Karol Marshall, PhD, ABPP

The lived experience of loss suggests that mourners cherish and treasure at the same time as they relinquish that which they are losing. When confronted with loss we are challenged to detach while at the same time we may want to keep holding on. I am interested in assisting with contemporary losses as well as losses that may have occurred early in life.

Mourning doesn’t happen in defined stages.

Mourning doesn’t have a normal time span.

Mourning is not necessarily private and internal.

Mourning is not limited to moving through a few predictable affects.

Mourning is deeply personal.

Mourners maintain ties to that which is lost.

Mourners fall in and out of mourning.

Publications related to loss:

“When a patient commits suicide." Suicide and life Threatening Behavior  1980.

“Termination" of an "Infinite Conversation” Psychoanalytic Dialogues  2000.

“Treating Mourning -Knowing Loss” Contemporary Psychoanalysis  2008.

Recent talks on loss: 

“Treating” Mourning; “Knowing” Loss, Northwest Alliance Forum, May 6, 2006.                   International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education, Pasadena, Nov 2006.

Recent Courses on Loss:

“Working with Loss” – Winter 2006, Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis.

Building and maintaining solid relationships is an ongoing challenge, continually complicated by cultural change. It seems that more and more people are deciding that relatedness involves more difficulties than benefits. As a result we see increasing numbers of people living alone, delaying children, stepping away from interpersonal intimacy.

My experiences over the years have taught me a great deal about the complex dance between individual integrity and interpersonal intimacy. The imagery of dance helps me as I assist a wide variety of people with an infinite variety of relational challenges. Whether dealing with the challenges of conventional marriage or those of more unique interpersonal collaborations, people are finding it complicated to develop a full knowledge of what each person wants and needs as an individual, along with what loved ones want and need. The creative solutions that  are  crafted in consultation with me can allow for more lively, durable relationships.

In a well functioning relationship, one plus one can yield more than two.

I have years of experience in issues related to bringing up children in contemporary family structures (divorce, second marriage, same sex partners, separate but intimate partners, single parents, etc.).  I also have years of experience in sorting out relational issues related to non-normative sexual behavior and gender expressions.

Published Articles:

"Relations at three early stages of marriage as reflected by the use of personal pronouns." With H. Raush and J. Featherman.  Family Process, l970, 69-82.

"Evaluation of community attitudes toward an adolescent drop-in and service center." with D. Allen. J. of Community Psychology. l973, 1, 390-394.

"Masculine Vulnerability: Issues in Treatment" The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Review, Vol. 6, No. 1, l995 p. 6-16.

"Response to Myron Fishman's Commentary on "Masculine Vulnerability: Issues in Treatment" The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Review Vol. 6, No. 1, l995 p. 21-24.

Review by Karol Marshall, PhD  Contemporary Psychoanalysis, vol35 #3 p 536-542, M. Magee and D.C.Miller, Lesbian Lives. 1998.

Review by Karol Marshall, PhD  Contemporary Psychoanalysis, vol 37, of Tim Dean, Beyond Sexuality   "The Queering of Psychoanalysis" Dec 2002.

Review by Karol Marshall, PhD  Contemporary Psychoanalysis vol 37, 2004 of Muriel Dimen, Sexuality, Intimacy, Power.

Courses taught to mental health professionals:

Gender and Sexuality - Seattle Institute for Psychoanalysis, Spring 2003 Sexuality – with Muriel Dimen.

for Psychoanalysis, Winter 2007

Antonino Ferro, Bionian/Relational Clinical Practice, with J. Eaton, Winter 2007

The Relational Sensibility, Northwest Center for Psychoanalysis, Fall  2008

“Issues in understanding the transgender experience” Panel with Adrienne Harris Portland November 2008

Psychoanalysis is designed to help us get in touch with memories, feelings and desires that are not readily available to the conscious mind. It is designed to help in understanding how these unconscious feelings and thoughts affect the way we think and feel. Through the analytic process an individual becomes able to think and act with more self awareness. From the psychoanalytic perspective, self-knowledge is an important key to changing attitudes and behavior.

Psychoanalysis is based on recognizing that our adult personalities are the result our having passed through many developmental stages. The way we have reacted to past events may have caused us to carry within us habits and beliefs that have more place in the past than the present. Psychoanalysis can allow making connections between past and current experiences that offer fresh perspective on contemporary situations.

People in psychoanalysis are encouraged to verbalize all thoughts and feelings that come up, including those concerning the treatment process and the analyst. Exploration of these feelings offers enhanced clarity about the process of relatedness. Re-experiencing and re-working important aspects of relatedness  in the safety and clarity of the psychoanalytic relationship may allow for further development.

Psychoanalysis provides a safe place in which to discover one’s inner and relational world. It offers a uniquely intimate but neutral relationship within which to see ourselves and our experience in new ways.