A Developmentally-Sensitive Approach to the Assessment and Treatment of Dissociation in Children and Adolescents

When psychoanalysis engages with emerging understandings of trauma, the dialogue enriches both fields, expanding our capacity to understand and treat the complexities of human experience.

This field is required.
This field is required.

Please join us on Saturday, December 12th, 2026

9:00am-12:30pm EST

Registration is required for this program.
This event will be held in-person at BPSI.
 
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When psychoanalysis engages with emerging understandings of trauma, the dialogue enriches both fields, expanding our capacity to understand and treat the complexities of human experience. In that spirit, BPSI welcomes Dr. Joyanna Silberg, an internationally recognized expert in childhood dissociation, to create a space for thoughtful exploration at the intersection of psychoanalysis and contemporary trauma theory. 

Dr. Silberg will present current approaches to recognizing and treating dissociative processes in children and adolescents, drawing on developments in attachment theory, interpersonal neurobiology, and developmental psychopathology alongside psychoanalytic concepts including play, transference and countertransference, and other forms of unconscious communication. The differences between normal fantasy and dissociative coping will be emphasized, as well as transitional identities and imaginary friends. The presentation will highlight how to identify subtle transition moments that precede automatic dissociative responses. 

Dr. Tanishia Choice will present on the treatment of an adolescent with dissociative symptoms illustrating these concepts. Together, we will invite a conversation about what psychoanalysis and contemporary trauma theory can contribute to our understanding of trauma and dissociation. We aim to foster curiosity, deepen clinical thinking, and ultimately enhance our ability to serve both child and adult patients struggling with the enduring effects of trauma.

Speaker

     

Joyanna Silberg, PhD served as the Senior Consultant for Child and Adolescent Trauma at Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore Maryland until 2019. Her psychotherapy practice specializes in consultation for children and adolescents suffering from dissociative symptoms and disorders, and her forensic practice specializes in child sexual abuse. She is past-president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma & Dissociation and recipient of its Lifetime 

Achievement Award in 2025, and the recipient of the Written Media Award for her book, The Child Survivor: Healing Developmental Trauma and Dissociation (2013/2022). She has presented nationally and internationally on child abuse, psychotherapy, and protecting abused children in family court. 

Discussants

     

Tanishia Choice, MD works in a private practice in Lexington, MA where her primary interests are play therapy, intensive psychoanalytic psychodynamic therapy and psychoanalysis. She is an advanced candidate in the child and adult psychoanalysis programs at BPSI. She also serves as a psychiatry consultant to MIT Health Pediatrics Department and as a clinical supervisor to MGH child psychiatry residents. Her previous work has included: MGH Site Director of the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program (MCPAP), psychiatrist consultant to Boston area schools and The American Psychiatric Association’s Public Psychiatry Fellowship where she served on the Council for Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities. Dr. Choice has received recognition for teaching and community outreach including UT Southwestern Medical Center department award for excellence in medical student education and the MGH Clinician-Teacher Development Award for development of an educational curriculum to improve psychiatric knowledge and psychiatric clinical practice in pediatric primary care. 

Moderator

     

Lisa Price, MD is a child and adult psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. She is a faculty member in the child and adult programs at BPSI where she directs the Beata Rank Lecture and the Child Program in Psychodynamics (Child PIP), oversees the Programs in Psychodynamics and Travel Awards, and teaches. As a faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and an Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, she teaches early childhood development in the MGH/McLean Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Program. In 2026, she received the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society’s Outstanding Educator of the Year Award. In her Cambridge private practice, she sees children, adolescents, adults and couples across the lifespan.

 

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this program participants will be able to: 

  1. List five domains of symptoms that are typically seen in dissociative children and adolescents. 
  2. Describe one way to distinguish dissociative symptoms from other commonly diagnosed conditions with which they are often mistaken. 
  3. Identify one way in which normal developmental imaginary friends differ from the transitional identities of dissociative children. 
 

Schedule

9:00am Introduction
9:10am Presentation
10:30am 15-minute Break
10:45am Clinical Presentation
11:30am Dialogue with Speakers, Q&A with Audience
12:30pm Program End

 
The target audience for this program is mental health clinicians at all levels of training and members of the community.
 
Registration Fee
$130* Program Fee
 
We are committed to accessibility for all of our programs. BPSI offers an Equity Rate, and we invite you to pay what you are able for this event.
 
*The fee is waived for Early Career Clinicians (within 5 years of licensure), BPSI Members & Partners.

 

Recording

This event will be audio recorded for transcription and archival purposes.  

Continuing Education

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by the American Psychoanalytic Association and the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI). The American Psychoanalytic Association is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Credits Available:

  • Physicians: 3 Credits
  • Psychologists: 3 Credits
  • Social Workers: 3 Credits
  • Nurses & NPs: 3 Nursing Contact Hours 

Other Profession Types

Other profession types will receive a certificate of attendance upon completion of the activity and online evaluation confirming their participation. Participants may claim credit for recertification; however, their professional organization/institute hold the final say on which accredited activities they accept.

Disclosure Statement

None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. There is no commercial support for this activity. APsA verifies that all materials generated by AI are accurate, including cited publications and posttests.

*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company. — Updated December 2022

Licensed Mental Health Clinicians: The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6913. BPSI is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. This program offers 3 NBCC Clock Hours.
 
 

Event Cancellation Policies & Procedures
Any program participant requesting their individual program registration be canceled must submit their request in writing via email to BPSI Office at team@bpsi.org. For fee-based events, a request for cancellation (and refund using the original form of payment) must be received no later than 48 hours in advance of the event. Requests received later than 48 hours prior to the event will not be processed or accepted. All approved refunds are subject to a $10.00 administrative fee. If BPSI cancels an event, all registrants will receive a full refund of fees paid (no administration charge) no later than two business days following the scheduled date of the event, using the original form of payment.

Grievance Policy
Please address any questions or concerns about your experience at this or any program or event you have attended at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute to the Program Chair, via the Administrative Team, BPSI,141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459; team@bpsi.org; 617.266.0953.

The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Inc.,141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459, does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin or handicap in the admissions, administration of its educational programs, scholarship programs or employment.