Sacha Bollas, PsyD
October 18 & 25, 2025
Licensed Professional — $150
Pre-Licensed/Student — $115
6 CE credits offered
Enrollment closes Wednesday, October 15, 2025.
Please Join us for this two-day course: October 18 & 25, 2025
Currents of Thought: Free Association and the Flow of the Unconscious
With Sacha Bollas, PsyD
Free association is more than “talking freely”—it’s the living current of the analytic field. In this two-part intensive, we move from Freud’s fundamental rule and the analyst’s evenly-suspended attention, through Deutsch & Murphy’s associative anamnesis (a brief, frame-respecting way to open history-taking), to Christopher Bollas’s The Infinite Question, where the self’s idiom and aesthetic moments guide clinical listening.
We’ll practice how to invite, sustain, and metabolize associative material; when to slow tempo, privilege emergent links, or gently interrupt narrative; and how to adapt technique for neurodiverse attentional profiles. A concise science segment touches current research on spontaneous thought (including Default Mode Network [DMN] adjacent work) to clarify opportunities and guardrails— without letting neuroscience eclipse clinical judgment. Expect live demos, skills labs, and take-home micro-drills you can use the next day.
About the Presenter
Dr. Sacha Bollas is a clinical psychologist and an advanced candidate at the Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies (LAISPS). He directs a small center in Venice, California, offering individual and group psychotherapy and maintains an analytic practice serving clients across the lifespan.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this activity participants should be able to:
Describe how Freud, Deutsch & Murphy, and Bollas each protect and shape associative flow.
Identify mental states and room conditions most conducive to free association (including the uses of silence, pacing, and tone).
Differentiate classical free association, associative anamnesis, and Bollas’s contemporary method in The Infinite Question.
Distinguish defensive resistance from attentional disruption and adjust the frame accordingly.
Apply brief, flexible scaffolds (pacing, anchoring, negotiated pauses) that preserve associativity with neurodiverse clients.
Integrate concise findings from contemporary research (e.g., DMN/spontaneous thought) to inform timing and containment—without reducing meaning to metrics.
To ensure a place and to receive readings in advance by email early enrollment is advised.
Enrollment closes Wednesday, October 15, 2025.
Refunds/Cancellations: Refunds, less a $10 administrative fee, will be made if cancellation notification is phoned or postmarked three (3) business days in advance of this program. There will be no refunds on requests received after the refund deadline. Full refunds are made in the event that LAISPS must cancel this program.
Returned Checks: A $35.00 service charge will be assessed for checks returned by the bank.
Confidentiality: By registering for this educational event, attendees agree to strictly maintain confidentiality of any clinical material shared and will not distribute or convey such confidential material outside of the conference.