apply listening approaches that support exploration of the patient’s inner experience.
- Recognize how tolerating uncertainty and frustration can facilitate emotional discovery in psychotherapy.
Meet your speaker:
Patricia Bratt, PhD, PsyaD
Patricia Bratt, PhD, is a psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, and clinical supervisor in private practice in Livingston, New Jersey and New York City. With early training in psychodiagnostics and neuropsychology, her work today bridges psychodynamic therapy and contemporary neuropsychoanalysis. She has developed several applied programs connecting psychoanalytic thinking with real-world community needs, including ACAP’s Trauma and Resilience Studies program, the ACAP’s international Critical Incident Support initiative, and the iStrive Center supporting young adults on the autism spectrum.
Dr. Bratt is a Director of the Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis (ACAP) and Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis–NJ (BGSP-NJ), and currently serves as President of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP) and the New Jersey Certified Psychoanalysts Advisory Committee. She teaches widely, writes on trauma and therapeutic process, and is the author of Mutual Growth in the Psychotherapeutic Relationship: Reciprocal Resilience (Routledge). She is twice recipient of the prestigious NAAP Vision Award for outstanding contributions to psychoanalysis as an independent profession.
ACAP is an approved CE provider for:
Art Therapists
Counselors
Marriage and Family Counselors
NJ Psychoanalysts
Social Workers
NY Creative Arts Therapists
Psychologists
Click here for full information on
|
For questions or additional information, contact us at events@acapnj.org or 973-629-1002. |
|
Learn about ACAP’s CE programs and nationally accredited Psychoanalytic Certificate program: Learn about BGSP-NJ’s regionally accredited MA’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and in Psychoanalysis: |
