The Psychoanalytic Center of California's

Continuing Education Committee

is pleased to present

The Analyst's Listening:

for, to, with

featuring

Bruce Reis PhD, FIPA BCPsa

Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), New York

Saturday, June 6, 2026

9:00 am to 12:15 pm (Pacific Daylight Time)



CEUs: 3

Location: (online).

The conference will be held online via Zoom.

Program Description

In this program, Dr. Bruce Reis will help us broaden how we listen during psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Usually, analytic listening is treated like seeing. This visual focus on listening has shaped analytic techniques and goals toward producing clear understandings and meanings. Because of this, the actual sound and experience of listening have been overshadowed by the visual.

Initially, we will look at two visual models: listening-for and listening-to. These methods emphasize “seeing,” which means discovering or creating conscious understandings or meanings pertaining to unconscious contents.


A third way is listening-with. This is an aural approach that does not look for hidden meanings, nor does it try to build or clarify new ones. Listening-with does not try to turn feelings into symbols, whether those feelings are already known or just emerging. In this mode, content is not what we listen for, and understanding is not the goal. Instead, the analyst simply stays in a space of not knowing—and not trying to know.


Exploring the "unlanguaged" in this way will involve portions of the patient’s mental life that are never transformed analytically into symbolized content, as well as experiences involving the patient’s mental life that do not call for any such transformation or understanding.


The first part of Dr. Reis’ paper discusses these modes of listening theoretically. The second part uses three clinical vignettes to show how listening-with works in different ways. These listening styles usually overlap, but we are looking at them separately here to focus on phenomena that exist outside of words and may never take a definite form.

Program Schedule

Target Audience

MD's, Psychologists, LCSW's, MFT's, Registered Nurses, candidates and members of psychoanalytic institutes, and student clinicians who are interested in psychoanalysis.

Course Objectives

At the end of this activity, participants should be better able to:

1. Distinguish between "listening-for" and "listening-to" as two traditional modes of analytic listening;
2. List three features of a third mode of analytic listening: "listening-with";
3. Describe the therapeutic value of holding a space of not knowing and not trying to know.

Program Faculty

Bruce Reis, Ph.D., FIPA, BCPsa, is a Training and Supervising Analyst and Faculty Member at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), New York; an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor and Clinical Consultant in the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; and a member of the Boston Change Process Study Group. He is a regular presenter at the American and International Psychoanalytic Association conferences and an invited speaker in Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Mexico. Dr. Reis is Regional North American Editor for the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and has previously served on the editorial boards of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly and Psychoanalytic Dialogues. He is the author of Creative Repetition and Intersubjectivity (Routledge Press, 2020) and has contributed over 40 published articles and numerous book chapters. In 2026 he will be a visiting scholar at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC) in San Francisco.

Continuing Education Credit

The Psychoanalytic Center of California designates this live activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in this activity.



This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the California Medical Association (CMA)  through the Psychoanalytic Center of California. The Psychoanalytic Center of California  is accredited by the California Medical Association (CMA)   to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

As per the California Board of Psychology, psychologists may apply AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ earned by attendance at this CME accredited live activity toward their continuing education requirement for licensing. 

The Psychoanalytic Center of California is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) to sponsor continuing education for LMFT's and LCSW's (CAMFT Approved Provider # 135374). The Psychoanalytic Center of California maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content. This course meets the qualifications for 3 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and/or LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. These learners must attend the entire course to claim credit; no partial credit is offered according to CAMFT requirements.

*Important note: Participants who plan to use the credits in another state should check with their licensing jurisdiction to see if the credits from an ACCME or CAMFT provider will be accepted.

Claiming Credit: Participants will receive a certificate of attendance at the event, which can be used toward licensing requirements. Credit is offered for actual instruction time and does not include breaks.

Refunds/Cancellations: Refunds, less a $10 administrative fee, will be made if cancellation notification is phoned or postmarked three (3) business days in advance of this program. There will be no refunds on requests received after the refund deadline. Full refunds are made in the event that PCC must cancel this program.

Returned Checks: A $25.00 service charge will be assessed for checks returned by the bank.

Grievances: While PCC goes to great lengths to assure fair treatment for all participants and attempts to anticipate problems, there will be occasional issues that come to the attention of the PCC staff which will require intervention and/or action on the part of the staff. Visit  www.p-c-c.org/ethics for PCC's procedural guidelines for handling such grievances.

Special Needs: Facilities are accessible to persons with disabilities. If you have a special need and plan to attend the conference, please contact the PCC Office by phone at (310) 478-4347 or via email at 0ffice@p-c-c.org. Special needs requests will be fulfilled if received one week prior to the event, which will ensure we have ample opportunity to meet your needs.

Commercial Support Disclosure: None of the planners for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.

Financial Support Disclaimer: The planners and presenters for this event have no financial relationships to disclose.

Confidentiality:  By registering for this educational event, attendees agree to strictly maintain confidentiality of any clinical material shared and will not distribute or convey such confidential material outside of the conference. 

PCC Conference Recording Description

This program will be recorded. A recording will be shared a few days after the event for those participants who registered for the event, and will be available for 30 days. All registrants will receive a link to the recording so they may review, however, only live attendees will receive credit. The video may also be used for educational purposes. If you do not wish to be recorded, please turn your camera off. By registering for this event, you grant permission to THE PSYCHOANALYTIC CENTER OF CALIFORNIA to the rights of your images, in video or still, and of the likeness and sound of your voice as recorded on audio or video.

Program Planners

Continuing Education Committee: Leigh Tobias, PhD (chair); Jennifer Kunst, PhD (member and CME coordinator); Chris Minnick, MD (member and CME chair); Persila Conversano, PsyD and Stacey Nicklas, PsyD (members); Jason Snyder, LMFT and Yelena Kashtuyeva, LMFT (candidate members).

Registration

General admission: $100

Current PCC Candidates in-Seminar: FREE

PCC Post-Seminar Candidate Admission: $50

Current PCC PPP Student Admission: $50

Full time students and candidates from other institutes admission: $50

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