San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group, Clinic and Training Center Newsletter
Issue #34
April 28, 2009
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MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE REPORT:

We would like to thank all those who filled out the SFPRG Survey. The April 18th e-mail Survey reminder did produce a better response. As a result we have more information about classes, conferences, meetings, research, clinical material and ideas you would like to see SFPRG teach and promote. This information is invaluable to us. We will write about the results after out next Membership Committee meeting in May. Therefore, you still have time to do the survey! Many people have found the survey interesting because it gives them an opportunity to think about Control Mastery Theory, SFPRG and have their opinions heard. We are listening.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT
 
From Steve Foreman

Dear Colleagues

Though it is tax day, April is not such a cruel month. Life is pretty good at SFPRG. The census is up at the Clinic. More clients are being seen and interns are having more clinical learning experiences. Some interns are doing clinical research and attending research conferences.

We are preparing for our next big conference on the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder, comparing Schema Therapy with Control Mastery Theory, to be given on May 30, 2009 by George Lockwood and John Curtis. (Click on the link below to register). Our many weekly case conferences and research conferences are going strong, well attended and well taught.

Our fundraising committee, under the inspired leadership of Karen Hubble, is getting mobilized. We interviewed our first promising candidate for fundraising/marketing director. We are starting to take definite steps toward pursuing a fundraising program. We are also considering new Board members who will take over the positions of three current directors who are rotating off the Board in May. Read On


EDUCATION COMMITTEE NEWS
 
From David Auld

Planning Underway for Fall 2009 SFPRG Course Offerings

The Education Committee has begun to formulate and organize "pro-plan" course offerings for our membership. In order for them to be successful, we'll need members' involvement in two distinct forms.

First, we invite you to suggest classes or seminars that you might provide. We have the benefit of a large membership with diverse subject interests. One of the most important aspects of our organization is its ability to draw upon the current expertise and research of the membership. We thank those of you who have offered suggestions and invite you to continue to do so.

In addition, some SFPRG members have found this to be a very good forum for synthesizing the organization of an intended book, article or larger presentation.

Second, the Education Committee would like to hear from you regarding educational offerings that you think would be of particular value. The upcoming workshop Recent Breakthroughs in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Control Mastery and Schema Therapy Perspective (5/30/09) was in part designed because members wanted to learn control mastery theory as applied to the treatment of difficult patient populations.

Let us hear from you. David Auld, Ph.D., Education Committee Chair


CONTROL MASTERY AND SCHEMA THERAPY PERSPECTIVE ON BPD TREATMENT
 
Presenters: John Curtis and George Lockwood

  • Recent Breakthroughs in the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder: A Control Mastery & Schema Therapy Perspective
  • Saturday, May 30, 2009; 9:00 am to 4:30 pm
  • SF Jewish Community Center
  • 3200 California at Presidio
  • 6 CE Credits
  • Pre-Registration
  • $70 SFPRG Members
  • $90 Non-members
  • $20 Students
  • $20 more at door
Click on the link below to register online and view policies and other information. Call 415-561-6771 for a registration form. Become a member now and receive the member fee. Read On


OUR GREAT LOSS: WILLIAM TEMBY
 

William (Bill) Temby, M.D., a longtime SFPRG member and avid participant of our annual March conference passed away on March 20th this year. We are saddened by the loss of this wonderful man and accomplished clinician. We send regrets to his family.

Many of you will remember him from his participation in the March conferences and, as Marshall Bush describes him, a "really sweet man".


GREETINGS FROM NORWAY
 
From Bernt Arne Larsen

Dear All of You at SFPRG,

This week I had the privilege to present central elements of the Control Mastery Theory to my colleagues at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway. One of the doctors in our Department has a lecture for the entire group every week - and as I myself could chose my own topic, believe me, this time I had no problems what subject to present. Read On


ANNOUNCEMENTS
 

FREE PARENTING SERIES: SFPRG & Redeemer Preschool present "Parenting Today" on May 13, 2009. Free child care and parking, too!

  • Breaking the Spell: Why Kids Do the Very Thing that Drives Their Parents Crazy
  • Steve Foreman, M.D.
  • Church of the Redeemer
  • 123 Knight Drive, San Rafael
  • May 13, 2009
  • Refreshments at 6:45 pm
  • 7 - 8 pm

JON BELFORD IS TAKING REFERRALS

I am finishing my first year of a two year Predoctoral internship with SFPRG. I have been participating in the Friday research meetings for several years and am happy to formally be a part of the group. I have greatly enjoyed the trainings, research meetings, case conferences and clinical opportunities and look forward to the 2009/10 training year. These experiences and the supervision I've received from group members have had a tremendously positive influence on my development as a clinician.

I wanted to take this opportunity to announce that I'm currently welcoming low fee referrals in a new Psychological Assistant practice with Potrero Hill Psychotherapy. I provide brief and long term psychotherapy for adolescents, adults and couples. Some specific areas of interest and experience include:

-Relationship Difficulties - Oppositional adolescents - Parents/siblings of children on the Autism spectrum - Adolescents/adults diagnosed with ADHD, Aspergers or a Learning Disability

Please consider me for any appropriate referrals. I look forward to utilizing the concepts of control-mastery theory in this new setting. Feel free to call or email with any questions.

Best regards, Jon Belford, MA

Potrero Hill Psychotherapy; 1529 20th St.; San Francisco, CA; (415) 829-3293

LINDSEY BEAVEN INVITES:

Trainees, Interns & newly licensed therapists

Come Join The Chicken Soup Group*: Supporting the calling, passion and resilience of therapists-in-the-making

New therapists discover that facing their clients' problems means much soul searching -- - for their clients and for themselves. While developing their therapeutic presence, identity and repertoire, new therapists uncover growing edges they never knew they had.

Resilience, clarity about their calling and the care and feeding of their souls become vital to weathering the journey through licensure.

Our Chicken Soup Group* (formerly the "neophyte therapist" group) exists to support MFT/LCSW trainees, interns and those newly licensed as they navigate and clarify their call to this nothing-less- than sacred work. We access the expressive arts both to explore this rugged terrain and to provide some rich creative sustenance for the emerging therapist as s/he learns to balance deep care for others with renewing self care.

The group''s facilitator, Lindsey Beaven, is freshly through the MFT examination process, has held several internships in San Francisco and Marin and is intimately familiar with the challenges of the MFT journey. She holds an MA in Counseling Psychology from CIIS (expressive arts emphasis) and currently is pursuing a PhD in Depth Psychotherapy at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Important Note: Absolutely no artistic or musical talent is necessary to participate!

* Any resemblance to the material of The Chicken Soup books by Jack Canfield, however unlikely, is strictly unintentional.

  • Wednesdays 6:15 - 8:15 pm
  • April 22 through May 27, 2009
  • San Rafael
  • $125 for six week group
  • Lindsey Beaven
  • 415-902-1304 to register

SHARON HAASE ANNOUNCES formation of an Oakland Therapy Group for Adults with Survivor Guilt:This group will serve adults struggling with survivor guilt around having grown up with a gravely ill family member. Control mastery therapists are very familiar with the often seemingly intractable pathogenic beliefs which underlie a compelling need to make reparation for one's relative health and well-being through their own unhappiness. Our clients speak of a non-specific dissatisfaction with themselves and their lives. Sometimes they describe a relentless internal critic who robs them of all joy and sense of achievement; others seem to compulsively set themselves up for failure.

Group therapy can be a useful adjunct to individual therapy for these folks. Many people who have witnessed the ongoing suffering of loved ones live with bypassed grief, which is too painful to work through because of the belief that one is somehow responsible for that suffering. Survivor guilt keeps people isolated, so a therapy group is an optimal way to work through grief and become conscious of how they limit themselves. Safety inheres in the knowledge that everyone in the group has survivor guilt in common.

Participants in the group can expect to benefit in many ways. In hearing others' stories, the sense of isolation that is inherent in shame, guilt and trauma can be addressed. They will also have the benefit of witnessing the way their fellows get in their own way because of their survivor guilt, and will be helped to harness some of that indignation on their own behalf. And, as with all psychodynamic groups, members will learn about themselves, how they impact and are perceived by others, and how they may be unwittingly getting in their own way in relationships.

Please contact Sharon Haase, MFT at (510) 420 - 1258 for more information.

INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOANALYSIS is now accepting applications for training for the academic year 2009 - 2010 and the deadline for completed applications is July 1, 2009. They have a pluralistic approach to theory. Call Jane Jordan, PSY.D. at 415-931-5730 or 831-423-1677 for more information.


Con't: President Report
 

One of the most exciting new developments is a conference taking place in Havana, Cuba at the end of April, at which Control Mastery Theory will be a featured topic. Our friends and colleagues in Norway, Hans Peter Broch, Tor Sletten, and Dag Oulie are organizing a conference discussing Control Mastery Theory as well as related theories directed primarily to participants from Norway and some from Cuba. This satellite conference is part of a larger International Congress of Psychotherapy given by the Cubans that includes participants from Germany, France, Norway, Mexico, Argentina, and Cuba.

Tor Sletten is president of Almagroforeningen, the organization that has put on many conferences in Almagro, Spain, over the past decade, mainly for Norwegian participants. Last fall, Almagroforeningen devoted an entire conference to Control Mastery Theory in Almagro. Tor is also an international advisor to the International Congress of Psychotherapy, centered in Havana. He is the only person I have ever met who has both a bust of Lenin as well as one of Che Guevara on his desk.

Tor and Hans Peter have invited John Curtis and me to help present Control Mastery Theory at the satellite conference for Norwegians and Cubans. Tor will speak about Vygotsky, character theory, and pathogenic beliefs. Hans Peter will speak about Control Mastery Theory and Object Relations, focusing on Projective Identification, an area of specialty for Hans Peter who has written a book on the subject with Kari Lossius.

John Curtis and I will present Control Mastery Theory over two days, the development of pathogenic beliefs, the patient's plan, how patients test in psychotherapy and what allows them to get better. We will also have an opportunity to present to the larger International Conference of Psychotherapy about what we are doing at SFPRG and review the research of our group. We will be honored to be in Havana for May Day, the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.

We are excited about the opportunity to present Control Mastery Theory and introduce SFPRG to this group in Cuba. We look forward to seeing you when we get back in May. We will report on the conference in the next newsletter. Have a wonderful month.

Steve Foreman


Cont'd: BPD Treatment Conference
 

Participants will learn the concepts of Schema Mode Work, a new advance in Schema Therapy designed to produce deep and far reaching personality changes in patients with BPD.

Participants will view videotaped segments of an actual patient that demonstrates Schema Mode strategies.

Key similarities and differences between Schema Therapy and Control-Mastery will be discussed and explored.

Implications of the lessons learned from the treatment of BPD for the treatment of a broad range of serious character pathology will also be discussed.

At the end of the seminar, participants will have learned

1) Schema Therapy theory and goals for BPD treatment;

2) a broad range of techniques for treating BPD patients, including schema and mode dialogues, imagery and other emotion-focused techniques, limited-reparenting, and behavioral pattern breaking;

3) how to create a strong constructive therapeutic alliance with BPD patients that is central to treatment success;

4) how to conceptualize patients in easy-to- understand ways that can be shared with the patient, and that lead to collaborative, compassionate and effective interventions;

5) the key similarities and differences between Schema Therapy and Control Mastery in the treatment of serious character pathology.

Click the link below to register.


Cont'd: Greetings From Norway
 

The process last week, preparing my presentation, was not exhausting the way preparing these sessions often are for me. On the contrary, going through the notes in the black Moleskin I dedicated to the 22nd Annual Conference on CMT in March, a lot of happy memories came back:

The warm hospitality we met, both at Funston Avenue and from each of you individually, the entire atmosphere during the Conference, the friends I made from USA and several countries, and also - and this my notes indeed proves - the thorough and well prepared presentations each of you gave.

The Morning Conferences were a good way to start the day and keeping focus through the week; first meeting you in the kitchen, getting the coffee and maybe some breakfast substitute - I have to admit I skipped breakfast at my hotel for some 30 minutes extra sleep, before I grabbed a taxi from Union Square to Presidio, and had a nice chat with the San Francisco cab drivers - a quite different experience from other major American cities where the passenger is locked behind bars in a cramped back seat.

Then Steven Foreman and John Gibbins came to the really crowded "living room" for the two hours daily sessions, to guide us through the transcripts of the seven first sessions in Mr R.'s therapy, integrating the CMT and making us see the way it actually appeared in the therapy.

As we proceeded with the afternoon sessions, carefully organized by Rob, presentations and discussions on different interesting Control Mastery topics, by your experienced therapists and researchers, we managed to use the new knowledge analysing Mr. R.'s therapeutic process.

The lunch breaks were a good opportunity to meet with other participants. At the ACRE Café we saw The Bridge Rail Foundation's exhibition "Whose Shoes?"- a silent and most touching testimony to all those lost in suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge http://www.bridgerail.org

Most of all, I appreciated you taking the time to give us an individual case consultation. The Control Mastery theory indeed applies to my own patients, and made what was going on in the difficult therapy I presented clearer.

Indeed, I enjoyed the Conference, my stay in San Francisco - so many years since my previous visits - and probably my enthusiasm was apparent, too, at my presentation this week, as several of the residents and child psychiatrists expressed interest in the CMT: the theory, the empirical research methods and the clinical implications.

If any of my colleagues will join me to the 23rd Annual Conference next year I do not yet know, but myself I am only waiting for the dates and for the registration for returning participants to open!

Thank you for a great Conference!

Kind regards, Bernt Arne Larsen, MD MPH

Senior Consultant Child Psychiatrist, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway

balarsen@broadpark.no


Thank you for your interest and participation. This enewsletter would be of little value except for that interest and participation.

Best to all, Kathie Dunn


Kathie Dunn MFT, Editor
San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group, Clinic and Training Center
Phone: 415-561-6771
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