Online Book launch for Making Room for the Disavowed: Reclaiming the Self in Psychotherapy by Paul L. Wachtel

Date: Tuesday, October 10, 2023, 7:30 to 9:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Panel: Spyros Orfanos, Ph.D., Nancy McWilliams, Ph.D., Monique S. Bowen, Ph.D, Lauren Levine, Ph.D.

Respondent and Conversation Participant: Paul L. Wachtel, Ph.D

The format of this event aims to be spontaneous and interactive, not formal or ponderously academic.  The four panelists will discuss the book among themselves for about 20 minutes, highlighting the points that most interested them and any questions or comments it evoked for them.  Then Paul Wachtel will respond to the panelists' comments, and further conversation among the five participants will follow.  The discussion will then be opened to audience members, with Spyros Orfanos chairing the discussion to ensure a lively but orderly conversation.  Audience participants will be identified by name and visible; that is, it will be a Zoom format rather than a webinar format, in order to ensure that those attending the event have an opportunity, if they wish, to be real participants in the conversation and not just onlookers.

Order the book online with discount code AF2E: Order Now

Or, download this flyer and order

In this uniquely integrative book, Paul L. Wachtel describes powerful clinical strategies to make roomfor aspects of the self that were sidetracked in the course of development. Wachtel explores how early attachment experiences can lead people to turn away from certain thoughts and feelings, building a sense of self and ways of interacting on only a limited range of adaptive resources. His approach draws on psychodynamic, humanistic, systemic, and acceptance-centered cognitive-behavioral perspectives, as well as attention to the impact of race, class, and culture. Filled with rich case material, the book illuminates how a therapeutic approach anchored in the present can help heal the wounds of the past. 

Wachtel eloquently presents a wonderful integrative approach in which making room is the pivotal process. Making room does not involve interpreting, modifying, or educating; it is about helping the person gain access to parts of self they have shied away from. This is the work on theoretical integration that the field has been waiting for.”

—Leslie S. Greenberg, PhD, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Psychology, York University, Canada


“This is a groundbreaking volume from a giant of psychotherapy who has long sought ways to build bridges between psychodynamic thinking and other traditions. Wachtel's focus on making room challenges some aspects of traditional psychodynamic approaches; at the same time, it makes the psychodynamic methods described here immediately accessible and valuable to practitioners of humanistic approaches, third-wave cognitive-behavioral therapy, or many other varieties of modern psychotherapy. The book is brilliant and challenging—I highly recommend it.”

—Steven C. Hayes, PhD, Foundation Professor of Psychology Emeritus, University of Nevada, Reno; codeveloper of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy


“A necessary companion for practicing clinicians and students alike. Wachtel's book is like a microfiber cloth to clean our psychotherapist-lenses. It highlights the delicate and dynamic relationship between therapist and patient—and is a lesson on how to build a sturdy enough room to house it.”

—Esther Perel, MA, LMFT, private practice, New York City; podcast host, Where Should We Begin?


“This readable book embodies its own subject matter—expanding therapeutic conversations rather than forcing them into the narrow paradigms into which contemporary researchers and clinicians are socialized. Whether trained in DSM diagnoses, symptom-focused manuals, or authoritarian rules of interpretation, mental health professionals will find Wachtel’s book both incisive and liberating. Long admired for his deeply knowledgeable, respectful treatment of competing ideas, Wachtel breaks new ground in this integrative discourse on psychological healing. Beginning therapists will benefit from Wachtel's clarity, practicality, and humanity; seasoned clinicians will benefit from penetrating insights that support their best therapeutic instincts.”

—Nancy McWilliams, PhD, ABPP, Visiting Professor Emerita, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Paul L. Wachtel, PhD, is Distinguished Professor in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at The City College of New York. Dr. Wachtel has been a leading voice for integrative thinking in the human sciences and is a cofounder and past president of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration. He is a recipient of the Hans H. Strupp Memorial Award; the Distinguished Psychologist Award from Division 29 (Psychotherapy) of the American Psychological Association (APA); the Scholarship and Research Award from Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of APA; and the Sidney J. Blatt Award for Outstanding Contributions to Psychotherapy, Scholarship, Education and Practice.

Monique Bowen, PhD (she/her) is professor in the department of clinical psychology and core faculty in the PsyD Program at Antioch University’s School of Counseling, Psychology and Therapy. She is clinical faculty in the Couples Therapy Training and Education Program at the William Alanson White Institute. In 2019, she was named research fellow (inaugural cohort) to the College of Research Fellows of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Bowen is a 2016 graduate of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (Child and Adolescent Division) certificate program in school consultation. She serves as chair of the awards committee for the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (APA Division 39), a reviewer for the APA journal Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, and book series associate editor for the Association of Psychology-Law Society (APA Division 41). Dr. Bowen has written book chapters on psychotherapy as well as on trauma assessment in forensic psychological settings, and she has published in the peer-reviewed journals Psychoanalytic Psychology (APA journal) and the Journal on Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Her scholarly interests include incorporating racial justice principles into clinical supervision; psychoanalytic and trauma-informed perspectives on the loss of “heritage language” for descendants of formerly enslaved Africans; complex trauma stemming from discrimination, prejudice, racism, and legal and extrajudicial disenfranchisement; familial/interpersonal violence; pathological bias; “ethical fandom” and the impacts of culturally-sanctioned violence in competitive sports.

Dr. Lauren Levine is Joint Editor-in-Chief of Psychoanalytic Dialogues. Her new book, Risking Intimacy and Creative Transformation in Psychoanalysis was published in Routledge’s Relational Perspectives Book Series in April 2023. Dr. Levine teaches and presents both nationally and internationally, and has published articles about sociocultural, racial and relational trauma, resilience, and creativity. She is on the Faculty of NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis, and The Stephen Mitchell Relational Study Center, where she’s Co-Director of the One Year Program in Relational Studies. Dr. Levine is Visiting Faculty at the Institute for Relational and Group Psychotherapy in Athens, Greece, and the Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society. She is a psychoanalyst in private practice in NYC.

Spyros D. Orfanos, PhD., ABPP, is Director of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), he is past president of the Society of Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (SPPP) of the APA, and the International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy. He is on the Advisory Board of the Sigmund Freud Museum of Vienna. In 2016, he was co-editor with Eliot Jurist of the special supplement of Psychoanalytic Psychology (APA) on “Psychoanalysis and the Humanities.” In 2017, he founded the NYU Human Rights Work Group. This year he received the SPPS Award for International Activism for Social Justice. He practices psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and runs creativity study groups.

Nancy McWilliams is Visiting Professor Emerita of clinical psychology at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology and practices in Lambertville, New Jersey. She is author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (1994, rev. ed. 2011), Psychoanalytic Case Formulation (1999), Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2004) and Psychoanalytic Supervision (2021) and is associate editor of both editions of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (2006, 2017). A former president of Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) of the American Psychological Association, she has been featured in three APA videos of master clinicians. She is on the Board of Trustees of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA. Her
books are available in 20 languages, and she has taught in 30 countries.