Presentation by Maria Silvia Soriato Followed by Q&A
February 1, 2026, 9:30am – 12:00pm (EST) on Zoom

The IARPP Candidates committee is delighted to announce this year’s Candidate’s Webinar, where we will have the opportunity to have an interesting dialogue with the Italian Relational Psychoanalyst María Silvia Soriato.

The topic addressed in this webinar is grounded in clinical and theoretical work on violence in intimate relationships, developed within anti-violence centers and psychoanalytic practice. Drawing on the voices and experiences of women who have survived intimate partner violence, and in dialogue with relational psychoanalysis and feminist thought, violence is explored as a dehumanizing relational process that progressively transforms the Other from an object of love into an enemy.

Through clinical material, the webinar examines how, in these contexts, the analytic room becomes a frontier space between public and private (Anzaldúa; Goldner). Within this space, the analyst, together with the patient, participates in shaping and interpreting a relational field in which the ambiguity of violence can be contemplated, the fear experienced, the guilt acknowledged, and finally the anger at injustice can be felt. This process makes it possible to survive the struggle, shared by patient and analyst, to remain, or to become again, subjects in the presence of the other. The webinar traces how this struggle unfolds and what it requires not only of those who endure it, the patients, but also of those who witness it and bear the responsibility of transforming it, the analysts.

Maria Silvia Soriato, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist and relational psychoanalytic psychotherapist based in Rome, Italy. Since 2005, she has been working with women survivors of intimate partner violence and human trafficking in both private practice and antiviolence centers, providing psychotherapy and clinical supervision to multidisciplinary teams. She is a lecturer and supervisor at ISIPSé (Institute and School of Specialization in Self Psychology and Relational Psychoanalysis). She is a member of the IARPP Board.

This webinar sponsored is designed SPECIFICALLY and only for candidates and early-career psychoanalysts/relationally trained psychotherapists. This webinar is limited to 200 participants. IARPP membership is required to participate in this webinar. We welcome those for whom English is not their first language.

ONLINE REGISTRATION BEGINS January 16th 2026
An email will be sent on the 16th with registration link. IARPP webinars are free for first-time registrants. For those who have participated in any of our prior web seminars, a nominal registration fee of $10 will be charged. We hope to meet you in our webinar group!