Scientific Conferences
Multiple topics, perspectives, and organizations.
About
We host conferences each year for WBCP members and interested clinicians, with CME/CE credits available. We also collaborate with other organizations to co-sponsor events.
Events are scheduled throughout the year, focusing on: Cultural Competency, hosted by COWAP to increase a clinician’s competency within various cultural topics; A variety of issues within the LGBTQ communities are presented at the LGBTQ Conference; Ethics Conferences discuss various issues around ethics from a psychoanalytic viewpoint; Restricted to members of WBCP, Colloquium presents original papers by members of the WBCP community; The Raphling Conference presents various topics within psychoanalytic technique; Community Psychoanalysis Colloquium considers topics related to community psychoanalysis.
Continuing Education Units are not issued for partial attendance of one day programs
Contact
For more information about the Scientific Conferences please contact Archana Varma Caballeo, MD at archana@archanavarmamd.com.
Upcoming
April
Sunday, April 19, 2026 | 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Psychoanalytic Institute Virtual Open House
Click the image to view the flyer
Sunday, April 19, 2026
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Via Zoom*
Learn more about the Psychoanalytic Studies Program, meet faculty, and ask questions about the curriculum, application process, and student experience.
*Please note: The Psychoanalytic Studies and Institute Training Programs requires some in-person classes. It is recommended that students be local to the Greater Washington, DC and Baltimore areas.
Registration Link: HERE
May
Saturday, May 9, 2026 | 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
COWAP: Beauty and Gender: A Psychoanalytic Perspective: Session 1: Beauty and the Maternal Body
COWAP: Beauty and Gender: A Psychoanalytic Perspective
Session 1: Beauty and the Maternal Body
Speakers: Patricia Alkolombre, PhD and Catherine Mallouh, MD
Saturday, May 9, 2026
11:00 am – 12:30 pm EST
Via Zoom
1.5 CME/CE per session · 4.5 CME/CE total · Captions in all languages
Presentation Description:
The images of the maternal body and pregnancy throughout history reflect the different ideals of beauty and aesthetics that
prevailed in each period. These ideals are expressed in painting and sculpture, and later in images, whether photographic or
digital, and in various media.
These images reflect the place of women in each culture, their maternal role and the different vicissitudes they experience.
From paintings of Madonnas holding their babies—and hiding their pregnant bodies—to the present day, where women take
photographs of their bellies during pregnancy. Or they paint their own experiences of pregnancy, as Frida Kahlo did when she
captured her miscarriage in a painting as a way of processing it. We will approach these topics from a psychoanalytic
perspective.
June
Saturday, June 27, 2026 | 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
COWAP: Beauty and Gender: A Psychoanalytic Perspective: Session 2: Fashion from a Gender Psychoanalytic Perspective
COWAP: Beauty and Gender: A Psychoanalytic Perspective
Session 2: Fashion from a Gender Psychoanalytic Perspective
Speakers: Patricia Gherovici and Margarita Cereijido
Saturday, June 27, 2026
11:00 am – 12:30 pm EST
Via Zoom
1.5 CME/CE per session · 4.5 CME/CE total · Captions in all languages
This session explores fashion from a gender psychoanalytic perspective, approaching it not as decoration, but as an interface
between the individual’s internal and external worlds. Fashion can help contain, protect, and organize psychic experience. It
can also help individuals inhabit different subjectivities and moods.
From war bonnets to crown jewelry, cocktail dresses to loincloths and bikinis, fashion can be seen as a space where identities
—such as gender and social status—as well as desires, are inscribed and communicated.
Alternating between restrictive styles that reshape and constrain the body and transparent, revealing aesthetics, fashion plays
a role in navigating the tensions between self-expression and compliance. The session explores how fashion participates in the
formation of subjectivity, and how these dynamics reverberate in our clinical work.
July
Saturday, July 25, 2026 | 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
COWAP: Beauty and Gender: A Psychoanalytic Perspective: Session 3: Changing Notions of Beauty: The Importance of Culture and Technology: “Whose Face is it Anyway? “Beauty in the Age of High Technology”
COWAP: Beauty and Gender: A Psychoanalytic Perspective
Session 3: Changing Notions of Beauty: The Importance of Culture and Technology: “Whose Face is it Anyway? “Beauty
in the Age of High Technology”
Speakers: Rhonda Garelick, Margarita Cereijido, and Atsumi Minamisawa:
Saturday, July 25, 2026
11:00 am – 12:30 pm EST
Via Zoom
1.5 CME/CE per session · 4.5 CME/CE total · Captions in all languages
This session explores, from a psychoanalytic perspective, how throughout history beauty ideals have been shaped by—and in
turn reinforce—notions of gender. The session highlights the role of the cultural values and technologies available at different
moments.
From prehistoric Venus figures emphasizing fertility, to the classical pursuit of youth, symmetry, and perfection, to
contemporary beauty increasingly mediated by digital culture, beauty ideals have continually shifted, reflecting the values of
their times.
Today, technologies—including digital platforms, cosmetic procedures, and appetite-suppressing drugs— promote beauty
ideals that often involve the inhibition of desire. We will explore how these forces may both enable and constrain women’s
multiple desires. We will also reflect on the subjective nature of gender. Rhonda Garelick, our main speaker, will talk about
“Whose Face is it Anyway?” Beauty in the Age of High Technology.”
Atsumi Minamisawa will talk about Mori, A Unique Visual Communication among Japanese adolescents.