The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), is pleased to announce that Helene Keable, M.D., is the recipient of the AACAP Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Award for her paper, “Defenses a Therapeutic Tool and Outcome Measure.”

Contact: Erin Baker, Communications Director
202.966.7300, Ext. 119
ebaker@aacap.org 

Adam Lowe, Communications Coordinator
202.966.7300, Ext. 154
alowe@aacap.org

Washington, D.C., September 24, 2008 – The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), is pleased to announce that Helene Keable, M.D., is the recipient of the AACAP Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Award for her paper, “Defenses a Therapeutic Tool and Outcome Measure.”

The award is offered annually for the best published or unpublished paper, written by an AACAP member that addresses the use of psychodynamic psychotherapy in clinical practice and fosters the development, teaching, and practice of psychodynamic psychotherapy within child and adolescent psychiatry.  Award recipients are selected by the AACAP Psychotherapy Committee.

“My goal was not to win the Rieger Award. My goal, really, was to use the task and the requirements of the Rieger Award as a challenge,” said Dr. Keable.

“In Defenses: A Therapeutic Tool and Outcome Measure, Dr. Keable applies the Defense Mechanism Manual (DMM) developed by Phebe Cramer, Ph.D., to the process-narrative of Dr. Keable’s psychoanalytic treatment of [the patient],” writes AACAP Psychotherapy Committee member Rachel Ritvo, M.D., in the September/October AACAP News. “Dr. Keable hoped that the DMM could reveal the developmental lines in [the patient’s] defenses….Dr. Keable’s paper is, in a sense, a “pre-pilot” study of this approach. Her findings are promising.”

The Rieger Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Award was established in 2000 to promote the publication of papers on psychotherapy, case reports, and therapy techniques. It is supported by the Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Foundation.

Helene Keable, M.D., is assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry, at the Mount Sinai Hospital and School of Medicine, in New York. She is a psychiatrist at Counseling and Psychological Services at Columbia University.

Dr. Keable will present, “Now I Have a Huge Memory” or “Defenses, a Therapeutic Tool and an Outcome Measure” at Honors Presentation 9 on Friday October 31 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the AACAP Annual Meeting at the Chicago Hotel and Towers.

For a copy of Dr. Keable’s article, or to obtain a photograph of Dr. Keable, please contact Adam Lowe, AACAP Communications Coordinator, at 202.966.7300 x 154 or alowe@aacap.org.

Representing over 7,500 child and adolescent psychiatrists nationwide, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is the leading authority on children's mental health. AACAP members actively research, diagnose, and treat psychiatric disorders affecting children, adolescents, and their families.

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