Please join us for our latest lunchtime conversation as:

Ben Bernstein, PhD

Presents his Susan C Warshaw
award-winning paper:

“What the hell was that?”: On Non-Directive Play Therapy with Adolescents

And we think together about the benefits of writing about our clinical work with our Discussant Laurel Silber, PsyD and Moderator Larry Rosenberg, PhD

2 CE Credits Available 

Thursday, January 22^nd, 2026

Location: Zoom

Time: 12:00 -2:00pm EST

*Registration is free for members of Section 2. For all others a suggested donation is requested.

More about the speakers:  

Dr. Benjamin Bernstein, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist whose work integrates psychodynamic, relational and mentalization-based approaches to adolescent and family treatment. His scholarship and commentary have been featured in American Psychological Association publications, as well as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time and Psychology Today. He is the 2025 recipient of the Susan C. Warshaw Award for writing on psychotherapy with adolescents. Dr. Bernstein has served as the Adolescent Psychologist and Assistant Director of Education at Silver Hill Hospital and previously directed the Argent Assessment Program at Silver Hill, overseeing comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic evaluation for individuals from around the world. He is a Clinical Supervisor for the City College of New York Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. In addition to his institutional work, he is the founder of Redwood Psychology Group, a Connecticut-based practice focused on depth-oriented care for adolescents, parents and families. He completed his undergraduate degree at Brown University and his doctorate at the City College of New York. 

Laurel M. Silber, Psy.D. is a Past President of Section II and on the Board of Directors of the Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Both positions reflect her interest in developing communities supporting therapeutic work with children and their families. She is currently working on a book about the impact of transgenerational trauma on children, which has long been a clinical interest of hers. Her private practice is in Bryn Mawr, PA. She helped organize a conference (2019) which took place at Bryn Mawr College, entitled: Play for A Change: Contemporary Therapeutic Action in Child Psychotherapy and is looking forward to being a part of this panel.

Larry Rosenberg, Ph.D. is a Co- Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy and a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Postgraduate Programs, Derner School of Psychology, Adelphi University. He is a past President of the Child and Adolescent Section of Division 39 of the APA and a past Member at Large of the board of directors of the Section for Applied Psychoanalysis of the Division. Dr. Rosenberg served for 27 years as the Clinical Director of the Child Guidance Center of Southern CT, where he developed and directed training programs in psychology and social work and contributed to the formation of the first accredited Community Action Center in the state of CT. Dr. Rosenberg was a co-editor of the Child Section of the second edition of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual and a contributor to the Adolescent Section of that manual. Along with Steve Axelrod and Ron Naso, he edited and contributed to Progress in Psychoanalysis; Envisioning the Future of the Profession. More recently, with Ghislaine Boulanger, he co-edited 2 special issues of the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies on the role of psychoanalysis in community mental health. He was the 2024 recipient of the Connecticut Psychological Association’s lifetime achievement award. Dr. Rosenberg is in private practice in Stamford where he sees children, adolescents, and adult patients and continues to supervise and provide consultation to clinicians of all disciplines.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to describe three ways in which adolescence can benefit from a non-directive play therapy approach in psychotherapy.
2. Participants will be able to discuss two ways in which the process of writing may brought in our understanding of clinical work.