Alanna Moore

SLT working in CAMHS, trainee psychoanalytic psychotherapist at TCD. all views are mine.

[Alanna Moore @AlannaNoMoore]

@DoctorPerin Please post your long and short list!!!

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

😇 “I am a trauma-informed therapist”

I am a...
depression-informed therapist
anxiety-informed therapist
human-development-informed therapist
cognition-informed-therapist
behavior & learning history-informed therapist
unconscious-mental-life-informed therapist
case-formulation-informed therapist
human-development-informed therapist
schema-informed therapist
emotion-informed therapist
attachment-informed therapist
mentalization-informed therapist
human-sexuality-informed therapist
intrapsychic-conflict-informed therapist
regression-informed therapist
relationally-informed therapist
intersubjectivity-informed therapist
family-systems-informed therapist
defense-and-resistance-informed therapist
life-cycle-informed therapist
biological-risk-factors-informed therapist
personality styles & disorders-informed therapist
transference & countertransference-informed therapist
assessment-informed therapist
repression-informed therapist
thought-disorder-informed therapist
somatization-informed therapist
psychic-determinism-informed therapist
genetic-risk-factors informed therapist
evolutionary-informed therapist
object-relations-informed therapist
intrapsychic-conflict-informed therapist
dream-life-informed therapist
self-states-informed therapist
Identity-diffusion-informed therapist
identity-cohesion informed therapist
object-relations-informed therapist
grief-informed therapist
masochistic-dynamics informed therapist
aggression-informed therapst
psychopharmacology-informed therapist
substance-use-informed therapist
executive-function informed therapist
suicide-risk-informed therapist
etc etc etc etc

Anyone else see the problem here?

Maybe the word “competent” doesn’t sell?

[Jeff Fine-Thomas @jefffinethomas]

Guilford made @bitesizetherapy recent paper on psychoanalytic language available for free! Check it out at: https://t.co/bCYTz5zMV8

[Alanna Moore @AlannaNoMoore]

Endings & Beginnings!! #PsychoanalyticPsychotherapy #Psychoanalysis

[Alanna Moore @AlannaNoMoore]

An extremely entertaining and thoughtful talk on why one should read Proust! Safe to say, everyone was suitably convinced (if not already!) Parfait @MaxMcGuinness4 #DBF2025

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

We fill the options we don’t know with our projections, good and bad

[Jeff Fine-Thomas @jefffinethomas]

"The essential character structure of any human being cannot be understood without an appreciation of two distinct and interacting dimensions: developmental level of personality organization and defensive style within that level. - Nancy McWilliams

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

1/ Highlights:

About 7 out of 10 patients who get “evidence-based therapy” for depression rare still depressed after treatment

Of the 3 that get well, about half would have gotten well without treatment

No significant differences between types of therapy (the “dodo bird verdict”)

“Third wave therapies” (eg, ACT) no better than plain old CBT, or any other treatment

From the paper: “Most patients do not respond or remit after therapy, and more effective treatments are clearly needed”

Can someone please explain to me again why these treatments are routinely called “evidence-based therapy?”

[Alanna Moore @AlannaNoMoore]

RT @JonathanShedler: “Psychotherapy ends where blame begins”

✅ The essence of real psychotherapy is exploring and understanding why things…

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

“Repetition, over time, cements symptoms as identity”
—Mary Jo Peebles

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

Be wary of ads to match you with a “licensed therapist”

“Therapist” isn’t a license

Ask: What kind of license? Where trained? How many hours of supervised practice experience, in what settings? How much personal psychotherapy (hrs & yrs)? Currently getting ongoing consultation?

[The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center @PPSCNYC]

We are only as needy as our unmet needs. — John Bowlby

[Alanna Moore @AlannaNoMoore]

Repetition compulsion 🔁

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

Six reasons people keep repeating painful experiences

1️⃣ To alleviate guilt. Some people feel guilty about success or pleasure, as if enjoyment were a transgression. They seek suffering to expiate guilt and pay off their conscience. In some cases, pain and suffering become the “admission price” for whatever pleasures they allow themselves

2️⃣To gain a sense of control and mastery. The person attempts to gain a sense of control over painful or traumatic experiences they once experienced helplessly. There is an underlying (unconscious) fantasy they can undo a past trauma, or right a past wrong, by repeating it and getting it to come out differently (but in reality, they just keep reliving the same pain)

3️⃣Suffering is home. An analogy can help us understand this: when panicked horses are rescued from a burning stable, they often run right back in. The horses associate the stable with safety and security—it’s their home

A child’s earliest attachments, however unhappy, are also home. However neglectful or abusive, that was where the child experienced whatever care and comfort they ever knew. In their search for comfort, they find more pain

4️⃣Secondary gain. Pain, suffering, and MH symptoms come with indirect or hidden benefits which clinicians call “secondary gain.” Their difficulties may bring attention, sympathy, release from responsibilities, special treatment, even financial incentives (eg, disability pay). Secondary gain can be a powerful incentive for continued suffering

In psychotherapy, it can be helpful to invite patients to reflect on the *downside* of getting well. The first response is likely to be something like, “There is no downside, I’d do anything to get better.” If the therapist persists and says something like,“Not so fast, let’s really think about this,” there may be some suprising insights

5️⃣To punish others (passive-aggression). The desire to punish someone else can be more powerful than the desire to avoid pain. For example, a person may unconsciously sabotage their prospects for success or happiness *precisely because it’s what someone else wants for them*

Mental health symptoms also cause pain and suffering for other people. For example, a depressed person may be too depressed to do their share of work, earn a living, keep social commitments, have sex with their partner, etc. There can be (generally unconscious) sadistic pleasure in inflicting this pain on others, and without responsibility or consequences. But who can blame the suffering person? After all, they’re the victim

6️⃣To enhance self esteem or feel superior. For some, feelings of self-worth and even superiority are tied to self-deprivation and self-punishment. The person seems organized around the belief, “I am better than you because I suffer more.” The more suffering, the more perceived moral superiority. In the clinical literature, this is called “moral masochism”

One important caveat: these are rarely conscious choices. These patterns come about unconsciously

[Vincent Browne @vincentbrowne]

Catherine Connolly TD would be an outstanding President in succession to Michael D.

[Jonathan Shedler @JonathanShedler]

As Tolstoy wrote, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” (Anna Karenina principle)

We could say, every depressed person is depressed in their own way

No one has a “secret.” And if they do, its value is only to them, not to you

[MIND in MIND @MINDinMIND_iv]

Don't miss our Legacy Interview with Jeremy Holmes on 29 Jan 2025 (7-9pm UK, 2-4pm ET), featuring special guests Arietta Slade, Anthony Bateman, and Evrinomy Avdi.

Get your ticket: https://t.co/him8XO5d9a

Explore how attachment theory transforms clinical practice, plus insights from his new book 'The Spirit of Psychotherapy'!

#MINDinMIND #AttachmentTheory

[The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center @PPSCNYC]

“My clinical experience has consistently supported the original Freudian notion that people act out what they cannot remember or what they cannot allow themselves to feel.” - Nancy McWilliams

[Alanna Moore @AlannaNoMoore]

Love is…

[The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center @PPSCNYC]

“Love is not just admiration for strength, it is also tolerance for weakness.” - Melanie Klein