Everything is psychosomatic: Embodied learning, communication, and accommodation in psychoanalysis

S.J. Langer, LCSW-R

Wed. April 12, 2023

8:30 – 10:00 pm (EST)

We are never only a psyche – it is the psyche/soma that makes the subject.  Our minds and bodies are always learning, constantly unfinished and continuously communicating within us.  Embodiment is how we process information.  Neuropsychoanalysis is beginning to provide us with a bridge between the concrete of neuroscience and the theories of psychoanalysis.  This talk will encircle concepts from Neuropsychoanalysis and embodiment literature and focus on how we harness them clinically in work with our trans, nonbinary, and gender diverse patients.  Clinical and theoretical considerations connected to gender exploration, trans sex, and trans phantoms will be explored as well as case examples.

S.J. Langer is a writer and psychotherapist in New York City.  He is in private practice where he also provides clinical supervision and WPATH GEI SOC7 Certified Mentorship.  He is on faculty at School of Visual Arts in both the MPS Art Therapy and Humanities & Sciences departments. Along with psychotherapy, his research lab studies embodiment and trans phantoms.  He is also part of the Faculty of Psychology for the Diploma in Psychotherapy and Mental Health in Sexual Diversity of Gender and Relationships at Universidad Diego Portales – Centre for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy Studies (Centro de Estudios en Psicología Clínica y Psicoterapia – CEPPS) in Santiago, Chile. One of his articles, Trans Bodies and the Failure of Mirrors, was the co-winner of the Symonds Prize from Studies in Gender and Sexuality. He is included in the edited volumes Sex, Sexuality and Trans Identities and Intersectionality in the Arts Psychotherapy. His first book Theorizing Transgender Identity for Clinical Practice: A New Model for Understanding Gender was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in 2020.

For inquiries regarding the LGBTQ Study Group please contact

Esin Egit, PhD (Chair): e.egit@wawhite.org