“We begin introducing children to emotions, how they felt, their functions and how to deal with their intra and interpersonal feelings, like anger, shame, fear and envy and we did this through storytelling, paintings and plays.”

 

Description: Harvey Schwartz welcomes Shahrzad Hashemi and Rosa Famini. Shahrzad Hashemi is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and an advanced candidate at the comprehensive program for psychoanalytic psychotherapy at HamAva Institute in Tehran. She is also the editorial assistant of the open-access journal Psychoanalytic Discourse. In addition to her private practice, Shahrzad has been involved in many psychoanalytically informed activities in hospitals and schools, which we will hear more about in today’s interview. Rosa Famini is also a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and an advanced candidate at the comprehensive program for psychoanalytic psychotherapy at HamAva Institute in Tehran. She is also a PhD candidate in Educational Psychology in Tehran University and she heads the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy training courses being held in collaboration with the Dutch Psychoanalytic Institute and Society in Tehran.

 

The work we are going to hear about today in the schools is being supervised by Dr. Nahaleh  Moshtagh who is an American trained psychoanalytic candidate and is also the Director of the HamAva Institute. As we will hear in today’s interview, the passion for understanding, touching and freeing people’s minds from painful limitations is an interest that is shared by clinicians worldwide.

 

Key takeaways:

[4:05] The principles of the school project.

[7:06] School principal who was interested in psychoanalytic training for the students.

[9:10] Pupils, teachers and parents.

[9:26] Improving children’s self reflection skills.

[9:51] Example of the psychoanalytic listening implemented in a school setting.

[13:11] A project that attempts to change perspectives about school.

[15:21] Reflecting on group dynamics.

[17:50] Psychodynamic psychotherapy in Iran.

[19:21] The challenges that Shahrzad Hashemi and Rosa Famini encounter.

[20:36] Psychoanalytic training in Iran.

[23:16] Psychoanalytic private practice in Iran.

[24:25] Future goals for Shahrzad Hashemi and Rosa Famini.

[25:18] Continuing growth in a career as a psychoanalyst.

 

Mentioned in this episode:

IPA Off the Couch www.ipaoffthecouch.org

 

Recommended Readings:

 

Britzman, D. P. (2009). Very Thought of Education, The: Psychoanalysis and the Impossible Professions. Suny Press.

Britzman, D. P. (2012). After-education: Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, and psychoanalytic histories of learning. SUNY Press.

Britzman, D. P. (2015). A psychoanalyst in the classroom: On the human condition in education. Suny Press.

Henry, G., Osborne, E., & Salzberger-Wittenberg, I. (2003). The emotional experience of learning and teaching. Routledge.

Sapountzis, I. (2018). Revisiting Bion’s “Notes on thinking”: Implications for school psychologists. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 17(3), 187-197.