With Hilary Offman, MD FRCPC
This presentation explores how gaps, silences, and contradictions in family stories—the “narrative holes” such as unexplained family estrangements, sudden changes in behaviour, or unspoken tragedies—serve as vital entry points into understanding transgenerational trauma. Drawing on clinical material and contemporary analytic theory, Dr. Hilary Offman examines how both personal and collective histories of transgenerational trauma and existential anxiety may be obscured or disavowed yet continue to shape patients’ lives in profound ways.
By attending to the moments when narratives do not add up, clinicians can make use of their countertransferential responses to approach the dissociated, unspoken aspects of trauma. This session will delve into strategies for working with confusion and affective disorientation in the clinical setting, with special attention to how sociopolitical context and cultural identity influence the telescoping of traumatic experience across generations.
Colleagues interested in relational psychoanalysis, trauma theory, and the complexities of inherited suffering will find this session relevant to their practice and thinking.
Biographical noteHilary Offman, MD FRCPC, is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst with a private practice in Toronto, Canada. She is a lecturer and supervisor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, with hospital appointments at the University Health Network (UHN) and Unity Health. She serves as a supervising analyst, faculty member, and Board member at the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis (TICP). Dr. Offman is a current Board member and former Candidates Committee co-chair for the International Association of Relational Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis (IARPP), where she is currently co-chairing the International Chapters Committee and the upcoming IARPP International Conference, “Can Hate Last: Reclaiming Clinical Sensibilities in Relational Psychoanalysis” in Toronto in May 2026.Recognized as one of Toronto’s Top Doctors in Post City Magazine, Dr. Offman is also a recipient of multiple awards for teaching excellence and supervision from the University of Toronto, reflecting her lasting impact as an educator, mentor, and clinician.A sought-after speaker and writer, Dr. Offman’s scholarship explores themes of otherness, queerness, and fatness, with her work influencing both psychoanalytic teaching and practice.Her article “Fatphobia is Real” won the Council for Advancement and Support of Education in Medicine (CASE) Gold Writing Award, and her academic papers are used to teach about working psychoanalytically with patients who identify as non-binary. She recently published her first poem, “Why? July?” in the Annals of Internal Medicine (2025).When not working, she enjoys knitting with wool that is far too expensive, spending time with her family, and sharing her office with her dog Steve, who plays a vital role in supporting her practice and patients.
When
January 14th, 2026 from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM