SICP Friday Lecture: Wrestling with the Body: When Somatic Preoccupation Serves as an Escape
SICP Friday Lecture
Wrestling with the Body:
When Somatic Preoccupation Serves as an Escape
Abigail Walch, Amy Ragsdale, Diana Halperin & Jess Eipper.
Friday, November 13, 2026
from 7 – 9 PM
In-person at ICP
Register Here
Refreshments and conversation following the lecture.
Please note: This event will not be streamed or recorded.
How do clinicians work with patients whose bodily preoccupation serves a dissociative function and threatens to overwhelm the treatment? While psychoanalysis has historically diminished the importance of the body, this presentation grapples with the challenges of listening to and thinking psychoanalytically about somatic manifestations. Through clinical vignettes from four distinct treatments, this presentation will explore difficulties in symbolizing somatic expressions for both patient and analyst, as well as illustrate ways therapists can utilize their own somatic experiences, countertransference reverie, and theoretical reframing as therapeutic tools and means of creating transitional space.
By situating these bodily manifestations within a psychoanalytic framework, the presentation will demonstrate efforts to help patients move from unmetabolized somatic expressions and enactments toward an expanded capacity to mentalize. Attendees will gain insight into ways analysts can transform the overwhelmed clinical space into a collaborative arena with potential for psychological integration and symbolic meaning.
Amy Werner Ragsdale, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in NYC. She completed both the two-year Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and the four-year Psychoanalytic training programs at ICP.
Abigail Walch, LP, treats individual adults and couples from her office in midtown Manhattan. She is a graduate of ICP’s four year Psychoanalytic training program.
Diana Halperin, LCSW, is a psychoanalyst working in private practice in NYC. Diana has a BFA in Theatre from the University of New Mexico, an MA in Performance Studies from NYU, and an MSW with an emphasis in group work from Hunter College/Silberman School of Social Work. She completed both the four-year Psychoanalytic and two-year Psychodynamic training programs at ICP. She is a group supervisor in ICP’s Psychodynamic Psychotherapy program. Diana also supervises forensic social workers.
Jess Eipper, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in NYC. She works with adults and couples in her private practice in Brooklyn. Jess is a graduate of both the two-year Psychodynamic and four-year Psychoanalytic training programs at ICP, where she now supervises and serves on the Training Committee of the Psychodynamic program and the Curriculum Committee of the Psychoanalytic program.
General Admission: $85
ICP Community: $70
Current ICP Therapist: $45
Current ICP Candidate or Graduate/Undergraduate Student: $25
If the cost of this event presents a financial barrier, please contact us at SICP@ICPNYC.ORG. We are happy to offer a reduced rate when needed to ensure accessibility. ICP Community includes :
- Current ICP faculty
- Supervisors
- Alumni of ICP’s training programs.
Please note that for alumni to qualify for this rate, you must have graduated within 5 years.
An important note about CEs: ICP is an approved provider of continuing education credits for social workers, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, creative arts therapists, psychologists and psychoanalysts through the New York Department of Education. If your license is from a different state, please contact your state’s licensing board to find out if they will accept CE credits for New York State. If your license is from another state, please enter your license number with your state in parenthesis, ie 54321 (CA).
CE certificates will be emailed to you. We kindly ask for your patience, as we’re a small team.
Refund Policy: Please note that refunds for all ICP workshops are available up until one week before the start of the workshop or module. Fees assessed by third-party ticketing or payment processors are outside of our control and cannot be refunded. We are unable to issue refunds for technical difficulties, including platform issues, internet connectivity, or device-related problems.
