2026 Ritvo Lecture Hosted by Yale Child Study Center

Sponsored by the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis and hosted by Yale Child Study Center, the 2026 Ritvo Lecture will be offered in a hybrid format, held in person at 255 Bradley Street, New Haven, and available via Zoom. There is a $25 fee for non-WNEPS members, though this session is offered for free to trainees and WNEPS members.

Session description

Drawing on Donald Winnicott’s concept of the developmental movement from object relating to object usage, Holly Dwyer Hall, PsyD, will explore how disturbances in early relationships can disrupt the child’s developing capacity to distinguish internal from external reality.

Through clinical examples, Hall will illustrate how clinicians work with parents to support their ability to tolerate conflict, survive the child’s expressions of aggression without retaliation, and maintain a stable presence during moments of heightened emotional intensity. The therapist’s stance will be considered central to this work, combining empathic understanding with active, curious engagement that fosters parental reflection and epistemic trust.

Learn more and register on the WNEPS website.

Endowed by the first director of training in child psychiatry at Yale, Samuel Ritvo, MD and his wife Lucille Ritvo in 2007, the annual Ritvo Lecture focuses on bringing modern psychoanalytic and psychodynamic thought to child and adolescent mental health practice, with a particular focus on its trainees.