Facebook
X
LinkedIn
ForwardMcLean Psychiatry Grand Rounds 2026: The Alfred Stanton Lecture - Preserving Psychotherapy - November 18, 2026
Preserving Psychotherapy
Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 12 - 1 pm
Description:
The speaker posits that ambitious and devoted psychotherapy, the kind of care for which McLean Hospital has long been admired, is being undermined by a confluence of sociocultural and professional forces. This lecture reviews the effects of corporate and private equity pressures, bureaucratic concerns, diagnostic sensibilities, orientational differences, academic exigencies, and political contexts that are putting effective psychotherapy at risk and demoralizing its practitioners. She makes some suggestions for how to practice as well as possible despite these conditions, and offers some ideas about reversing these trends.
SPEAKER(s)
Nancy McWilliams, PhD
Visiting Professor Emerita, Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology, Rutgers University
Target Audience
This program is intended for:
- Nurses
- Psychiatrists
- Psychologists
- Physicians
- Social Workers
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of the activity, participants will be able to:
- Identify three well-intentioned but problematic influences on contemporary psychotherapy.
- Name four therapeutic attitudes that are empirically associated with patient improvement and satisfaction.
- Contrast categorical and descriptive psychiatric diagnosis with dimensional and inferential diagnosis.
Accreditation
Physicians
McLean Hospital is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
McLean Hospital designates this live educational activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Psychologists
McLean Hospital is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. McLean Hospital maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Participants meeting requirements will receive 1 CE credit.
Nurses
This program carries 1 contact hour. McLean Hospital is approved as a provider of continuing education to nursing by the American Nurses Association Massachusetts, which is accredited as an approver of continuing education in nursing by the American Nurses’ Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.
Social Workers
For information about continuing education credit for social workers, please call 617.855.3140.
National Board for Certified Counselors
McLean Hospital is an NBCC Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP™) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements. The ACEP is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.
Course summary
- 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of IHP and Massachusetts General Hospital. IHP is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
IHP designates this Enduring activity for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
- 1.00 Nursing Contact Hours
Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 13, sections 13, 14, 14A, 15 and 15D and Chapter 112, sections 74 through 81C authorize the Board of Registration in Nursing to regulate nursing practice and education.
This program meets the requirements of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing (244 CMR 5.00) for 1.00 contact hours of nursing continuing education credit. Advance practice nurses, please note: Educational activities which meet the requirements of the ACCME (such as this activity) count towards 50% of the nursing requirement for ANCC accreditation.
- 1.00 LMHC
MaMHCA, and its agent, MMCEP has been designated by the Board of Allied Mental Health and Human Service Professions to approve sponsors of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for licensure renewal, in accordance with the requirements of 262 CMR 1.00.
This program has been approved for 1.00 CE credit for Licensed Mental Health Counselors MaMHCA.
Authorization number:
- 1.00 Social Workers
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, the MGH Institute of Health Professions is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. MGH Institute of Health Professions maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive 1.00 clock hours for continuing education credits.
- 1.00 Participation
This course allows other providers to claim a Participation Certificate upon successful completion of this course.
Participation Certificates will specify the title, location, type of activity, date of activity, and number of AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ associated with the activity. Providers should check with their regulatory agencies to determine ways in which AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ may or may not fulfill continuing education requirements. Providers should also consider saving copies of brochures, agenda, and other supporting documents.
- 1.00 Psychologists CE Credit
Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs. MGH Institute of Health Professions designates this activity for 1.00 CE credit.
Nancy McWilliams, PhD
Nancy McWilliams is Visiting Professor Emerita at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology and has a private practice in Lambertville, NJ. She is author of Psychoanalytic Diagnosis (1994; rev. ed. 2011), Psychoanalytic Case Formulation (1999), Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2004), and Psychoanalytic Supervision(2021), all with Guilford Press. She has edited, co-authored, or contributed to several other books, and is Associate Editor of all three editions of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (2006, Lingiardi & McWilliams, 2017, 2026). With Jeff Fine-Thomas, she co-authored the forthcoming book Expanding Your Clinical Repertoire: Psychoanalytic Ideas You Can Use to Help Patients.
Dr. McWilliams is a former president of the Division of Psychoanalysis (39) of the American Psychological Association and a founder and board member of Academics for the Advancement of Psychodynamic Psychology (A2P2). She is on the editorial board of Psychoanalytic Psychology and is a peer reviewer for the journal Psychosis. A graduate of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, she is also affiliated with the Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis of New Jersey. She is on the Board of Trustees of the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA, and is a Psychological Humanities Fellow at the Boston College Center for Psychological Humanities and Ethics.
Disclosures: Speaker has no financial relationships to report.
Available Credit
- 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of IHP and Massachusetts General Hospital. IHP is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
IHP designates this Enduring activity for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
- 1.00 Nursing Contact Hours
Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 13, sections 13, 14, 14A, 15 and 15D and Chapter 112, sections 74 through 81C authorize the Board of Registration in Nursing to regulate nursing practice and education.
This program meets the requirements of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing (244 CMR 5.00) for 1.00 contact hours of nursing continuing education credit. Advance practice nurses, please note: Educational activities which meet the requirements of the ACCME (such as this activity) count towards 50% of the nursing requirement for ANCC accreditation.
- 1.00 LMHC
MaMHCA, and its agent, MMCEP has been designated by the Board of Allied Mental Health and Human Service Professions to approve sponsors of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for licensure renewal, in accordance with the requirements of 262 CMR 1.00.
This program has been approved for 1.00 CE credit for Licensed Mental Health Counselors MaMHCA.
Authorization number:
- 1.00 Social Workers
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, the MGH Institute of Health Professions is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. MGH Institute of Health Professions maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive 1.00 clock hours for continuing education credits.
- 1.00 Participation
This course allows other providers to claim a Participation Certificate upon successful completion of this course.
Participation Certificates will specify the title, location, type of activity, date of activity, and number of AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ associated with the activity. Providers should check with their regulatory agencies to determine ways in which AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ may or may not fulfill continuing education requirements. Providers should also consider saving copies of brochures, agenda, and other supporting documents.
- 1.00 Psychologists CE Credit
Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs. MGH Institute of Health Professions designates this activity for 1.00 CE credit.