As ISTDP therapists, we are continually called to balance the needs of others with our own internal resources. Research shows that meaning, motivation, and professional sustainability are profoundly interconnected—yet few courses place your experience in focus.

This course offers a carefully held space for deepened understanding and perspective-taking, and reflection, alongside meaningful collegial exchange in a small group.

Five live online sessions over five weeks
A personal digital kit and continuous guidance throughout the course

Pilot price: $340 (VAT added where applicable. EU companies can enter their VAT number.)
Regular price: $490

• A small group (max 10 participants)
• Exclusively for cert ISTDP therapists
• Weekly 2-hour live online sessions + 1 hour self-study incl. course material
• Grounded in current research
• Contemporary pedagogy with a personal digital platform designed to support your learning throughout the course

Time: 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM Eastern Time (New York) / 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Central European Time (CET)
Dates: Tuesdays May 22, 29, and June 5, 12, 19. 
Platform: Zoom
Self-studies: Approximately 1 hour per week using the course materials
Access: Course materials for 90 days (End September)
Language: English

Organizer
Psychological Forum
Stockholm, Sweden

From Words to Experience: The Psychology of Verbal Interventions is a 6-week online course for healthcare professionals working with ISTDP/EDT.

Applying therapeutic pressure effectively is one of the most complex skills in ISTDP, requiring moment-to-moment attunement to both the patient’s emotional shifts and the therapist’s own internal responses. Yet the mechanisms behind how it works are rarely made explicit.

This course introduces two practical frameworks to deepen clinical precision: psychology of language and interoception. Psychology of language shows how wording shapes emotional closeness and distance, and how shifts between abstract and concrete communication can open or close access to feeling. Interoception refers to the ability to sense and interpret internal bodily states, a key foundation for emotional awareness in both therapist and patient.

Together, these frameworks clarify how therapeutic pressure supports movement from abstract thinking toward direct emotional contact, strengthening precision and effectiveness in ISTDP practice.

Course format and access
The course is delivered entirely online and designed to fit clinical workload and everyday life constraints. All materials are accessible via a personal digital account, and participants can study flexibly between weekly live sessions.

The course includes weekly live online meetings for integration, reflection, and clinical discussion.

Access to course materials is available until last of January 2026. 

Dates
Start on Friday, August, 21st (live session: introduction, presentation, and lecture)
Live webinars each Friday until September, 25th

As a licensed psychologist, ISTDP therapist, and fine art photographer, I am interested in how people continue to live after loss—and how images, stories, and artistic expression can help us approach experiences that sometimes lie beyond words. My photographic work Broken Light, created following a personal loss, became a way of exploring questions of memory, identity, love, vulnerability, and the experience of time itself.

Within photography, memory and time are often represented as forms of history. In Broken Light, I am instead interested in the continuity of the self—the enduring experience of being a thinking, feeling, and acting person facing and integrating an irreversible loss —an experience that resonates closely with how we, as therapists, understand grief.

It is often tempting to turn away from grief. Yet in doing so, we may also lose touch with the depth and intimacy of what has been lost. Grieving can therefore become a form of care: a way of remaining in relationship with a shared life that once was.

I welcome you to an online seminar where I will share the artistic and personal journey behind Broken Light and reflect on grief as a psychological, emotional, and existential process. Together, we can explore questions - from a therapeutic and also personal view - such as: What happens to our sense of self when someone we love is no longer physically present? How does grief reshape our experience of time, identity, and meaning? What role do memory, imagination, and continuing bonds play in adaptation to loss? And how can art and creative expression help us approach dimensions of grief that may be difficult to access through words alone?

While grounded in clinical experience, this seminar is not primarily about therapeutic technique. Rather, it is an invitation to reflect on grief as a universal human experience and on what it means to remain alive, connected, and engaged with life in the aftermath of profound loss.

Date, September 19th, 2026
Time: At 9.30-12.00 am local time in both time zones, CEST Europe (UTC+2) and US East Coast (UTC−4) US
Duration: 2.5 hrs
Where: online

Participants will receive a post-seminar PDF containing a summary of key themes, reflection questions, and a curated reading list for further exploration.

Early-bird registration: USD 175 until June 30, 2026
Standard registration: USD 195 thereafter

Warm regards,
Maria Sandgren
Psychological Forum