Training Activities
Bill contributes annually to ongoing transactional analysis training programs in Geneva, Paris, Lyon, Manchester, Milan, and Bucharest (in the last four cities, sometimes co-leading with Mick Landaiche) as a trainer and consultant. His training activities seek to foster the integration of transactional analytic, psychoanalytic, and somatic perspectives in psychotherapy and counselling through both didactic and experiential learning. Most programs require a three-year commitment. Past training topics have included:
Encounters with Character
Entering the Realms of Somatic and Unconscious Experience
When We Turn Away:
Psychotic Processes, Splitting, and Cutting Off
Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment:
A Clinical Development Group
Entering the Erotic Field
Game Theory:
The State of the Art
Who Is Doing What to Whom? Somatic and Implicit
Communication (and Miscommunication) in Therapeutic Relations
Counselling in Depth:
A Return to TA Basics with Fresh Eyes
Saying and Showing:
Therapeutic Communication through Mind and Body
Conference presentations:
“Permission, Protection and Potency: The Therapists’ Use of Power and Activity in Transactional Analysis and Group Process,” Pre-conference institute, American Group Psychotherapy Association 37th Institute and 50th Conference, San Diego, CA, February 1993.
“Transactional Analysis: Integrating Individual and Group Process, Pre-conference Institute,” co-presenter Frances Bonds-White, American Group Psychotherapy Association 38th Institute and 51st Conference, Washington, DC, February 1994.
“If Reich Had Met Winnicott/ If Winnicott Had Met Reich,” Sixth European Congress of Body-Psychotherapy, Vienna-Pamhagen, Austria, May 1997.
“The Hostile Client,” Pre-conference institute, and “If Berne Had Met Winnicott,” Keynote speech, Institute of Transactional Analysis Conference, Canterbury, UK, April 2000.
“Infant Research and Affect Regulation,” Plenary panel with Allan Schore, United States Association for Body Psychotherapy Conference, Berkeley, CA, June 2000.
“Entering the Gestural Field: Bringing Somatic and Subsymbolic Processes into the Psychoanalytic Frame,” Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Society & Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, November 2000.
“The Co-Creation of Uniqueness: Implicit Relational Knowing,” Plenary panel with Edward Tronick,. United States Association of Body Psychotherapy Conference, Baltimore, MD, June 2002.
“Body, Self & Subjectivity,” Discussant paper for Lew Aron’s “Relational Psychoanalysis: The Emergence of a Tradition. Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Society & Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, April, 2004.
“Sexuality: The Impact of Training and Personal Therapy,” Plenary Panel with Muriel Dimen & Angela Klopstech, United States Association of Body Psychotherapy, Tucson, AZ, June 2005.
“From Solitude to Dialogue,” Paper presented at “Generativity: Honoring the Contributions of James T. McLaughlin, M.D.,” Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Society & Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, October 2005.
“The Therapist’s Vulnerability,” Keynote speech, Relational Transactional Analysis Conference, Metanoia Institute, London, February 2006.
“From Enactment to Engagement: The Work of James T. McLaughlin,” Paper presented at “Meet the Author “panel, American Psychoanalytic Association, Washington, D.C., June 2006.
“Trust and Distrust/ Hope and Hatred,” Keynote Speech, World TA Conference, Istanbul, July 2006.
“Wilhelm Reich and the Corruption of Ideals: Idealization and Ideology,” co-presented with Lore Reich Rubin, M.D., Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Society & Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, October 2006.
“Cosa Dici se Non Vuoi Dire ‘Inconscio’ [What Do You Say if You Don’t Say ‘Unconscious’],” Keynote speech, National Meeting of the Società Italiana di Analisi Transazionale, Rome, December 2006.
“Body Transference and Countertransference,” co-presented with Frances S. Anderson & Steven H. Knoblauch, Spring Meeting, Division 39 of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, April 2007.
“Sex at the Margins: What ‘Perverse’ Sexualities Can Teach Us about Being Alive,” Keynote speech, Queer Bodies in Psychotherapy Conference, San Francisco, CA, October 2008.
“I Processi Subsimbolici [Subsymbolic Processes],” Keynote speech and daylong workshop, Conference of the Società Italiana di Analisi Transazionale, Rome, March 2009.
Discussant paper for “Reflections on Cure, or I/Thou/It,” by Muriel Dimen, Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, Cleveland, OH, November 2009.
“Clinical and Ethical Implications of Sexual Transgression between Analyst & Patient: Two Personal Accounts,” with Muriel Dimen, Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, Cleveland, OH, November 2009.
“Eros and Trauma: The Experience of the Body in Transference and Countertransference,” Preconference institute with N. Michel Landaiche, 3rd annual conference, Romanian Association for Transactional Analysis, Bucharest, November 2009.
“Companions in Adventure: The Creation of a Vital Base,” with Colwyn Trevarthan & Ann Alvarez, Northern College for Body Psychotherapy, Manchester, UK, January 2010.
Discussant for Growing Old: A Journey of Self-Discovery, by Danielle Quinodoz. Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center, Pittsburgh, PA, November 2011.
“Memory and Authenticity: The Ethics of Memory,” Keynote speech, 5th annual conference, Romanian Association for Transactional Analysis, Bucharest, November 2011.
“Lost and Found: Sibling Love, Rivalry, Loss, Disconnection, and Reconnection,” Keynote speech, “Enemies & Allies: The Role of Real and Metaphoric Siblings in Our Psychological Worlds,” Australian Centre for Integrative Studies, Sydney, August 2012.
“Thrills and Chills at the Office: Erotic Vitality and Disturbance in Psychotherapy and Counselling,” Keynote speech and workshop, Auckland, New Zealand, March 2013.
“Another Kind of Evidence: The Place of Subjectivity in the Human Sciences,” Keynote address, European Association for Transactional Analysis Annual Conference, Rome, July 2015.
“Our Enduring Ambivalence about Living in Groups,” Keynote address, International Transactional Analysis Association World Conference, Sydney, July 2015.
“Sexualities and Genders at the Margins: Identity, Subversion, and Loss,” Keynote address, United Kingdom Transactional Analysis Association, Liverpool, UK, April 2018.
“Working with Sexual and Gendered Bodies: Developing a Capacity for Reflection and Dialogue,” 3-day workshop with N. Michel Landaiche, Dunedin, New Zealand, June 2018.
“What’s Sex Got to Do with It?” Institute for Character Analysis, Oslo, March 2019.
“Transactional Analysis, Psychoanalysis, and CBT: How Are They Different? How Are They Similar? What Can We Learn from One Another?” Conference keynote, Atrium: Institute for Training in Transactional Analysis, Geneva, April 2019.
“The Analyst’s Body at Work,” Keynote address with Susie Orbach for “Bodyscript: In Dialogue with Transactional Analysis,” Conference, Centro di Psicologia e Analisi Transazionale, Milan, May 2019.
“Creating Community in the Face of Economic and Racial Distress: When Life Does Not Support an ‘I’m OK-You’re OK’ Life Position,” Post-conference institute, National ITAA/USATA Conference, Raleigh, NC, August 2019.
“Relationships: To Whom? To What? Why?” Keynote address with Helena Hargaden for International Relational Transactional Analysis Association, London, November 2019.
“45 Years in TA and Still Counting: What does the future hold?” Keynote address for the National Conference of the Transactional Analysis Associations of Italy, online, December, 2020.