From Trauma to Meaning: Psychotherapy in the Context of Life-Threatening Disease

The onset of a life-threatening disease is the most common severe trauma that humans face, although this circumstance has received relatively little attention in the psychoanalytic literature. Trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy dominates the research literature on the treatment of traumatic stress, but its applicability to the treatment of posttraumatic states in the context of a life-threatening illness may be limited. We have shown that a relational and mentalization-based approach can be effective in ameliorating these states and that the search for meaning soon emerges in the therapeutic process. The inescapability of trauma that emerges from within the body and the associated threat to life may contribute to distress in this context, but also to the need to make sense of the trauma and to find new meaning in life. Psychotherapeutic approaches developed by our team for the treatment of individuals facing a life-threatening illness will be described, as well as their broader implications for psychoanalytic approaches to the fundamental problem of finitude in human life.

Gary Rodin is the University of Toronto/University Health Network Chair in Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care and Head of the Department of Supportive Care at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Rodin is also a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Executive Member of the Toronto Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis.

He leads a clinical and research program on the psychosocial dimensions of advanced and terminal disease and on the development psychotherapeutic interventions to improve the quality of life and the quality of dying and death in this population. He has published widely in these areas and is recognized internationally for his efforts to improve the effectiveness and availability of psychosocial and palliative interventions for patients and families facing life-threatening and advanced disease.

Open to TICP Members, TICP Guest Members, TICP students and candidates.



When
February 26th, 2025 from  7:30 PM to  9:00 PM