Dear Colleagues,

Several important events are coming up this fall. On October 27, SFPRG is presenting "The Curative Element in Psychotherapy: A Dialogue Between Attachment Theory and Control Mastery Theory" with David Wallin, author of Attachment in Psychotherapy, and myself. This will be a provocative discussion between Control Mastery Theory and Attachment Theory, focusing on why people change in psychotherapy. Denny Zeitlin will present his excellent conference on Couple Therapy on November 17.

We are planning two fundraising events in the fall and winter. On September 15, SFPRG will host our second annual fundraising event honoring Hal Sampson and Jessica Broitman as major contributors to SFPRG. Many of you know that Hal's health is frail and there is a good possibility that he will not be able to attend the event where he will be honored along with Jessica. If Hal does attend, it will probably be for a short time only. If he is not able to join us, we will present him with his award at home. At the dinner, we hope to present a portion of Suzanne Gassner's audiotaped interview of Hal done for the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute a few years ago.

Another planned event will be our second annual Art Show on December 1. We have already sent out a call for artists to submit their works: paintings, photographs, sculptures, installations, or performance pieces. Please mark your calendars. We will have another art auction, which was an exciting event, not to be missed, and a tremendous success last year.

(To register, click the link below)

Our Art Show & Reception fundraiser last December was such a successful and fun event that we are starting to plan the next one now! It will be on the first Saturday in December (Dec 1) and we are asking our members, and their friends and family, to make this an even more successful fundraiser. This event was conceived of through the awareness that several SFPRG members are talented artists. Our hope is that you would enjoy sharing your work while also contributing to the Group.

If interested in participating, you would choose up to 5 pieces of your work that you would like to show (less if really large!). You are free to choose whether your art would be for sale, or simply for viewing. We would need the information about your pieces (title, medium, size, etc) to begin the curating process no later than October 1st. It would also help if you have a jpeg or other digital image of the pieces to send to us as well. One difference from before - we would like those of you who can, to help hang your pieces.

Because it is a fundraising event, we would ask of you the following:

+ An entry fee of $100

+ Should you choose to sell your art, SFPRG would split the profit - 50% each. (Some folks made quite a nice sum last year!)

Contact Rob in the office (sfprg@sfprg.org) and/or mail in a check with "Art Show" in the note if you want to join in the fun!

Thank you!

One of the joys I have had throughout my career is to train and supervise masters and doctoral level students of clinical psychology. This past Spring I had the privilege of teaching a Basic Counseling Skills class for first year doctoral students at CSPP Sacramento Campus.

There were just six students in the class and as with all the students I have trained I introduced them to Control Mastery Theory. Although most of them were just beginning their clinical work, it was so rewarding to have them show an interest in the theory and to try to apply it to the course work they were doing. One of their assignments at the end of this yearlong course was to pick a theoretical orientation. Below are some of the statements made by two of the students:

AG- "Before this last semester I had never heard of Control-Mastery Theory (CMT), and have found myself relentlessly grateful to be introduced to CMT. The theory awards the patient with his ability to hold the reigns of his mentality, focusing on his ability to control his unconscious and conscious mind. Emphasizing the patient's natural drive to master his traumatic history that currently restrains him is critical. The therapist examines and points out to the patient, his or her unconscious desire for health and progress in his development. Joe Weiss is the founder of this theory. He is well established in providing published research that supports the Control-Mastery Theory. According to CMT, as children experience their environments, they create beliefs about their themselves, their families, relationships, and the world around them. Based on these beliefs, behavior is developed. A second guiding force of human behavior is the experience of safety and danger. As a child perceives traumatic danger and their environments do not support their striving for growth, pathogenic beliefs are often acquired. These people come to therapy with the unconscious desire to have their pathogenic beliefs disproven by the therapist, and convinced that their belief was inaccurate. The client will test the therapist, unconsciously but purposefully. If the therapist passes the test, the client's pathogenic belief is disproven and the therapist considers intervention to be pro-plan. The theories I will consider as my most preferred have changed since I began this program, previously consisting purely of Cognitive-Behavioral Theory and Behavioral Theory, and now opening to encompass the following: Control Mastery Theory, Cognitive-Behavioral Theory/Didactical Behavioral Theory, and Family Systems Theory." DT- "As part of the class, Dr. Landes introduced us to CMT. She recommended a book to read, entitled Transformative Relationships, The Control - Mastery Theory of Psychotherapy, and also recommended a conference entitled, Introduction to CMT. My curiosity and interest in CMT lead me to read the book and attend the conference. I was even given the opportunity to practice what I was learning about CMT by doing a case conceptualization from a CMT orientation. Later, I found that CMT falls under the umbrella of Psychodynamic, which then perked my interest in learning more about the Psychodynamic theory and orientation. As a result, I started to change my initial theoretical orientation of CBT to a more integrative orientation."

I believe the future of CMT rests in the hands of the young therapists we educate and mentor in our clinic, our practices, in graduate schools and in our communities. In the coming years we on the Education Committee are looking forward to continuing to stretch our reach outside of the Bay Area. If you have a community that you would like us to reach out to please let us know.

Review of "The Cause, The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama", by Eric Alterman and Kevin Mattson, Viking Penguin, New York, 2012.

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way who nods at them and says, "Morning boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?" This little story/joke/parable was written by David Foster Wallace in his book, "This is Water" (2009), based on a commencement speech he gave at Kenyon College in 2005. It is a pithy description of our awareness (or lack of awareness) of the context within which we think, move and breathe. It illustrates a dawning awareness I experienced reading Eric Alterman's book, "The Cause, a history of Liberalism in America since the second world war".

I went to high school in the late 1960's and early 1970's where I studied Keynesian economics (before Milton Friedman's counter-reformation). I read historians like John Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Richard Hofstadter. I didn't realize they were liberal historians. In college, I read Reinhold Neibuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932). I thought he was a brilliant writer, theologian, social philosopher, practically a psychologist. I didn't realize he was a liberal. I didn't realize any of these people were liberals. I thought they were just very smart people talking about history, economics, ethics, and reality.

My eleventh grade American History teacher told our class that there were people in the 1930's who didn't like the New Deal and hated Franklin Roosevelt. I thought those people were crackpots, like the John Birch Society and various other right wing fringe organizations that were against civil rights for African Americans, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-labor, anti-evolution, anti-science, etc. Imagine my surprise when these voices in American politics became louder and louder over the past 30 years and now don't seem very fringey at all but take center stage in every political discourse. It is the people who believe in deficit spending and evolution who are now the crackpots.

Alterman sketched out the origins and history of Liberalism. He wrote, "Initially liberalism had been synonymous with a faith in reason, which had arisen out of the Enlightenment as a reaction to claims of divine rule by the clergy and royalty in the late Middle Age. Liberal freedoms were primarily freedoms of the mind: freedom of thought, of expression, of religion, and of self-invention without regard to the customs of caste, creed, or crown. Above all, liberalism implied both an ability and a responsibility of people to think for themselves, to create their own destinies, and to follow their own consciences" (p. 5).

As I read further, I not only started to see where I got some of my political biases but I started to see where I got some of my ideas about psychology that are central to how I do psychotherapy today. Alterman described a conference on January 4, 1947 of the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), presided over by Rheinhold Niebuhr. "Eleanor Roosevelt gave the keynote address and (James) Wechsler wrote the organization's opening statement:

"The spirit (of Liberalism) is a deep belief in the dignity of man and an awareness of human frailty, a faith in human reason and the power of free inquiry, a high sense of individual responsibility for oneself and one's neighbor, a conviction that the best society is a brotherhood that enables the great numbers of its members to develop their potentialities to the utmost" (p. 56).

This last paragraph jumped out at me as the basis of humanistic psychotherapy that Joe Weiss believed in and that I embraced fully. It goes to the heart of my assumptions that therapists should try to like their patients and treat them with respect. One of the reasons I was drawn to Control Mastery Theory was because of the sense of respect I sensed in Joe and Hal for their patients, supervisees, and students who came to study with the Research Group. There were other psychotherapy organizations I could have worked with when I came out of my training but they seemed to have leaders who were more narcissistic and less kind.

Liberalism, as defined by Alterman, is a consciousness striving to protect the needs of the weaker members of society from those that are more privileged and more entitled. Wechsler's described "a deep belief in the dignity of man and an awareness of human frailty, a faith in human reason and the power of free inquiry that enables the great numbers of (society) to develop their potentialities to the utmost."

This is what we do when we help individual patients to achieve their potentials by siding with their plans. This is how I think of working with families to resolve their problems or even helping couples move forward, by insisting that we take everyone's needs and feelings seriously and try to find solutions that are inclusive while respecting each individual's distinct needs and frailties.

"What the hell is water?" says one fish to the other. Respecting human dignity. Helping people become their better angels. Siding with their healthy parts. Facilitating what they are trying to accomplish and allowing them to grow. This is water.

Steve Foreman

This is to announce openings in my Control-Mastery case conference held by telephone. We meet every Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific Time to discuss cases, theoretical issues, and professional matters related to psychotherapy. The conference has a maximum of five members, which insures that there is time for everyone to join the discussions. The group is warm, friendly, and safe, and participants say they feel accepted, free, and comfortable in presenting case material.

I have been associated with Control-Mastery theory for thirty years, and have been writing and teaching the subject for about twenty years. You can get to know me better, if you like, by visiting my website at www.alanrappoport.com or click the link below.

Please write me at arappoport@alanrappoport.com, or call me at 650-556-9500, if you have any questions or would like to talk with me about it.

Alan Rappoport

Understanding Control Mastery Theory:

A Case Conference Seminar

Mondays, 9/24 to 12/17/12, 10:30-12

9 Funston Avenue in the Presidio

San Francisco

For those of you who have read Joe Weiss' book, How Psychotherapy Works, this is your chance to dig deeper into it. For those of you who aren't yet familiar with the book, Joe believed in simplicity, and his writing reflects this. His clear, straightforward approach to writing allowed him to pack a lot of information into the small space of a few words. We will be unpacking the concepts of Control Mastery Theory according to Joe Weiss.

Continuing with the program that I began last year, in each class we will read and discuss in depth How Psychotherapy Works for the first half hour, then follow with a case presentation and discussion integrating the theory through an examination of the case material.

There is no need for preparation or homework. We will read Joe's book in class a little at a time, line by line, paragraph by paragraph. Of course feel free to read ahead as much as you want. We will begin in September where we left off in May with Chapter 4: Inferring the Patient's Plan from the First Few Sessions of Therapy.

Additionally, there has been a lot of scientific research on mental processing and interpersonal communication, both conscious and unconscious, during the intervening years since Weiss wrote this book (it was published in 1993). Control Mastery Theory holds up beautifully against this new research in cognitive science. Some of these ideas will be included in our discussions.

CMT is both a theory of how psychotherapy works and a theory of the human psyche. Understanding human interaction in terms of the theory will make it easier for us to understand patient behavior in general. Understanding how psychotherapy works easily flows from the more fundamental theories of human interaction.

Sign up for the class at SFPRG.org, or call the office at 415/561-6771.

The book can be purchased from SFPRG at $40, or Amazon sells it for $34.99. Used is also a possibility -- check Green Apple on Clement Street in San Francisco. You will not be sorry to have your own copy of this book.

I hope you all are having a great summer. I look forward to seeing you in September.

Peter Schumacher

Mediation for conflict resolution shares some concepts with Control Mastery theory. People in conflict each have a plan to reach their goals, each have beliefs about themselves and others which can help/interfere with conflict resolution, and each tests the reasonableness of their beliefs with the mediator and the other party. They exercise their right to self-determination.

Mediation, a humanistic approach to conflict resolution, accommodates these concepts through a different process than therapy under Control Mastery theory. Mediation is time limited; a successful outcome is usually reached in hours rather than months or years and is much easier on the pocketbook. Mediation is not a good substitute for working in therapy but it does beat out the costly, intrusive and expensive traditional litigation method of resolving differences. Mediation is becoming the first choice to resolve disputes/conflicts with a mutually satisfying agreement determined by the party's themselves. The process is voluntary, confidential and, in specific cases, can be legally binding. A growing understanding of how mediation is helpful has arisen out of our court systems.

For instance, in small claims courts parties present their sides to the judge and submit their evidence. The evidence is considered by the judge and a decision is made and parties are notified through the mail. Usually one party is right, the other wrong. The sense that others control our lives can be disturbing to most people even if there is some gratification of being 'right'! In many cases, these parties can resolve their conflict/dispute between themselves with a Mediator who facilitates the communication process on the premises. Congress of Neutrals in Walnut Creek has provided volunteer Mediators to several courts for many years. The parties exchange paperwork, are sworn in and can then take advantage of this service paid for by the court system that day without losing their right to go before the judge should mediation not work.

When the parties come to a mutually satisfactory agreement, the durability of that agreement will be more satisfactory also. While an evidence only process is important to show the position of the parties, it does not allow for their interests to be heard. Interests can be seen as how a person handles conflict, how they see their roles, how they define themselves in terms of deserving.

In mediation, the interests of the conflicted/disputing parties can be expressed and the conclusion of the dispute/conflict is determined more by the positions of the people involved. In fact, a well trained, neutral, non biased mediator does not weigh evidence or move parties to a particular conclusion. The mediator provides only the frame for self determination and the parties provide the process.

Mediation takes a position that self determination is a process of inclusion. One person's needs can be met even when the other person's needs are met also. This can be counter to our legal and judicial right/wrong process where only evidence is considered. The mediator becomes an advocate for the process between the parties while lawyers are advocates for their clients' positions. The lawyer as client advocate is appropriate representation in many, especially criminal cases. There are many, many other circumstances where mediation is the best choice.

Mediation is used in determining shared parental time and parental participation in a custody recommending procedure is standard practice. The custody recommending counselor will make a statement to the court based on the information they garner from parents and children. This is a more explicit form of mediation in that the counselor can/does evaluate evidence and makes reasoned recommendations to the court about parenting time. In some cases, one parent can feel they have been judged as not good enough while another parent may feel the other got more than they deserved.

What if the parents choose a private mediator to help them communicate productively about shared parenting? The mediator is neutral and as an advocate for communication between parties allows movement through right/wrong positions to the interest positions of the parents that both want the best deal for the kids with as little disruption to family order as possible.

Another mediation program in effect is the Victim/Offender Reconciliation Program for juvenile offenders, usually their first offense. It is designed to help the young person understand the effects of their misbehavior/crime on the victim and the secondary victims, their families. During the reconciliation process the juvenile is asked to consider what led them to the offense and how to best to repair damage, whether physical or property. They are asked to consider how relationships with the victim and their own families have been impacted. They are asked to write an apology, make amends in a concrete way and to show an understanding that their future will include better decisions.

The best outcome of victim/offender reconciliation is when the juvenile does not enter the criminal/judicial system again and that they have a deeper understanding of how to make decisions which do not harm others or themselves. While this reconciliation process is not appropriate for many offenses or juveniles, introduction of a process which considers the offender as well as the offense, may introduce self determination and self correction to the juvenile's life.

Mediation for conflict/dispute resolution works with many other situations as well. Consider the neighbor whose tree overshadows and drops leaves, the dog who won't stop barking, the kids who are too loud, the unkempt yard and house and the parking situation to name a few. Rather than struggle to keep the anger and frustration down, struggle to keep from developing resentment and a dislike of the neighborhood, people are turning to mediation to resolve these conflicts and thereby preserve/repair/improve relationships.

The self determining process of mediation with a neutral, non biased and skilled mediator can provide people with an important experience of being heard as a person, being taken seriously in providing solutions and in collaborating on conflict resolution. Each party's goals and plans are adjusted during the mediation process, their beliefs are tested and an understanding is developed that an agreement which works for all is possible. This mediation experience will provide people with a strong bridge from conflict to resolution that will carry them over other troubled times.

If you would like to know more about Mediation or think this is right for someone you know please contact me at Kathie Dunn Mediation, 707-227-2627, kathiedunnmft@comcast.net.