We welcome Rachel Rivers who will
be one of our new Board members. Rachel has
been associated with SFPRG for over 20 years.
She has served as pastor of the Swedenborgian
Church until last year. She helped organize
and host the first parenting series of
lectures last year at her church and helped
organize and host the second
parenting series at the Redeemer Pre-School
in San Rafael that just finished last week.
Both parenting series were very well attended
and highly acclaimed.
I would like to report on the recent
International Psychotherapy Congress that
John Curtis and I were privileged to attend
in late April-early May in Havana, Cuba. Our
Norwegian colleagues, Tor Sletten, Hans Peter
Broch, and Dag Oulie invited John and me to
give lectures about Control Mastery Theory to
the congress and to a smaller gathering of
Norwegians and Cubans before the congress.
Tor, who is president of Almagroforeningen,
is an adviser and organizer of the congress.
We had the pleasure to meet and work with
several Cuban organizers of the congress
including Reina Rodriguez, president of the
Organizing Committee, and Dr. Ana Sarracent
who helped us in many ways get around Havana
and finally helped us get out of the country
when Mexican airports were closed because of
the flu pandemic.
John and I arrived in Havana late on
Saturday night, and got to work early Sunday
morning, speaking for three hours in the
morning and then again in the afternoon, with
translators, to a satellite conference
attended by about 35 guests from Norway,
Germany, Argentina and Cuba. In addition to
giving an overview of the history of SFPRG,
John and I presented about the role of
trauma, the development of pathogenic
beliefs, and how psychotherapy works. We
talked about understanding the patient's
plan, how patients test, and how the
therapist helps or hinders the patient's
progress by working with or against the
patient's plan.
On Monday morning, we spoke
to the Norwegians and Cubans again about the
patient's plan, and also gave a talk about
Altruism in Children. In the afternoon, we
heard Hans Peter present an analytic case in
Norwegian, with translations available in
English and Spanish, illustrating Object
Relations Theory and Control Mastery Theory.
We all participated in a lively discussion,
helped by translators, comparing the
different assumptions of Object Relations and
Control Mastery Theories. We had very
interested participation from many of the
Cubans present as well as an analyst from
Buenos Aires.
On Monday, the entire congress convened.
We heard first from the Cuban delegation,
describing psychotherapy in Cuba. One of the
older psychiatrists, who was director of
psychiatry in Cuba, spoke about how difficult
it had been to run a psychiatric program in
Cuba, particularly with the economic blockade
which kept very few medicines from being
accessible to the Cubans.
We then took a break before we were asked
to speak about the state of psychotherapy in
the United States as well as hear about how
psychotherapy was
conducted in other countries represented at
the conference. We heard from a physician
talking about psychotherapy in Canada. We
also heard presentations from representatives
from Germany, France, Norway, Argentina, as
well as Cuba.
When it was time for John and I to speak
about the United States, we thanked the
Cubans for inviting us to the conference. I
said that I, for one, was sorry about the
blockade of Cuba and the many restrictions
between our two countries. I said that I
hoped that with our new administration in
Washington, these restrictions would end soon
which would open up an new era of cooperation
between the United States and Cuba. The
Cubans and the other participants were very
positive and appreciated our willingness to
collaborate. The entire time we were there,
I felt they were very hungry to learn more
about psychotherapy and psychotherapy research.
Many of the speakers talked about the
importance of psychoanalytic psychotherapy
and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in their
countries, very much as it is in our country.
Many of the delegates were quite interested
in what we had to say about Control Mastery
Theory.
The next morning, John and I presented the
research of SFPRG in a three hour workshop
open to the entire congress. Over fifty
people came to the presentation that could
not take in all of those who had been on the
waiting list to hear about our
theory and research.
The participants at the conference came
from Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina,
Chile, Mexico, Canada, as well as from
Europe. They were very friendly, eager, and
curious about our work. We may be able to
host two Cuban psychiatrists, who rarely have
permission to leave the country, at our
International CMT Conference in San Francisco
in March. We have also invited many of the
other participants to come visit us in March.
It was very gratifying to be in Cuba
during this time of transition. It was
exciting to see the enthusiasm and interest
that Control Mastery Theory generated with
the Cubans and participants from other
countries. People are very interested in
getting our books translated into Spanish.
Hans Peter is planning another conference
next year in Argentina where he will invite
members of our group to present Control
Mastery Theory. We are very indebted to Hans
Peter and to the Norwegian group for their
interest in and willingness to promote
teaching of Control Mastery Theory to an
ever-widening audience.
Don't forget to come to the conference
on Recent Breakthroughs in the Treatment of
Borderline Personality Disorder: A Control
Mastery and Schema Therapy Perspective given
by John Curtis and George Lockwood on
Saturday, May 30, 2009 at the JCC.
I hope you all have a wonderful month
and I look forward to talking with you again
in June.
Steve Foreman
