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About the Conference
Although Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, developed by Habib Davanloo, MD, is a particularly effective and often transformative method, many clinicians training in this approach find it difficult to perform the work in accordance with the originally developed model. Returning to the roots of the method allows practitioners to remain in alignment both with themselves and with the technical demands of this challenging yet deeply rewarding work.
During the conference, we will present a cross-section of clinical sessions drawn from the case material described in
Fundamentals of Davanloo’s Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy, Vol. I (Rathauser, Reher-Langberg & Entis, 2026), with a Polish edition appearing in 2026/27 thanks to Centrum ISTDP.
Conference handbook available for download
The handbook we are making available for download is a 25-page set of teaching materials accompanying Dr. John Rathauser’s conference in Warsaw. It was prepared as a working tool for participants, but it also stands on its own as a concise overview of Davanloo’s Central Dynamic Sequence as currently developed by Rathauser, Reher-Langberg and Entis in their two-volume work Fundamentals of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (2026), whose Polish edition Centrum ISTDP is preparing for 2027/28.
What you will find inside
Forty-five teaching slides guide the reader from the three factors described above, through the phases of pressure and challenge, the assessment of the three pathways of anxiety discharge, the two modes of ISTDP work (vertical and graded), the restructuring of defenses and clarification (both observational and metapsychological), all the way to the four pillars of resistance (RAEC, RAIF, RAW, RPSE), the deactivation of compliance and defiance, and the full structure of the head-on collision, including the modifications introduced by Dr. John Rathauser. The handbook closes with a glossary of key concepts, the sixteen elements of the head-on collision, and a source bibliography.
Who this material is for
For clinicians training in ISTDP, and for those who wish to return to the fundamentals of the method and examine their own practice against the original principles developed by Dr. Habib Davanloo. For supervisees in CORE programs who need an organized map of clinical decisions. For therapists from other psychodynamic modalities interested in how Davanloo understands resistance as a path to the unconscious, rather than as an obstacle. And for anyone who asks, together with us: if not the content, then what are we following?
Why it is worth downloading
The handbook combines the brevity of conference notes with the density of content usually found in textbook chapters. Davanloo’s quotations are given in extenso, the terminology is consistent with the Polish glossary being prepared for the edition of Fundamentals of ISTDP, and the diagrams (the three factors, the triangle of conflict, the pathways of anxiety discharge, the dynamic psychopathological forces, the development of resistance during a session) remain in the form in which they will function in Polish ISTDP literature from 2027 onwards.
It is a good starting point if you are preparing for the October conference with Dr. Josette ten Have-de Labije, or for the next conference with Dr. Rathauser in 2027, or if you simply wish to keep at hand an organized summary of what determines success and failure in Davanloo’s IS-TDP.
We thank Dr. John Rathauser for making this material available and for his continuous support of the ISTDP community, including the open and free interviews and online seminars he conducts.
