New Access Program Supervisory Group
Listening to Teens with a Neuropsychoanalytic Ear
Doing therapy with adolescents requires nerves of steel and a mind to match—and even
outpace—the brain rhythms of our Generation Z patients. How do we help bridge the neuronal
cascades in our patients’ minds and bodies without tipping us both into perpetual avalanches?
How do we stay empathically connected through the upsets and then reemerge in the treatment
moments after our critical balance has been upset? As the therapeutic action (and, in turn, the
transference) in the room gets heated up, and as our adolescent patients lean toward excess or
lack of desire, what sparks the interplay of our imaginations that generates the combustible
interactions necessary for change?
In this supervisory group we will consider how to listen to the host of swirling objects,
screaming hormones, and dysregulating moods hovering in the room when we are with our
adolescent patients. We will discuss how to do this while simultaneously fielding pressures from
the social surround (sometimes felt as background noise) that includes parents, insurance
companies, and schools, in order to help our overly ‘plugged in’ kids move into their futures. We
will give special attention to understanding what gets added to that mix (and mapped out on the
surfaces of our bodies) when working with teens who have learning, attentional or other
neurodevelopmental disorders.
Carole Symer, Ph.D. is a supervising child and adult analyst at MCPP, with postdoctoral training
in neuropsychology as well as analytic training at New York University’s Postdoctoral Program
in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy with an emphasis on Relational Psychoanalysis. In her
practice in Ann Arbor, she sees patients of all ages for psychotherapy as well as
neuropsychological evaluations.
The group supervision will be held on Fridays, 12:30-2:00pm, for 6 weeks, beginning on
October 16, 2015. This group is offered as part of MCPP’s Access Program which provides low
fee supervision to interested clinicians. There is a $25 fee per session. The group will be held at
Dr. Symer’s office in downtown Ann Arbor. Please contact her at (516) 356-4804 or email her
at for more information or to sign up for the group.