Scientific Program featuring Sien Rivera, MD

Saturday, October 10, 2026
10:00 am to 12:00 pm

ET

Hybrid via Zoom or In-Person at McKimmon Center at NCSU, Raleigh North Carolina 27606 United States

Connected Worlds: Working Psychoanalytically Between the Virtual and Corporeal

Presented by Sien Rivera, MD

 

Registration Fee: Please select the fee level that best reflects your current circumstances.

This Scientific Program seeks to explore psychoanalytic approaches to new technology, complicating the idea that patient and/or practitioner engagement with virtual worlds is somehow inherently fraught. 

This presentation will utilize discussion of a patient case as a demonstration of the potentially creative work with patients that can occur when applying psychoanalytic lenses to topics such as video games, artificial intelligence, and social media. 

About the Speaker

Sien Rivera, MD, is Assistant Program Director of the Prisma Health Midlands / University of South Carolina General Psychiatry residency program, and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. They are a psychoanalytic psychotherapist that is double boarded in General and Child/Adolescent Psychiatry. They are a former fellow of the American Psychoanalytic Association, former chair of the American Psychoanalytic Association's Committee on Gender and Sexuality, and a winner of the Ralph Roughton Paper Award. They write and present nationally and internationally on topics related to gender, sexuality, and new technologies.

 
 

After this presentation, participants will be able to:

  1. Explain the nuances between various forms of virtual media, as well as how different aspects of virtual engagement can influence the psychic experience of patients/clients. 

  1. Apply psychoanalytic theory in object relations to the role that virtual worlds can play in psychoanalytic work with patients/clients. 

  1. Discuss both the limitations and expansiveness that engagement in virtual worlds can play for specialized populations including, but not limited to, members of the LGBTQIA community as well as adolescents. 

 

This program is intended for mental health clinicians, integrated healthcare professionals, and other clinicians or interested academics.

Confidentiality Statement: All case material will be carefully disguised. We ask that participants agree to hold all material presented with the utmost care, following ethical and professional guidelines.

Accommodation Statement: To request an accommodation for this program, please email  Kayla Schilke, PCC Training and Education Program Manager, at least two weeks before the start date.

1. Rivera, S. (2022). From battleground to playground: The video game avatar as transitional phenomenon for a transgender patient. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 70, 485-510. 

2. Gutiérrez L. (2025). Theoretical and metapsychological aspects of digital immersion and presence: Towards a psychoanalytic understanding of being “in” a virtual environment and “with” the other on the screen. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 106(1), 109-138. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207578.2024.2330589 

3. Chung S. J. (2025). Transformative encounters: Bridging cyber- and analytic space. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 106(3), 556–564. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207578.2025.2511312 

CME credits: 2 / CE credits: 2 / NBCC: 2 clock hours / All others: Letter of Attendance

The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6518. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.

The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Social workers will receive a letter of attendance documenting their hours of continuing education. This certificate may not be acceptable verification in all states.

ACCME Accreditation Statement
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of American Psychoanalytic Association and the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas. The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

AMA Credit Designation Statement
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this live activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Disclosure Statement
The APsA CE Committee has reviewed the materials for accredited continuing education and has determined that this activity is not related to the product line of ineligible companies and therefore, the activity meets the exception outlined in Standard 3: ACCME's identification, mitigation and disclosure of relevant financial relationship. This activity does not have any known commercial support. 

Contact: Kayla@CarolinaPsychoanalytic.org

For more information on our cancellation policy, please click here.

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