July/August 2013
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Photo credit: Shawn Sobkowski
CPPNJ Introduces Supervision Training
By Eric Sherman, LCSW

 

As we launch CPPNJ's Supervision Training Program, I am reminded of perhaps my fondest experience as a supervisee. It came very close to being my worst. But I think it says a lot about why I am so excited about the comprehensive program we have developed.

 

I was in my analytic training and had just convinced a patient to be my thrice-weekly control case. I contacted one of the most sought-after supervisors in the Institute, and was thrilled when she had an hour available to work with me. What I was less in touch with -- and this still amazes me -- was just how anxious and vulnerable I felt.

 

So imagine my shock -- and the degree of my narcissistic injury -- when my supervisor suggested that I did not realize just how damaged my compliant patient was. She kept repeating this assertion, each time making me feel more damaged as a clinician. Finally, I worked up the nerve to tell her, sure that she would immediately see her folly, apologize profusely, and commence with the parade of compliments to which my fragile self-esteem felt entitled. You can imagine that ericsherman things did not go exactly as planned.

 

My supervisor, it turned out, was feeling similar to me -- that she could do no right. Imagine: she, too, was feeling despair. Everything she suggested was met with defensiveness -- a comment which only made me feel more deficient. We were at a standstill. Perhaps she was able to see how crestfallen I felt, because she made a suggestion that felt like throwing out a life preserver to a drowning man.

 

"Why don't we both see if we can try to take in the other without feeling like we have to compromise our selves in the process. Maybe we can also consider if this is telling us something about an experience of the patient that is having a hard time entering the treatment."

 

Which is what we did. We soon came to realize that my compliant patient was feeling the shame the supervisor and I were embodying. But we could not do that until we shared and found a way to work through our own feelings vis-�-vis one another. It was a powerful experience about both the anxieties and potentialities of the supervisory process. And it's the kind of experience that speaks to the need to train clinicians in the theory and technique of psychodynamic supervision.

 

Over the last year, the faculty of the Supervision Training Program -- Veronica Bearison, Linda Klempner, Susan Masluk, Robert Morrow, Judith Oshinsky, Joyce Selter, Nina Williams and I -- have developed a psychodynamic practicum by going through it ourselves. We have immersed ourselves in the process, reading about the theory of supervision and presenting case material. It has been an exciting, enriching experience, and has resulted in a program which we believe fills an important need in the Institute and the wider mental health community.

 

The one-year Supervision Training Program offers a unique format. Classes meet on a monthly basis for three hours on a Sunday morning, with class time divided between theoretical concepts and clinical applications. Each participant will be given an opportunity to present their work. Topics include: the supervisory relationship; different models of supervision; anxiety and esteem in supervision; parallel process; transference, countertransference, resistance; professional, ethical and legal issues; gender, race and culture in supervision; and evaluations and termination. Upon successful completion of the program, participants will receive a Certificate in Psychodynamic Supervision.


In May we opened registration for the program to our faculty. Our sense that there was a real need for such a comprehensive practicum was born out when the class filled up within a matter of days. Beginning in the fall of 2014, the training program will expand to accept applicants from the wider mental health community.

I look forward to the exciting year ahead and to continuing to develop a program that meets the needs of supervisors throughout New Jersey, whether they're functioning at CPPNJ or another Institute, at a clinic, an academic setting or in private practice. And I welcome any questions you may have at [email protected].

       

CPPNJ Welcome Back Brunch

Date: Sunday, September 29, 2013  

Place: Maplewood Community Center 

Time: 9:30am-1:30pm
This is a free program!


October 6, 2013 Supervision Workshop

A Field Theory Approach to Psychoanalytic Supervision

Presented by Martin Silverman, MD

Rutgers Conference Center, New Brunswick
9:00am-12:30pm
CEUs will be offered for social workers

Psychoanalytic supervision is a complex undertaking that functions within a multi-faceted, analytic field of operation. The supervisor inevitably becomes instructor, mentor, facilitator of development, a parent of sorts, a colleague, a quasi-analyst, a representative of authority, and a faculty member who must report to and abide by (or even suffer) the will of institute officials.  The supervisee  is thrust into the multiple roles of student, mentee, psychological child, erstwhile colleague, quasi-analysand, acceptor of and protestor against the authoritarian domination to which he or she is subjected, and reluctant captive of the institute and its rules.  What takes place within the field of supervision includes complex interaction among multiple personages, and the supervisory situation itself becomes a living, breathing entity.  Psychoanalytic field theory, as elaborted by Madeleine and Willy Baranger, Wilfred Bion, Thomas Ogden, and others, will be utilized as a useful tool for framing and gaining command of the complex and challenging undertaking.   

 

martyphoto Dr. Silverman has been a training and supervising analyst at CCAPS, since its inception, and then at CPPNJ since the merger.  He also has long been a training and supervising analyst and supervising child analyst at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Education affiliated with NYU School of Medicine, where he is a former Chair of the Child Analysis Section.  He is a former President of the Association for Child Psychoanalysis.  Until recently, he was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine.  He is Associate Editor and Book Review Editor of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly and is the author of more than fifty psychoanalytic articles and book chapters and of more than sixty psychoanalytic book reviews.  He has received numerous honors, including that of "Child Psychiatrist of the Year" for 2005 by the New Jersey Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.   

 

 Click HERE to register for this program  

 

Congratulations to Marlene Emery. She graduated in June 2013 with a Certificate in Psychoanalysis.
Marlene Emery, APRN, BC

marleneemery

I am thrilled to have completed my psychoanalytic training.  I started CPPNJ in 2001.  The journey was long and difficult at times; now, looking back, I see how much my life has changed in significantly positive ways.  And I will work to contribute to the vitality of this most important community.   

 

My entry into the helping profession was as a Registered Nurse.  My BS degree was from the University of Miami (FL), and my Master's degree was from Pace University in White Plains, NY.  I'm an Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse, and I currently provide medication management for adults on an inpatient acute care psychiatric unit.  I have published several articles that address the treatment of patient with chronic and persistent mental illness.

 

I have a psychotherapy practice in Highland Park, where I treat adults and older adolescents. 

 

Our apologies for inadvertently leaving out Marlene's biography in last month's newsletter. 

November 24, 2013 Fall Conference

Surviving the Gridlocked Moments with Couples: A Tavistock Approach to Couples Therapy

Presented by Christopher Clulow, PhD

Lenfell Hall, The Mansion, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ
8:30am-4:00pm
CEUs will be offered for social workers

 

clulow Christopher Clulow is a Senior Fellow of the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships, London, where he practices as a visiting lecturer and researcher. His recent work for TCCR includes leading the project to develop couple therapy competences for treating depression within the government's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies framework, and consulting to/evaluating the development of services within a mental health organization that included treating depression through relationship counseling. He has published extensively on marriage, partnerships, parenthood and couple psychotherapy, most recently from an attachment perspective. His most recent edited publication, Sex, Attachment and Couple Psychotherapy:  Psychoanalytic Perspectives, was published by Karnac Books in 2009, and he is currently co-writing a book on Couple Therapy for Depression to be published by Oxford University Press in 2014.  

 

He is a founding member of the British Society of Couple Psychotherapists and Counselors, an international editorial consultant for Sexual and Relationship Therapy, and a member of the editorial board for Couple and Family Psychoanalysis. He is a Fellow of the Centre for Social Policy, Dartington, and a registrant of the British Psychoanalytic Council. He maintains a private clinical and training practice from his home in St Albans, UK, and is President of North and Central Hertfordshire Relate.

 

 Click HERE to register for this program 

 

Save These Dates for 2014
 
January 2014 - Holiday Party - TBA 

 

March 8, 2014 - Richard Chefez, MD presents Dissociative Processes and the Toxicity of the Shame Spectrum of Emotion - Lenfell Hall, FDU Florham Park, Madison, NJ. 8:30am-4:00pm 

 

May 3, 2014 - IDfest: An Evening of Comedy & Dessert - Lenfell Hall, FDU Florham Park, Madison, NJ. TBA   

 

June 7, 2014 - CPPNJ Graduation & End of Year Celebration - Rutgers Club, New Brunswick, NJ.  

6:00pm-10:00pm 


All Programs are Co-Sponsored with the New Jersey Society for Clinical Social Workers 

 

The New Jersey Society for Clinical Social Workers (NJSCSW) provides leadership and support to clinical social workers in all practice settings. NJSCSW has given voice to clinical social workers dealing with the health care industry. The organization provides outstanding education programs and opportunities for collegial contact. www.njscsw.org 

 

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Candidates Organization Hosts Successful Annual Meeting
By Catherine Bianchi, PhD and Jan Peters, PhD

 

On April 28, 2013, The Candidate's Organization held their annual professional development event at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick.  The retreat, "Come Play With Us," explored different ways in which psychoanalysts can access new awareness of their patients and the clinical process.  Twenty-two attendees including CPPNJ faculty, candidates, and GSAPP field placement students enjoyed this free event which included a full breakfast, fanciful moments, and lots of experiential learning.

 

The retreat began with the whimsical, as participants were encouraged, a la Winnicott, to "squiggle" with Play- Doh and create neon-colored mini-sculptures. The Play-Doh activity illustrated the non-verbal dimension of accessing experience, and the focus of the rest of the retreat was on writing. Director of Training, Ronnie Bearison, started the workshop with a free-association writing exercise during which participants were asked to privately brainstorm a list of word associations to the client of their choice.  The non-directed writing bypassed the need for linear left brain thinking and allowed the writers to access a deeper understanding about their patients and themselves. The participants seemed energized by this new way of accessing perceptions in such an unexpectedly vivid and at times poetic form. Some of the participants chose to share their experience and an interesting discussion ensued.

 

Rikki Pashen, a GSAPP field placement student with CPPNJ later wrote, "Since the writing workshop, I have found that the concept...of using freestyle writing about a patient as a route to expanding one's understanding of the patient and the therapeutic relationship, at times in unexpected ways, has become an integral part of my therapeutic armamentarium. I find it to be playful, penetrative, and provoking in a way that directed thinking is not."

 

After the discussion, faculty member and Chair of the Writing Sub-Committee of the TC, Nina Williams, presided over the focal point of the retreat: an exploration into how writing enhances our understanding of the psychoanalytic process. Former Candidates and now faculty members Janet Hoffer, Mitchell Milch, and Marilyn Legato shared their experiences of taking the Final Case Seminar with Nina while Writing Sub-Committee and TC faculty member Susan Masluk described how her class had incorporated writing in the Couple's Program. All of them spoke very enthusiastically about what they experienced as a challenging but ultimately very rewarding experience of writing about their case and having the other class members respond to it. They unanimously reported how helpful it was to use the writing class to more precisely formulate their thinking as they explored heightened clinical moments in treatment.

 

Ronnie and Nina then ended the retreat with a group discussion in which the participants shared their questions and reactions to the recent Writing Sub-Committee proposal to add four mini-courses on writing about psychoanalytic process to the curriculum in psychoanalysis. Nina and Ronnie explained the rationale, noting that recent graduates believed that breaking the clinical process content of the Final Case Presentation course down into smaller segments and offering it earlier in training would be beneficial.  After participating in the morning's activities, those in attendance agreed and several had signed up for the first component, "Recognizing Psychoanalytic Process: Counter-Transference," which will be offered with Nina Williams this summer. Everyone seemed to leave with positive feelings, not only about the retreat and its content, but also about the collaborative effort between the candidates and faculty in ushering in the new change to the curriculum. The Executive Committee of the Candidate's Organization is impressed by the generosity of and grateful to the faculty who volunteered their time to offer this retreat with us.

 

Additional contributors to this article: Wendy Newman, Co Chair; Madine DeSantis, Co-Chair and Treasurer; Alexandra Granville, Representative to the Board.

     


Black Psychoanalysts Speak: Part II
By Marion Houghton, EdS, LMFT

 

Black Psychoanalysts Speak celebrated its first anniversary on May 11.2013 at the New School, one year after the initial gathering.  Last year it was arranged by IPTAR-this time the sponsors included: IPTAR, the William Alanson White Institute, and the Clinical Psychology Department of the New School with the support of the NYU Post Doctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.  The Planning Committee included last year's five Black speakers-including Cheryl Thompson, Ph.D. of CPPNJ and NYU Postdoc. Clearly, these institutes believe in the importance of attracting people of color to psychoanalysis.

 

Richard Reichbart, Ph.D. (IPTAR and CPPNJ) once again welcomed everyone as the Conference director.  He introduced the panel consisting of six Black speakers (five of whom are from the New York area: Cleonie White, Ph.D., Anton Hart, Ph.D., Craig Polite, Ph.D., Dolores Morris, Ph.D., Dorothy Holmes, Ph.D. and Janice Bennett, Ph.D.  Richard then introducedMichael Moskowitz, Ph.D. as moderator once again for the event. 

 

Michael asked the panelists to address two topics-what drew you to psychoanalysis, and what has been your experience?  Among the responses were:

 

            The psychoanalytic journey raises anxiety.

            The challenge is to free oneself to think analytically

            How to free oneself to be oneself

            The experience of not being seen the way you are

 

Panelists described their experiences of feeling "other than" on their journey through analytic training in predominantly white institutes.  Feeling at home and feeling safe were not experiences they could claim-or even ask for-until this conference provided the opportunity.

 

After lunch, the audience and panelists participated in discussion groups, followed by reports to the entire gathering.  Members of the audience also offered their ideas to the panel.

 

            How can we think together?

            Can we engage together in diversifying psychoanalytic training, which is always a

  struggle and followed by a new liberation for analyst and patient alike?

 

A member of the audience also raised the question-with whom are we training analysts to work?  Can psychoanalysis reach a wider audience and can we bring the experience of psychoanalysis  to communities who have not had a chance to encounter it?

 

Can CPPNJ candidates, associates and analysts benefit  from a conversation of our own concerning culture and diversity?  How would it energize us to have a genuine interactive experience ?  The CPPNJ Outreach (Recruiting) Committee plans to take up this topic in the near future.

   


CPPNJ Outreach Committee Discusses Culture and Diversity
By Marion Houghton, EdS, LMFT

 

The CPPNJ Outreach Committee met on Tuesday evening, July 16, 2013 in South Orange at the home of Marion Houghton, Chair.  Members present were  Marlene Rybinski, Gayle Coakley, Marlene Emery and Roslyn Gawthney.  Other interested CPPNJ attendees included Rose Oosting, Cheryl Thompson-Sard and David Sard.

 

The purpose of the meeting was to begin a conversation about culture and diversity in the community of CPPNJ, modeled on the Black Psychoanalysts Speak Conferences I and II held in New York City led by IPTAR, under the direction of Richard Reichbart.  How can the CPPNJ Outreach Committee go about finding new audiences with whom to share the psychoanalytic experience and enrich our membership?  How can CPPNJ work to include in its membership more Black and Latino practitioners, in particular?

 

One suggestion from participants included holding a public meeting in which CPPNJ members can have a conversation about culture and diversity.  Other suggestions included hosting movie nights where interested CPPNJ members can gather to view and discuss selected films to deepen our awareness of culture and diversity issues and including articles in our CPPNJ e-Newsletter on these topics.

 

The Committee will report on its recommendations at our opening brunch in September.  We look forward to hearing ideas from all our CPPNJ members.

     


Member Presentations and Publications

Ruth Lijtmaer, PhD
Paper:

"My Countertransference to a Patient's Racist Joke". Special issue: The Psychological Meaning and Uses of Humor". Clio's Psyche, 20, 1, 82-85, 2013  

 

Please note: If you have an announcement of either a paper you've recently published or a presentation you've given, let us know. Send Cathy Van Voorhees an email at [email protected] and we will be happy to get the word out.  

     

Book Reviews

What are you currently reading? We would like to include book recommendations and reviews. Send Cathy Van Voorhees an email at [email protected] - tell her what you are reading and we will spread the word.
  

Our E-Newsletter Editorial Staff

 

Mary Lantz, LCSW, Editor-in-Chief

Rose Oosting, PhD, Consulting Editor

Contributing Editors:

      Debi Roelke, PhD 

      Harlene Goldschmidt, PhD 

      Ellen Fenster-Kuehl, PhD 

      Ruth Lijtmaer, PhD 

      Martha Liebmann, PhD 

      Marion Houghton, EdS, LMFT

 

Unsolicited articles are welcome.  Something you'd like to write?  Send it to us at [email protected].  We're happy to hear from you.   

 

Thank you for joining us. Look for our next newsletter in September 2013 when the featured article will be "Qi Gong Therapy 

as an Enhancement to Psychodynamic Therapy: Considering the Benefits of an Alternative Mind/Body Therapy," by Harlene Goldschmidt, PhD.

 

No need to print this email - for future reference, all issues are archived.