Dear Colleagues,

Happy New Year! As we begin the new year, we are beginning some exciting new programs at SFPRG. We had our first class of New Directions In Control Mastery Theory last Wednesday, January 13 from 7 to 9 pm at the Presidio. It was very gratifying to participate in this program for several reasons.

First, I was pleased that fifteen people signed up. We listened to everyone introduce themselves and say how they were acquainted with SFPRG. Several people said they were students; several were experienced clinicians. Equal numbers came from the East Bay, the South Bay, Marin, and San Francisco. Several of the attendees had come to the Wednesday seminar taught by Norman Sohn and Alan Rappoport, the Monday case conference taught by Peter Schumacher, and my seminar on Wednesday afternoons. It reminded me of the way our current SFPRG teachers and long term members became familiar with CMT, by going to Joe's or Hal's clinical case seminars, the research seminars, or the various conferences and workshops SFPRG offers throughout the year.

Our current members went to as many CMT learning experiences as they could, and then began participating as teachers, and finally as organizers, Board Directors, and administrators. The response we got from the students suggested that they were very excited and motivated to learn about Joe's theory of Control Mastery Theory and the new applications and research findings that we are going to present in this course. Read On

This month I will outline some of the many upcoming trainings being offered by SFPRG members and the Education Committee. Please note that SFPRG offers many ongoing case consultation groups that you can find on our website.

January 2010

There is still space available in Denny Zeitlin's January 30 workshop, The Challenge of Intimacy: Control Mastery Couple Therapy. This is a workshop that has consistently received high marks and I encourage anyone interested in developing a deeper understanding of a control mastery informed couple therapy to attend.

New Directions in Control Mastery, a 16--week course developed by John Gibbins, Ph.D. and Steve Foreman, M.D., began January 13. The response has been outstanding and we are pleased that the course is sold out. The Education Committee is planning to repeat a similar program in the fall and encourages anyone who missed it the first time to contact Rob (www.sfprg.org) to be placed on the waiting list.

Thanks are due to the course's many presenters: Michael Bader, Heather Clague, John Curtis, Steven Foreman, John Gibbins, Robert Lieb, Lynn O'Connor, Alan Rappoport, Ginger Rhodes and Peter Schumacher. Special thanks to Irwin Gootnick, who will be facilitating the case conference portion throughout the workshop's course. Read On

One project that I had hoped to finish before the end of the year is work on our Pathogenic Belief Scale. Unfortunately we don't yet have enough data from therapists' views of their patients' beliefs, so I'd like to encourage you to take a few minutes to help us out with this very important work. The rating task is done on-line (completely anonymously) and will take about 10 minutes to complete for each patient. You'll be asked to think of a patient that you know well and to fill in the rating scales.  We ask for very broad information (age, gender, race, etc) on the patient and there is no way that the patient's actual identity could be revealed.  Similarly, we do not need to know your identity but you will be asked to provide some kind of code that you use each time you log on.  When you do log on, you should complete all of the ratings for the particular patient that you are doing because each time you log on it will be for a new case. Please rate as many of your patients as you possibly can.  Click on this link below, which will take you to the secure site (no one can access the data but me): http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PWTW2BJ The instructions are all there.  And please forward this request and the link to any friends and colleagues who are therapists. Many thanks for your help. George

Dear Members and Friends of SFPRG, I hope you all had a great holiday season and will consider joining my Friday research group, which began January 8 and meets from 2 to 3. We are studying testing in the case of AR and relating it to his dreams and his progress.

I have made an interesting observation about how AR is working on overcoming his pathogenic belief that his successes hurt others. At the outset of analysis, he feels generally guilty and worried about hurting others by being more successful than they are. As he tests this pathogenic in analysis, he starts becoming aware that his expectation of hurting others is irrational, in that other people aren't that interested in or affected by his accomplishments, although his father really is.

Near the end of the 1st 100 hrs, he presents compelling evidence that his father compares himself to AR and feels diminished whenever AR mentions an accomplishment. The pathogenic belief that his success hurts others is based on an over generalization of his traumatic childhood experiences with his father. At its core is a realistic perception that his father feels bad when AR surpasses him.

I encourage everyone to study the stages involved in how patients overcome their pathogenic beliefs. At some point we should form a study group devoted to his topic. If you are interested in attending my research group, please call me at 415-561-6775.

A couple of years ago Franz Caspar, a good friend and colleague in Switzerland, organized a symposium in which four experienced therapists viewed a videotaped initial therapy session and independently formulated the case from their respective frameworks. The treatment was a short-term experiential therapy. The patient was a middle-aged, depressed man who was traumatized by having grown up in a severely dysfunctional family. His father was a chronic alcoholic and his mother developed a serious illness when the patient was 10 and died shortly thereafter. He described himself as having been a very bright, energetic, ambitious child, but when he was 10 years old (and his mother became ill) everything changed: he shifted from pursuing his aspirations to taking care of others and seemed to give up on the prospect of having a happy life. His primary pathogenic belief was that people are fragile, need to be taken care of, and that it is his responsibility to do so. Consequently, he felt that he had to subjugate his feelings, needs, and goals. The case was formulated by Marv Goldfried (a cognitive-behavior therapist), Jeanne Watson (an experiential therapist), Franz Caspar (a behavior therapist who together with Klaus Grawe developed their own concept of the patient's plan), and by me from a control-mastery perspective. Read On

Thank you to all who have renewed their membership during our drive this year. While renewals have been slower this year we are hoping this is a reflection of your busyness rather than dissatisfaction with how you are being cared for and served by SFPRG. If I can answer any questions you have or make any clarifications please contact me via email kathiedunnmft@comcast.net or call 707-227-2627.

Our plans for 2010 include networking opportunities for members, more informal social/collegiate get togethers in hopes we can form a more cohesive and connected group.

Our membership has expanded beyond our Bay Area, state and country and so some benefits of membership (low fee education opportunities) have limited availability, as yet, to this wider membership. We hope to establish other sites to members for educational opportunities and your membership dues will help us so that.

What unites us all is our interest and belief in Control Mastery theory as a research validated, effective way to help people overcome pathogenic beliefs which restrict their progress and thereby gain mastery in their own lives.

While you may not live close enough to participate in or attend our events know that your contribution to Control Mastery through your membership dues will be effectively used to make this theory more widely researched and available to other clinicians and patients.

We now offer a Therapist Finder search engine as an added benefit of your membership. In the article by Rob Petitpas, our administrative director, instructions on renewing or becoming a member are given.

As chair of the Membership Committee I am dedicated to bringing you a worthwhile experience of SFPRG through your membership.

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 11 "How Parents Have Intense Worry and Guilt".

FEAR OF BAD CHARACTER

One prominent parental fear that can lead to the cycle of torment between parent and child is the worry that a child may develop a bad character. If a child doesn't hand in homework, parents worry he'll never be able to hold a job. If a child lies about eating candy before dinner, this may be the beginning of a criminal life. These are actually not unreasonable worries. We all know plenty of people who don't develop responsibility or skills as adults and we hope that our children won't end up like them.

If a parent knew that a child could miss handing in his homework but still develop responsibility and skills to care for himself and others as an adult, that parent wouldn't worry so much about the homework. But who can read the future? When parents are disappointed in a child and begin to worry that the problem may be worse than imagined, they get a sickening, chilling feeling and experience a profound loss of self-esteem. Parents feel like failures if they believe their child is going to develop a bad character.

When a parent over-worries about a child, the child often comes to believe the parent's worst fear is true that she has a bad character and is headed for a fall. When a parent suffers, the child personalizes and assumes the parent is suffering because of a flaw in the child. The child doesn't realize that the parent's suffering is caused mostly by the parent's distorted idea that he is a bad parent. Even though parents do suffer somewhat directly from their conflict with their child, the great majority of their suffering is from their own exaggerated feelings of guilt that they are doing a miserable job.

When the child repeats a provocative behavior, (partly buying into unhealthy beliefs and partly as a test), the parents become more convinced the child is developing bad character. Parents suffer more out of guilt, then do more maladaptive parenting like blaming the child, withdrawing or rejecting the child, and fighting with each other. The parents' suffering makes the child feel guilty and suffer. The child's suffering makes the parents feel guilty and suffer. Parents and children often bring each other down.

In order to help parents with their excessive self-torment, it's important to accept and help parents accept that worry and guilt are essential parts of parenting. You can't tell a parent not to worry. Nothing makes a parent worry more than telling her "there's nothing to worry about!"

Steve Foreman

Breaking the Spell, Understanding Why Kids Do the Very Thing That Drives You Crazy has been printed and can be ordered now on my website (click link below), www.stevenaforemanmd.com. It is also available at the SFPRG "Bookstore" in Rob's Office.

SFPRG and membership dues

Your membership dues help keep SFPRG running. We are at the end of our membership drive and with a brand new Therapist Finder feature on our new website, we are hoping that everyone takes advantage of this service as a benefit of membership.

SFPRG is where therapists can learn how psychotherapy works and how to better serve their clients through our Bay Area classes, week-long annual international conference, publications and our web presence.

Your dues allow SFPRG

+to offer quality continuing education classes and case conferences at very reasonable prices.

+to provide a place for our Research Committee to meet, work and disseminate their findings.

+pay for our one full-time employee who runs our day to day operations.

+provide low-cost psychotherapy in the Bay Area.

+and along with your volunteer time to train the next generation of Control Mastery therapists.

We truly appreciate the time and money our members give to keep SFPRG a viable organization in these difficult times when many non-profits as well as clinics are closing their doors.

We thank all of you who have sent in the annual dues and urge all who have not, to please go to the website and click the member renewal link (or new member link). Please fill out at least the member directory portion (if not the Therapist Finder section as well). If you do not have web access, I would be happy to mail you the form we used previously for membership. SFPRG has not raised our professional membership rate in many years. As always, your dues and donations are tax-deductible.

Thank you!

Rob Petitpas, J.D., Executive Director

Also, here are our current listings of education offerings. For information on the Conference in March click the link below. For information on case conferences go to sfprg.org.

The Challenge of Intimacy: Control-Mastery Couple Therapy with Dennis J Zeitlin, M.D. on Jan 30

Intro to CMT with Steve Foreman, Steve Kanofsky and Jan Schreiber on Feb 27

23rd Annual International Conference on Control Mastery Theory March 1-5

Breaking the Spell: Understanding Why Kids Do the Very Thing that Drives Their Parents Crazy with Steve Foreman on April 3

Berkeley North / Solano Ave Large Psychotherapy Office Sublet

Large sunny furnished office is available in an all therapist building. Collegial atmosphere, the office has a fireplace, a skylight, call system & is soundproof. Utilities and cleaning are included. It's in a desirable location with shops & transportation. Available all day Mon, Wed, Fri, or Sat. Rent 2, 3 or 4 days Please call Frieda at 1-510-526-0908 or email tullyfog@aol.com

The second gratifying part of Wednesday's class for me was sitting with five other colleagues who will be co-teaching this course, Heather Clague, John Gibbins, David Auld, Peter Schumacher, and Irwin Gootnick. I am looking forward to teaching with them and the other faculty who are signed up for this course. The course offers an opportunity to see how colleagues teach. Whereas I have seen almost everyone in this group teach, some I haven't, and some I haven't for many years.

It is particularly enjoyable to hear Irwin teach again, who will be running the case conference portion of the class for the first eight weeks. Irwin was a supervisor of mine as a resident at Langley Porter and the first contact I had with Control Mastery Theory. He was the best teacher I had in my training program. He was one of the first supervisors who said you could know what was going on in psychotherapy and repeatedly suggested that I look at how the patient was responding to my interventions as a guide to letting me know if I was on track or not. I used to (unwittingly) upset my other supervisors by saying, "Gootnick says such and such. How do you respond to that?" Irwin was the first to suggest I get involved with SFPRG (then Mount Zion). He said, "Get in touch with Hal Sampson and Joe Weiss. They are doing wonderful work over there."

The other exciting project we are working on are the seminars and new classes offered in the Spring. The 23rd International Conference on Control Mastery Theory is being planned for March. We have heard already from at least 3 of our Norwegian colleagues that they have registered. I have had unfortunate news that our Cuban colleagues who were planning to come will not be able to attend this year either because of prohibition from their government or ours, I'm not yet sure.

We are offering more excellent spring courses. Denny Zeitlin is giving a wonderful seminar on Couples Therapy, "The Challenge of Intimacy" on January 30, from 8:30 to 1:30. I attended this conference two years ago and it was terrific, clearly taught and very moving. SFPRG is offering the Introduction to CMT taught by Steve Kanofsky, Jan Schreiber, and myself on February 27 from 9 to 4:30, and Breaking the Spell: Why Kids Do the Very Thing That Drives Their Parents Crazy on April 3 from 9 to 4:15, with guest appearances by David Auld and John Gibbins. SFPRG is offering our usual rich panoply of weekly conferences, three taught in the East Bay by Michael Lowenstein (Fri 9:30-11), Helene Goldberg (Thurs 2:30-4), and Carol Drucker (Thurs 12-1), and three taught in San Francisco by Peter Schumacher (Mon. 10:30-12), Norm Sohn & Alan Rappoport (Wed. 9-10), and myself (Wed. 2:30-4). See SFPRG.Org for details.

We are still urging members and former members to renew membership. If any of you are members who do not want to renew, please let us know why and what we might do to improve our program. Please contact me, Kathie Dunn, Rachel Rivers, Rob, or any other member or Board Director you know to let us know.

I wish you all a happy January and I look forward to seeing you next month.

Steve Foreman

February 2010

Introductory Course in Control Mastery: Steven Foreman, M.D., Steven Kanofsky, Ph.D., and Jan Schreiber, Ph.D.: February 27, 2010, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. This all day intensive seminar will provide a strong overview of the theory.

March 2010

The schedule for the 23rd Annual International Conference on Control Mastery Theory is almost finalized. You can review the workshops on the "course offering" section of the SFPRG website. We are very pleased to have such a large group of clinicians who so generously donate their time and expertise to help make this a successful training week. In addition to our regular morning case conferences, we will be providing a series of new workshops. I will call your attention to three workshops that will add biographical or historical viewpoints to further our present understanding of the process of psychotherapy.

Louis Breger, Ph.D. will be presenting ideas from his recent book, "A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed his Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis." This is a very compelling and insightful psycho-biographical assessment of the origins of psychoanalytic theory and Freud's early missteps as well as his contributions. "Louis Breger's compassionate, brilliant and spellbinding retelling of the origins of psychoanalysis, seen through the lens of Freud's trauma history, intense longings, and profound ambition, should be required reading for anyone interested in the foundations of one of the most influential theories of the 20th century. By telling the story of Freud and his relationships, Breger both challenges the dogmas that have stymied so many psychoanalytic historians, and illuminates the dynamics and entanglements at the heart of psychoanalysis' marvelous breadth and inherent limitations."-Arietta Slade, Professor of Clinical Psychology, City University of New York.

Beverly Conrad, Ph.D., will demonstrate the plan formulation method as applied to a psychobiography of Toulouse Lautrec. Tor Sletten, Ph.D., will introduce Cultural, Historical and Psychological Perspectives in the work of Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky (1896-1934) was a Soviet psychologist and is considered by many to be the founder of cultural-historical psychology.

Date to be Announced, March - April 2010

"Why Kids Do The Very Thing That Drives Their Parents Crazy," Steven Foreman, M.D. A broader description of this child therapy workshop featuring views from Dr. Foreman's new book will be outlined in next month's newsletter.

I have been involved with several of these kinds of comparative studies over the years but this one was by far the most pleasant - primarily because all 4 of us were trying to learn something from each other rather than trying to prove the superiority of one perspective over another. I was struck by many interesting similarities among the authors both in our models and theoretical assumptions and in our formulations of the case. For instance, Watson points out that EFT therapists should focus on those tasks that are most likely to help clients achieve their therapeutic goals. She also points out that the therapist should develop a good understanding of the client's early attachment history because clients learn to relate to themselves and others based on these early experiences. Goldfried also addresses the role of early relational experiences with attachment figures and how these contribute to the development of psychopathology. Caspar's Plan Analysis pays attention to how early childhood traumas play an important role in current symptoms and problematic behaviors. In short, there appears to be considerable convergence among the four models regarding the role of early experiences in the development of interpersonal and intrapsychic schemas. Another point of convergence among the four models is that these schemas often operate outside of a person's awareness; in other words, they are typically unconscious.

The four case formulations all emphasize the patient's self-critical tendencies, difficulties expressing anger, and his willingness to subjugate or defer his needs to those of others. In various ways all 4 authors note that in order to maintain attachment ties (initially to his mother and later to his wife) the patient has internalized others' criticism so that his attachment will not be jeopardized. Each of the formulations point out that the therapist should seek ways to provide a sense of safety or security so that the patient might feel more comfortable exploring and expressing problematic feelings. There also appears to be considerable convergence among the authors in emphasizing the importance of a supportive, nurturing therapeutic relationship in this case given his early traumatic experiences. Goldfried, the CBT therapist, explicitly mentions the importance of the therapist providing a corrective experience.

I don't mean to imply that there weren't differences among the authors, because there clearly were. For example, I disagree with my colleagues' emphasis on particular therapeutic techniques (e.g., the empty chair Gestalt technique) to address and resolve problematic emotions. I believe that patients are highly motivated to master their traumas and work on therapeutic goals and that patients and therapists co-create optimal strategies for doing so. Consequently, I do not privilege one particular technique over another. Nonetheless I was struck by the number of similarities in these 4 models, which I found both sobering and humbling. (We just finished writing this project up for publication and it should come out early this year. I will post the reference in the Newsletter when it is available.)