February 13, 2012

Dear Colleagues,

It is February and the 25th International Conference on Control Mastery Theory is coming up in 2 weeks. Please come and invite your students and colleagues to come as well. We will be studying an excellent new audio-taped therapy by a Control Mastery therapist in our morning session for new participants. Most of the clinical workshops are new, either with new topics or taught by new teachers, and designed by request of previous attendees.

Participants will present new research at the pizza and beer research party on Monday night. For those who have never come or who need cheap continuing education credits, come to the Introduction to CMT on March 3, presented by Steve Kanofsky, Jan Schreiber, and myself. And come to the 25th International Conference on CMT.

I received an email in January from a colleague in Vancouver whom I had never met. He was inquiring about teaching materials that would be appropriate for him to present Control Mastery Theory in his community in Vancouver, BC. He is a team leader in a mental health clinic, a PhD student and researcher. He wrote, "I've developed a strong affinity for CMT since reading Weiss' book and papers, and I'm dismayed at how little people seem to know of CMT in my part of the world (...). I'd like to help disseminate knowledge about CMT at my local level. You have a great website; any further advice/info would be appreciated." Read On

Although there has been plenty of research going on within the group, there has not been an active research committee on the board for more than a year. I agreed to chair a restarted committee and would love to have you join me.

As a start, we want to increase visibility of the existing research projects: +George Silberschatz and Marshall Bush have active groups that meet weekly on Fridays. They have various research projects ongoing. When they periodically reach out for member support, let's lend our hands to their projects.

+Last month we posted the first listing of some of the dissertations that have been based on Control Mastery Theory. Though I was identified as having provided that list, Patsy Wood was the one who made that list happen. Patsy has provided much help to the committee so far in brainstorming how we might increase future student work that is based on our theory.

Again, the committee is just getting off the ground. There are many ways that we can provide active support of one of the most important legs of our group. If you would like to join the committee, please send me an email. (GingerRhodes@comcast.net) I'd love to have your help.

Looking at Psychotherapy Outcome: Patient Therapist Interaction and New Research on Process and Outcome

Louis Breger, PhD, Suzanne Gassner, PhD and George Silberschatz, PhD

Saturday, June 2, 2012

JCC, 2300 California St., SF

This workshop illuminates the effectiveness of psychotherapy through two presentations looking at the outcome of psychotherapy. Louis Breger presents patient accounts of their psychotherapy from his new book, Psychotherapy: Lives Intersecting (Transaction, 2012) in which thirty+ former patients report their experience, in their own words, in many cases a number of years after its conclusion. After a fifty-year career, Breger surveyed these patients to see if their progress, begun in therapy, had continued, expanded, or regressed, highlighting what they remembered as being most helpful, therapeutic, or curative in their treatment. The book, which primarily deals with the connections between the therapist and patient, is a unique long-term follow-up which demonstrates the effectiveness of contemporary analytic psychotherapy.

George Silberschatz presents new research on psychotherapy outcome and the processes of psychotherapy that has grown out of the long history of studies on the psychotherapy process carried out by him and others from the San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group. Psychotherapy outcome research studies have typically compared the effectiveness of one kind of therapy (e.g., psychodynamic therapy) against another (e.g., cognitive behavior therapy). Although thousands of such studies have been done, the cumulative results of such research has done little to shed light on how therapy works or on how a therapist can best help a particular patient seeking treatment. Silberschatz will present data from his recent process-outcome research, which systematically evaluated how the therapeutic process is linked to treatment outcome. This study assessed the extent to which therapist interventions were responsive to the patient's problems, needs, and goals and then evaluated whether these responsiveness ratings were predictive of treatment outcome.

Suzanne Gassner, who has written a series of clinical and formal research papers on control-mastery theory, will discuss Breger and Silbserschatz's papers. Throughout the day there will be ample time for audience participation. At the end of the afternoon program, a panel of Breger, Silberschatz and Gassner will further discuss the day's papers with the audience and the pros and cons of these two investigatory approaches to the study of psychotherapy outcome.

The clinic is bustling. We have 14 trainees who are all working hard. Although not everyone's caseload is completely full, they all have many interesting clients who keep them very busy. Thank you all for helping this success to happen.

We are excited to announce that Trond and Andreas went back to Norway to take their final exams and have returned to the clinic with their degrees in hand and are ready to practice in Norway. We are very excited for their success and happy that they will be with us until late July.

Bob Nemorovski has recently finished his licensing process and is beginning a private practice in Marin while he finishes his commitment to the clinic. Congratulations are in order for Bob as well.

Jessica and I are in the process of interviewing for new trainees for the next year. The process has started earlier this year than other years. Capic has changed their deadline and moved it back a month from March to February. We have interviewed some good candidates and wish we had room for many of them, but next year we will be able to take only 2-3 new people.

Thank you all for your help and support. The clinic would not be the exciting, vibrant place it is without all of your support.

Carol Drucker, Clinical Director

Our committee (we would like you to join) has made progress in it's goal to pair-up with our interns. We see our role as providing support and feedback on professional and career goals. If you would like to be associated with this goal join our committee. We'd love to have you! (kathiedunnmft@comcast.net)

As you have read earlier, we are to become an institute and one goal is to keep Control Mastery theory viable into the future. We have our research, training center and clinic, the Annual March Conference (1st week of March), various and rich case consultation groups as well as diverse presentations throughout the year. We want more people to have access to this highly workable theory of psychotherapy.

Our membership has fallen over the past two years and we are puzzling out the cause. You can help us figure this out by contacting me or any other board member with your discomfort, ennui and hopes for our future. We are also looking to bring back the "Town Hall Meeting" where we will ply you with food and drink til you share your thoughts! It'll be fun!

Stay tuned for further info.

In the previous issue Patsy Wood was not given credit for her work in putting this listing together. Our apologies to Patsy and you for the misinformation.

Patsy Wood has put together an extensive list of dissertations related to CMT. This will be at least a three month listing so be sure you catch it all.

If you have written or published or intend to do so, let the research committee know (gingerrhodes@comcast.net). We are interested in what you are doing!

Integrating attachment theory and control mastery theory: Implications for adult psychotherapy by Walthall, Amy Dian, Psy.D., The Wright Institute, 2003 , 179 pages; AAT 3084477

Survivor guilt and transgenerational transmission of trauma in Jewish holocaust survivors and their children by Hirsch, Judith M., Psy.D., Alliant International University, San Francisco Bay, 2003 , 48 pages; AAT 3114120

A control mastery application to treating chronic depressive disorders by Chase, Alexandra Nin, Psy.D., California Institute of Integral Studies, 2001 , 180 pages; AAT 3004647

The relationship between attachment patterns and guilt in the function of eating disorder symptoms: Can symptoms be proximity-seeking? by Orzolek-Kronner, Catherine A., Ph.D., Smith College School for Social Work, 2001 , 111 pages; AAT 9995983

Client appraisals of danger and safety in psychotherapy and its physiological, facial, and subjective correlates by Pole, Nnamdi, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1999 , 165 pages; AAT 9966528

Trauma and recidivism to prison: What's guilt got to do with it? by Sweezy, Martha, Ph.D., Smith College School for Social Work, 1997 , 152 pages; AAT 9805888

A comparison between feminist and control/mastery therapists' case formulations by Nol, Josephine, Ph.D., Smith College School for Social Work, 1996 , 100 pages; AAT 9704570

Effects of therapist interventions in the context of child testing of pathogenic beliefs during child psychotherapy by Graf, Thomas, Ph.D., The Wright Institute, 1995 , 148 pages; AAT 9615427

Personality and psychopathology reconsidered: A quantitative/qualitative control-mastery psychobiography on Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) by Conrad, Beverley B., Ph.D., The Wright Institute, 1995 , 558 pages; AAT 9535390

The relationship between attributional style and interpersonal guilt by Menaker, Andrew R., Ph.D., California School of Professional Psychology - Berkeley/Alameda, 1995 , 107 pages; AAT 9606695

A case-specific approach to the treatment of alcoholism: The application of control mastery theory to Alcoholics Anonymous and professional practice by Lieb, Robert J, Young, Neil P. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. Elmsford: Jan 1994. Vol. 11, Iss. 1; pg. 35

SFPRG proudly introduces Bob Nemerovski, Psy.D., who has been doing his postdoctoral work in our clinic, and recently received his CA Psychologist License and has launched into private practice.

As a postdoctoral intern at SFPRG and a recently Licensed Psychologist in California, I am proud to announce my launch into private practice in Marin and San Francisco.

I came to the field after a 15 year career in business development and management and graduated from the Wright Institute where Mary Lamia and Patsy Wood introduced me to Control Mastery Theory. As a predoctoral intern at CIP in Marin, I enjoyed learning more about CMT from Karen Weinberger who encouraged me to train at the SFPRG clinic. I have a passion for CMT and feel it has vastly improved my ability to understand and be helpful to clients.

While I continue to work with clients in the SFPRG clinic into the summer, I have already established a private practice in Kentfield and recently started receiving referrals in my new San Francisco office. I see adolescents and adults and particularly enjoy working with 1) men who are new to psychotherapy and 2) older adults struggling with issues of aging.

To learn more about my work and/or to make referrals: 415-272-3282 / DrNemerovski@gmail.com / www.DrNemerovski.com or click the link below.

Note: Here is some information sent to me from psychotherapyresearch.org.

PRAGMATIC CASE STUDIES IN PSYCHOTHERAPY (PCSP) http://pcsp.libraries.rutgers.edu

***a peer-reviewed, multi-theoretical, freely available e-journal of systematic case studies & case study method articles***

FROM: Dan Fishman, Editor (dfish96198@aol.com) --

RE: Announcing the publication of our first 2012 issue (Vol. 8, Module 1):

Case Studies: Psychotherapy as a Human Science: Clinical Case Studies Exploring the Abyss of Madness *** by George Atwood, Rutgers University

With commentaries by:*** Elizabeth Pienkos & Louis Sass, Rutgers University

*** Ruthellen Josselson & Heidi Mattila, The Fielding Graduate University

From Editor Dan Fishman

Unlike the usual view of schizophrenic and bipolar symptoms as evidence of a brain disease, i.e., as "outward signs of an inward illness," George Atwood argues that such symptoms should be viewed as "reactions to such ongoing experiences as devastating abandonment, felt misunderstanding, and re-traumatization" (p. 1-2). In a number of detailed clinical case studies, Atwood illustrates that therapeutic help for individuals with schizophrenic and bipolar symptoms involves entering and understanding their subjective worlds and helping them to navigate within those worlds to work towards more functional lives.

The commentators explore the underlying foundations of Atwood's approach in the psychologies of humanism, phenomenology, existentialism, and psychoanalysis. For example, while Atwood emphasizes the similarity between severely disturbed individuals and non-disturbed individuals, Elizabeth Pienkos and Louis Sass consider "the different, but complementary, idea in phenomenological psychiatry of 'radical otherness,' which suggests the fundamental impossibility of complete empathy, and how this can be therapeutic, particularly when treating cases of schizophrenia" (p. 1). And Ruthellen Josselson and Heidi Mattila further explore Atwood's description of the "phenomena of serious mental illness from the point of view of the patient's subjectivity and lived experience," and extend his thoughts on treatment of psychotic patients "through the lens of contemporary relational and intersubjective theories" (p. 1).

Finally, in a lively discussion, Atwood responds to the commentaries, including (i) a review of the conflict between phenomenological and medical disorder language in describing severe disturbance (he himself responds to the conflict by using the phrases "so-called schizophrenia" and "so-called bipolar disorder"), and (ii) the daunting challenges to psychotherapists as they "radically engage" with the frightening, subjective worlds of severely disturbed individuals.

VOL 8, NO. 1 (2012), TABLE OF CONTENTS

Psychotherapy as a Human Science: Clinical Case Studies Exploring the Abyss of Madness *** George E. Atwood, pp. 1-24

Empathy and Otherness: Humanistic and Phenomenological Approaches to Psychotherapy of Severe Mental Illness *** Elizabeth Pienkos & Louis A. Sass, pp. 25-35

The Humanity of the Psychotic Patient and the Human Approach by the Therapist: A Relational and Intersubjective Meeting *** Ruthellen Josselson & Heidi Mattila, pp. 36-48

The Abyss of Madness and Human Understanding *** George E. Atwood, pp. 49-59

Very, lovely, desireable psychotherapy office available full or part time near the corner of 6th Ave and California Street. This is a central location for 3 MUNI bus lines or shopping on Clement / Geary Streets, with plenty of meterless street parking. The building is all psychotherapy offices, all with sound-insulated double doors and front door security locks. There is a waiting room with a bathroom for clients. The office which is 12.5x13.5 and is in the back of the building so there is no street noise. It is very bright.

You have the option of subletting. If you need furniture, the current beautiful furnishings belong to a prior leaseholder who is happy to leave them there to provide continuity of use by other therapists. The room furnishings include five two-drawer steel file cabinets with separate locks for confidential records. Contact Irwin Gootnick directly at 415-221-5204. or igootnick@aol.com

I sent him some material and, of course, invited him to the 25th International Conference. He wrote back telling me that he had read about CMT in Morris Eagle and Nancy McWilliams' books. He wrote, "I later read Weiss' How Psychotherapy Works and felt this was a clear synthesis, with some differing points of emphasis, of many of the (psychoanalytic, object relations, attachment, and self-psychology) concepts and processes that I was familiar with (...). What I really like is how CMT puts all of this into a conceptual model that is fairly clear (Bion and Fairbairn are notoriously difficult to read) and, more importantly, practice-oriented. In other words, it is prescriptive of how therapy should proceed, but driven by the patient's unique psychology and the therapist's responses to it."

I was struck by several things in his email. First, why doesn't anyone else in Vancouver know about CMT? My email correspondent is a smart, well read, and thoughtful student, and luckily came across Morris Eagle (1984) and Joe Weiss (1993) in the course of his dogged scholarliness. What about the rest of his colleagues and teachers? How are they going to find out about Joe Weiss and Control Mastery Theory?

Second, he really "gets" CMT, how it overlaps with some of Attachment theory and Object Relations theory, and Self-psychology, but is actually more accessible and particularly useful in helping to craft a case-specific therapeutic response to individual patients with unique traumas and unique needs.

I see the same excitement he expressed about CMT's clarity and utility when I talk to the students we teach in our post-grad course, our weekly case seminars, our yearly Introductory Course, and at our Annual International Conferences. This is a theory that has real value to clinicians and patients and that many people don't know about. What can we do to remedy this?

Mia Salaverry, former intern and current chair of the Institute Committee, has joined our Board with the intention of addressing this problem. She is not content to find better email lists to promote our courses or to hire a better marketer. She has taken an important fundamental step to redefine who we are as a group in the wake of Joe Weiss' death and Hal Sampson's retirement.

The first obvious step is for us to recognize that we have changed and grown. In addition to teaching and research, we now have a clinic, and training program. Our name had somewhat awkwardly expanded from SFPRG to The San Francisco Psychotherapy Research Group, Clinic, and Training Center. To better define who we are requires us to acknowledge that these many functions needs a title that goes beyond a "group" and could be better thought of as an "Institute." Several months ago, the Board of Directors agreed with this notion and voted to change the Group to an "Institute." This is the beginning of a process of reframing how we present ourselves to the world without losing the very essence of who we are and what we offer that is valuable. We will have a new Strategic Planning Meeting in the end of April to further clarify our direction.

This is a process that every organization needs to undergo when the founder dies or leaves in order for the organization to be viable and thrive. The Psychoanalytic movement, the Self-psychology movement, even Apple (computers) needed to redefine themselves when their founders moved on. People don't come to the March Workshops anymore to hang out with Joe and Hal, Estelle and Fran, and enjoy Joe's wonderful house on Filbert, his Rembrandt, his Goyas, his Greek vase, and his Ton Kiang cuisine at the Thursday night party. They come to learn about his theory as it is taught and practiced by his students. It is still an important and powerful contribution to the field of psychotherapy.

The question is why don't many people know about CMT in Vancouver and what can we do about it?

We are trying to address those questions. We would love your input and help. Please watch for the Institute News column from Mia Salaverry to come.

Come to the 25th Annual Conference. Send your students. See you in March.

Steve Foreman