ISPS-US Annual Conference 2026

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1:30pm EST

Metacognitive Frameworks for Social Connection and Creative Engagement (In-Person Only)

Friday November 6, 2026 1:30pm - 3:00pm EST

Metacognitive Frameworks for Social Connection and Creative Engagement

1:30-2:15pm Complex Trauma and Metacognition: From Concrete Symptom to Creative Engagement - Marilyn Charles, PhD, APP, Jeremy Ridenour, PsyD, Danielle Frank, LCSW
2:15-3pm Reconnecting with Others: Metacognition and Social Recovery in Psychosis - Courtney Wiesepape, PsyD, HSPP, Jessica Garrelts, MS, Marlee Gieselman, BS

Complex Trauma and Metacognition: From Concrete Symptom to Creative Engagement - Marilyn Charles, PhD, APP, Jeremy Ridenour, PsyD, Danielle Frank, LCSW
Research and experience show that psychosis is a function of alienation from self and other. We can find the roots of psychosis in the early developmental failures that are linked to complex trauma. In this panel, we will offer three perspectives on psychosis that invite creative engagement between persons as a means for promoting greater ease within the social environment. The first speaker focuses on ways in which psychosis can be traced to failures within the parent-child bond, providing a lack of a sense of competent personhood. A case will be presented in which the experience of having internalized the mother’s voice, over time, could be recognized as an aspect of an interpersonal relationship rather than a concrete reality. This process was built on an attitude of active interest in the person’s experience as a way of building space for two minds to meet and exchange experiences and perspectives. The second paper focuses on play as an aspect of clinical work that can facilitate learning, intimacy, and personal growth. After exploring impediments to play, the presenter looks at how readiness for play can be assessed and fostered, in part by embodying an attitude of curiosity and trust. The final presenter will discuss creativity in relation to considerations regarding ethical clinical practice. Clinical material will be used to discuss the use of creativity as an internal position of the therapist as a phenomenological and practical matter, bridging psychoanalytic ethics and technique. Together, the three papers show ways in which the clinician’s willingness to engage creatively and playfully can help to enhance the reflective capacities of the person suffering from symptoms of psychosis.

Reconnecting with Others: Metacognition and Social Recovery in Psychosis - Courtney Wiesepape, PsyD, HSPP, Jessica Garrelts, MS, Marlee Gieselman, BS
Individuals with psychosis frequently experience disruptions in social functioning, including difficulties forming and maintaining relationships, reduced social support, and interpersonal withdrawal. While these challenges are often conceptualized through social cognition, less attention has been given to the role of metacognition. In this presentation, we propose that the integrated model of metacognition may offer a framework to better conceptualize difficulties related to social functioning and corresponding treatment options. Two domains of metacognition that may be particularly relevant are decentration and understanding the mind of the other. Decentration is understood as the ability to view the world with recognition that one is not at the center of all noteworthy events or actions of others. In this way, one can understand that events are the result of complex emotional, cognitive, and environmental factors. Understanding the mind of the other is the ability to form increasingly complex and integrated representations of specific other people. Metacognitive deficits in these domains may result in intolerance for social ambiguity and lack of awareness of perspectives outside the self. These obstacles may contribute to suspiciousness, hypervigilance, and misinterpretations of threat commonly observed in paranoia. This presentation will utilize the integrated model of metacognition to better understand social dysfunction in psychosis. We suggest that Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (MERIT), as well as its group-based adaptation (MERITg), are therapeutic interventions that enhance metacognitive capacity and thus improve social functioning in a person centered and recovery-oriented way. We propose that enhancing metacognition through MERIT acts as a method for improving social functioning, reducing social misinterpretations, and strengthening interpersonal connectedness.

Speakers

Danielle Frank, LCSW

Staff Psychotherapist, Lenox Hill Hospital Outpatient Center for Mental Health

Danielle Frank is a clinical social worker, with experience in community mental health, college counseling andhospital settings and is also in private practice. Her interests include trauma, gender/sexuality, psychoanalytic treatment ofpsychosis, and the psychic implications of sociopolitical... Read More →

Marilyn Charles, PhD, APP

Psychologist/Psychoanalyst, Austen Riggs Center

Marilyn Charles is a psychologist and psychoanalyst at the Austen Riggs Center, Co-Chair of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society (APCS), and Scholar of the British Psychoanalytic Council. Affiliations include the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis, Universidad de Monterrey... Read More →

Courtney Wiesepape, PsyD, HSPP

Assistant Professor, Indiana State University

Courtney Wiesepape, PsyD, HSPP [she/her] is a licensed clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Indiana State University, where she teaches, mentors, and supervises graduate and undergraduate students. She is the founder and director of the Metacognition for... Read More →

Jessica Garrelts, MS

PsyD student, Department of Psychology, Indiana State University

Jessica Garrelts is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at Indiana State University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in biology from Butler University in Indianapolis, IN in 2018. She later earned her master’s degree in psychology from... Read More →

Marlee Gieselman, BS

PsyD student, Department of Psychology, Indiana State University

Marlee Gieselman is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at Indiana State University. She earned her B.S. in psychological sciences at Western Kentucky University, and her research interests include suicide risk and serious mental illness, particularly as they relate... Read More →

Jeremy Ridenour, PsyD

Associate Director of Admissions, Austen Riggs Center

Jeremy Ridenour is a psychologist and psychoanalyst at the Austen Riggs Center where he serves as Staff Psychologist, Associate Director of Admission, and Director of Psychological Testing. He has published various articles on psychosis and the personality assessment. Jeremy Ridenour... Read More →

Friday November 6, 2026 1:30pm - 3:00pm EST
Breakout Room #1

Breakout Session, In-Person Only

3:30pm EST

Transforming Clinical Education: Lived Experience and Meaning-Centered Care (In-Person Only)

Friday November 6, 2026 3:30pm - 5:00pm EST

Breakout Room #1

Transforming Clinical Education: Lived Experience and Meaning-Centered Care

3:30-4:15pm Out of the Shadows and Into the Classroom: Integrating Lived Experience into Education and Training About Psychosis - Philip T. Yanos, PhD, Evan Auguste, PhD, Emese Ilyés, PhD, Ethel Kirabo Nalule, MSc, Madi Barber BS
4:15pm-5pm Opening the Door: Resident and Patient Perspectives on Meaning-Focused Care in Psychosis - Punita Peketi, MD, Rachel Waford, PhD, ABPP, Saritha Venkataram, Camila Camacho

Out of the Shadows and Into the Classroom: Integrating Lived Experience into Education and Training About Psychosis - Philip T. Yanos, PhD, Evan Auguste, PhD, Emese Ilyés, PhD, Ethel Kirabo Nalule, MSc, Madi Barber BS
Most undergraduates are between the ages of 18 and 25, a period when the onset of psychosis and other mental health conditions often first begins- which means these experiences are not hypothetical, they are already in the room, carried by students and faculty alike, often unnamed. Further, since many are experiencing mental health conditions for the first time, this age range is when the potential impact of stigma toward others (in the form of expressed microaggressions and social rejection toward peers) and oneself (in the form of internalized stigma and a decreased willingness to seek help) increase considerably. College and graduate coursework that concerns psychopathology and “abnormal” psychology typically focus on imparting information drawing heavily on DSM frameworks that can reduce dynamic, complex, and context dependent experiences into checklist and labels. This approach poses particular risks for students from racialized and classed communities, whose encounters with distress are not only more likely to be misread, over-pathologized, or under-supported by clinical systems, but whose experiences are often fluid, multiply-shaped, and resistant to categorical capture. When diagnostic categories become identities rather than provisional descriptions, stigma is not just possible - it is structurally produced. A key strategy for potentially decreasing stigma includes incorporating lived experience (through personal disclosures, sharing videos, podcasts, songs, in-class visits, and other approaches) into one’s teaching approach. This strategy often leads students to disclose their lived experience which also has the potential to impact stigma, which can meaningfully shift the affective and epistemological climate of the classroom. At the same time, this kind of teaching requires holding space in ways the academy was not designed for: institutions of higher education were built around hierarchy and gatekeeping, not around feeling, connection, or the relational conditions that make honest disclosure possible. Faculty and students who bring their full selves into these encounters do so at real cost, and that cost is not evenly distributed. Disclosure from faculty and students poses risks, especially in the current political climate. In the current panel, 3 John Jay Psychology faculty and 2 students will discuss the impact of the incorporation of lived experience into the classroom.

Opening the Door: Resident and Patient Perspectives on Meaning-Focused Care in Psychosis - Punita Peketi, MD, Rachel Waford, PhD, ABPP, Saritha Venkataram
For individuals who are experiencing symptoms of psychosis, psychiatrists are often their first line of treatment. The medical model often attributes psychotic experiences with a biological focus rather than with psychological and social perspectives. This may stem from residency training, as residents focus heavily on symptom reduction rather than understanding how trauma, culture, and social aspects may contribute to patients’ experiences. Residency training is a pivotal point in a psychiatrist’s career as training shapes the attitudes and perceptions for different patient populations. We spoke to 5+ psychiatry residents at Emory, some of whom have experience of learning psychotherapy for individuals with psychosis during their training. We aimed to understand how this experience may influence how psychiatry residents conceptualize, approach, and connect with this patient population. This is a pilot study to provide a basis for further research. This is a pilot study to provide a basis for further research.Teaching residents how to “hold” and explore meaning behind symptoms versus solely focusing on symptom reduction may allow residents to be more curious and exploratory in their own approach to psychosis. This may help psychiatrists “open the door” from the biological view towards the multifaceted standpoints (social, cultural, trauma) that contribute to our patient presentations. Additionally, we spoke to patients who are enrolled in additional psychotherapy treatment regarding their experience. We aimed to understand patients’ experience of this space to explore themselves outside of the context of symptom reduction, and how this also may have influenced their connection and alliance to their provider. By understanding how trainees and patients experience meaning-focused care, we hope to shape educational foundations that holistically respect patients’ lived experiences.

Speakers

Camila Camacho

Camila is a graduate student in public health and a qualitative research coder and analyst with interests in health communication and human rights advocacy. She has contributed to qualitative research examining therapeutic relationships and to research focused on hearing healthcare... Read More →

Philip Yanos, PhD

Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Philip Yanos, PhD is a professor in the psychology department at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is the author of the books Written Off: Mental Health Stigma and the Loss of Human Potential (2018) and Exiles in New York City: Warehousing the Marginalized on Ward's ... Read More →

Rachel Waford, PhD, ABPP

Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor, Consulting Psychologist, Early Psychosis Clinic Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Grady Health System Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Rachel Waford, PhD, ABPP is a licensed and board-certified clinical psychologist in Atlanta, GA. She is an Assistant Professor at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Hubert Department of Global Health and Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry... Read More →

Punita Peketi, MD

Psychiatry Resident, Emory University

Punita Peketi will complete her psychiatry residency at Emory University in July 2026. She earned her MD at Northeast Ohio Medical University and her bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences, with a minor in psychology, from the University of Akron. Her interest in psychiatry grew... Read More →

Saritha Venkataram

Masters Student in Clinical Psychology, American University

Saritha Venkataram is an MA in clinical psychology student at American University where her research interests center on the patient and therapist process, including training. She served as a research coordinator exploring the impact of long-term psychotherapy on patient experience... Read More →

Ethel Kirabo Nalule, MSc

Doctoral Student, John Jay College/CUNY Graduate Center

Ethel Kirabo Nalule is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice / CUNY Graduate Center. Inspired by bell hooks and Paulo Freire, she views education as a practice of freedom, recognizing that when a student walks into and out of... Read More →

Madi Barber, BS

Doctoral Student, John Jay College/CUNY Graduate Center

Madi Barber is a second year PhD student in Clinical Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver where she earned a BS in psychology. In her undergraduate work, Madi engaged in a variety of research projects including... Read More →

Evan Auguste, PhD

Assistant Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Evan Auguste, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He completed his PhD in clinical psychology with a major area of focus in forensic psychology at Fordham University in 2022. Auguste is a 2014 graduate of Middlebury College. He identities... Read More →

Emese Ilyés, PhD

Doctoral Lecturer, John Jay College

Emese Ilyés, PhD, is a Doctoral Lecturer in Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, where she teaches liberation psychology, research methods, and participatory action research. Her scholarship centers on decolonial methodologies, community... Read More →

Friday November 6, 2026 3:30pm - 5:00pm EST
Breakout Room #1

Breakout Session, In-Person Only