December 2013/January 2014

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DIRECTORS' COLUMN
By Seth Warren, PhD
 

The end of the year always touches a wistful note for me. The year is passing, the days are short, trees bare, and for me, December brings another birthday along with the holidays, something I don't necessarily look forward to, although I once did. We feel time passing, and the holidays bring their usual mixture of pleasure and connection and time off with a good bit of rushing around, perhaps travel, and above all, memory, and the nostalgia for past holiday seasons, partly idealized, and partly quite real, connecting us to our own families and histories.

 

The holidays seem busier than ever, time seems to pass faster than ever, and I find myself looking for the calm center. It didn't seem to help that Thanksgiving and Hannukah converged in an almost unprecedented way, adding a new element to process! I saw one calculation that placed the next such occurrence some 70,000 years in the future...  as my grandmother used to say, "you should live so long!" Can you imagine that future world? Consider that we have gone from cave paintings to iPhones in the past ten thousand years... I wonder what apps they will have? And what about the parking during the holidays at the Short Hills Mall?

 

But the fact that this quirk of two separate calendars intersecting is a once-in-a-many ten thousand-year event also gave me pause, and sethw encouraged me to consider once again how miraculous life is. Just being here. We are all so busy, focused on our plans, our communication, and work - all of which only makes time go faster. I am reminded of Abraham Isaac Heschel's great book, The Sabbath, in which he offers a reflection on the goal of contemplation, a state of rest apart from the business and goal-orientedness of life: "The higher goal of spiritual living is not to amass a wealth of information, but to face sacred moments." In contemplation we step out of time, enter a space that begins to touch the infinite. Holidays - "holy days" - have been the occasion throughout human history to step out of mundane, ordinary time, focused on day-to-day survival, and enter into a contemplative, mythical space that transcends the passage - and burdens - of historical time.

 

I hope that the holidays are, for of each of you, an opportunity to experience the blessings that life can hold; to step out of the rush of daily events and schedules and stand to the side, in Heschel's "palace in time," in the place where we experience gratitude for all that we have, and all those we love, and to feel appreciation for simply being.

 

And... (here comes the shameless plug) it just so happens that we have an opportunity to do just that, together as a community, next month at our annual holiday party. I hope you will all be able to attend, to share a moment in time where we can all be together as a community, to celebrate the year, and one another, and to enjoy an evening without meetings, tasks, or agendas... good food, drink, and company (please bring your significant other). Giorgio's Ristorante, in South Orange NJ, Saturday evening, January 25th, 6 PM, our very own CPPNJ "palace in time".

 

Seth 
Carolynn Hillman  (1942 - 2013)

 

Carolynn Hillman was a long-time faculty member, first at CCAPS and continuing with CPPNJ.  She was active as an analyst, teacher, supervisor, mentor, and administrator throughout her career, in addition to her work as a writer of books on female self-esteem.  She lost a long battle with cancer last week, and she will be greatly mourned by our community.  Below are a few of the comments which people have posted in the last few days.  We wanted to share these with you so you have a chance to know her impact on those around her.   Also, at the end, is a link to a biography which she wrote and which was published in this newsletter.

 

I want to take a few moments in this busy time of the year to say a few words about Carolynn Hillman's passing.  Carolynn has been absent from CPPNJ activities for several years now as she fought the cancer that recently took her life.  Those of you who began at CCAPS will remember her as a faculty member whose sure-footed clarity and common sense earned her our deep respect.  I still recall the gratitude I felt when she agreed to accept the Director of Training post as the two institutes were in the midst of our sometimes tumultuous merger.  She stepped into the eye of a hurricane and like that eye, she provided us with a steady center.

Carolynn had a relatively short tenure as Training Director but in that time, she set a direction that has guided us since. There was about her a kind of realness and a solidity of character that brought the moment's problems into calm perspective.  I last saw Carolynn on a graduation night that she helped orchestrate.  In charge of festivities, her sense of humor and her joy in life shone through and, for me, completed the circle of who she was.  We are diminished by this loss. 

-Jim Garofallou   

 

I was very sad to learn this week of Carolynn Hillman's passing. We all knew she had been ill for several years, a very serious form of cancer. I got to know Carolynn around the consolidation of IPPNJ and CCAPS, where she had been on the faculty. I had the pleasure of appointing her as the first Director of Training of our newly consolidated CPPNJ, following a period during which she and I served as Co-Directors of Training for the Interim Board. The better I got to know Carolynn, the more impressed I was with her clarity, her dedication to psychoanalytic training, her wisdom, and her caring.

She continued to work for CPPNJ after she was diagnosed, although the treatment was quite disruptive, and Carolynn eventually decided she needed to turn her full attention to her health. Every time I spoke with Carolynn, she was optimistic and focused on the next step, whatever it was. She did not complain, although I know it was very hard. She was often tired from treatments, felt sick, and was not able to work during parts of the treatment process. I have felt inspired by Carolynn, her courage and her steadfastness, and her hopefulness in the face of frightening challenges and loss. I will miss Carolynn. Her absence has been and will be a real loss to CPPNJ, but I know that she will always be a part of the life and history of our institute and our collective memory.

-Seth Warren

 

Carolynn was a wonderful teacher and supervisor.  As a teacher she introduced us to "Learning From the Patient" by Patrick Casement. I recall loving the title before reading the book.  That Carolynn selected such a book to teach us was indicative of her collaborative and caring approach to clinical work.

As my supervisor she taught me how to track the moment by moment ebb and flow of feeling and unconscious communication with patients and how to interpret in a way that deepened reflection. She is always with me in sessions and I aspire, still, to hit the mark like her.

-Sally Rudoy

 

Carolynn was my final supervisor at CCAPS.  She got me through the program while my son was going through a very serious illness.  Her empathy was deep & enduring.   She has a special place in my heart. 

-Nanci Schwartz

 

Carolynn was also one of my supervisors. In addition to discussing process, Carolynn made it possible for me to talk about being a supervisee, which I needed to do, and about our relationship. She went out of her way to help me complete requirements for a course I had missed, even though it was on her time. Carolynn was very courageous and honest, and those qualities made her kind and empathic. It seems she understood many special needs for many people and quietly met them. I remember her with great fondness.

-Ellen Fenster-Kuehl

 

Your remarks about Carolynn Hillman are deeply touching and I wanted to acknowledge that publicly. Thank you for rounding out the picture of someone whose loss clearly affects many in our community.

My very best to all those who mourn her,

-Nina Thomas

 

Save These Dates for 2014
 
January 5, 2014 - CPPNJ Central Region Brunch - Home of Susan Gutwill - RSVP to Tom Johnson at [email protected] - 11:00am-1:00pm

January 12, 2014 - Informational Meeting: Supervision Training Program - Rice Lounge, FDU Florham Park, Madison, NJ - RSVP to Eric Sherman at [email protected] - 1:00pm

January 25, 2014 - Annual Holiday Party - Giorgio's Ristorante, South Orange, NJ - 6:00pm

February 2, 2014 - Faculty Forum - Harlene Goldschmidt, PhD presents Qi Gong Therapy as an Enhancement to Psychodynamic Therapy: Considering the Benefits of an Alternative Mind/Body Therapy - Hartman Lounge, FDU Florham Park, Madison, NJ - 9:00am-1:00pm
 

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  

April 6, 2014 - Gina Colelli, LCSW presents Integrating EMDR into Psychodynamic Treatment - Lenfell Hall, FDU Florham Park, Madison, NJ - 9:00am-12:30pm 

 

May 3, 2014 - IDfest: An Evening of Comedy & Dessert - Lenfell Hall, FDU Florham Park, Madison, NJ - 7:00pm  

 

June 7, 2014 - CPPNJ Graduation & End of Year Celebration - Rutgers Club, New Brunswick, NJ - 6:00pm-10:00pm

 

October 19, 2014 - Faculty Forum - Sue Grand, PhD presents When Our Histories Collide: Exploring Trans-generational Memories in the Therapeutic Dyad - The Rutherford Room, Student Union Building, FDU Metropolitan Campus, Teaneck, NJ - 9:00am-1:00pm 

 

November 8, 2014 - Richard Schwartz, PhD, Founding Developer, Center for Self Leadership presents Accessing Disowned Part of the Self: Internal Family Systems Approach to Couples Therapy - Lenfell Hall, FDU Florham Park, Madison, NJ - 8:30am-4:00pm 


All public 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 


CPPNJ Annual Holiday Party
 

When: Saturday, January 25, 2014, 6:00pm 

Where: Giorgio's Ristorante 52 Vose Avenue, S. Orange, NJ 

Fee: $35 per person, significant others welcome. Pay online at our website www.cppnj.org or mail payment to CPPNJ 235 Main Street, #184 Madison, NJ 07940 

RSVP: [email protected] by January 13, 2014 

 


New Jersey Couples Therapy Training Program Begins Clinical Consultation Groups

 

Faculty in the couples therapy division are now starting clinical consultation groups in systemic-dynamic couples therapy for licensed professionals.  The groups will take place throughout the state and are geared towards providing direct feedback to clinicians who see couples in treatment.  The groups are open to anyone from the CPPNJ community (faculty or candidates), to NJCTTP candidates, and to all clinicians from the community.  The groups will help couples therapists apply both psychodynamic and contemporary models to working with couples. 

 

If you are interested, contact Daniel Goldberg, PhD, Director of NJCTTP, at [email protected] or 609-683-8000.
Interest Group Meetings
 

Topic: Eating Problems and Body Image Dysmorphia

Where: Highland Park, NJ

Contact: Call Susan Gutwill if interested at 732-887-0848

 

  

Please note: Send your interest group announcements to Cathy Van Voorhees at [email protected] and we will be happy to get the word out.

 


debiroelke Meet Debi Roelke, PhD, CPPNJ Faculty Member

Perhaps the most important thing that I could say about myself - a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Morristown - is that I feel incredibly fortunate to be doing work that I love within the community of CPPNJ.  As I look back over my journey here, I realize that it is the people who have taught and inspired me, mentored and supported me, that have woven together the tapestry of who I am as an analyst.

 

From my earliest family days, there was support for curiosity and a love of learning, as well as the sense that feelings, both known and only glimpsed obliquely, come from somewhere.  From my school days in Woodstock and a tiny valley in the Catskill Mountains, there were teachers who inspired me to love what they were teaching, and a memorable book:  Irving Stone's fictionalized biography of Freud called Passions of the Mind.  Not long afterward, I went to Brown - at a time when the university was passionately committed to students shaping their own educations.  The idea was planted that there is a valuable dialectic between what we bring to situations from our internal worlds, shaping an understanding that is yet powerfully influenced by the new experience we encounter.  No surprise, then, that when I arrived at Clark University for graduate school and joined the teaching assistant team for General Psychology, my very best lecture was on assimilation and accommodation in the developmental theory of Piaget. 

 

Clark is widely known as the only American University to invite Freud to speak; he came with Jung, Ferenczi and several other German academics in 1909 to give what would become the Introductory Lectures.  Word has it that Freud hated the largely immigrant city of Worcester with its triple-decker tenement-like housing and textile factories.  Snubbed by much of the American psychiatric establishment, he was welcomed at Clark for his renegade thinking and his commitment to working and re-working this theory.  Far from becoming the new seat of an American psychoanalysis, Clark carried forward instead this value of scholarship, the centrality of developmental thinking and an abiding concern with how our underlying assumptions shape both our research and theory.  Clark had been founded as a small university dedicated to graduate education, with the department of psychology and G. Stanley Hall as its centerpiece.  Shortly thereafter, they founded the American Psychological Association as well.  It meant a lot to me to earn my Ph.D. in the footsteps of some of the first women graduate students in this country who were earning their doctorates with Hall in the 1890's. 

 

My first taste of excitement for a contemporary psychoanalytic way of practicing was on internship at Northwestern University Institute of Psychiatry in Chicago.  Throughout a very intense year there, I was introduced to Winnicott, Kohut, Kernberg, Gill and others.  All the teachers and supervisors I encountered had a different theoretical bent, and were enthusiastically excited to teach us their way of thinking.  Some of it was a better fit that others, and moreover, the famous tensions of the Chicago psychoanalytic community were still somewhat in the air.  But the excitement and enthusiasm for theory left their impression.  Next up for me was time off for family and several relocations.  I did some teaching at Loyola University of Chicago and Suffolk University in Boston.  It was my next major professional move, postdoctoral work in Infant Mental Health that explicitly laid a path toward psychoanalytic training.

 

I completed my analytic training with CPPNJ, and now am continuing my analytic work as teacher, supervisor, and analyst, and appreciate that I have an analytic home here, with CPPNJ.

 


Christopher Clulow of the Tavistock Center for Couples Relationships (www.t
Christopher Clulow of the Tavistock Center for Couples Relationships
Christopher Clulow, PhD Presents: Surviving the Gridlocked Moments with Couples
By Ellie Muska, LCSW

Clulow and Veronica
Christopher Clulow and Veronica Horenstein
Christopher Clulow
Christopher Clulow
Christopher Clulow
of the Tavistock Center for Couples Relationships (www.tccr.ac.uk) was the invited speaker, co-sponsored by the NJCTTP and the NJSCW, on November 24, 2013.  His presentation was "Surviving the Gridlock Moments with Couples: A Tavistock Approach to Couples Therapy."  He was a warm, engaging speaker who provided and encouraged a rich dialogue with the audience.

 

In his work, Christopher Clulow develops an approach to couples therapy that richly integrates attachment theory with psychoanalytic theory.  He explores and masters concepts such as the meanings of varied attachment configurations, transference, counter-transference and projective identification, to name a few.  He thinks about attachment styles, not categorically, but dynamically.  He applies psychoanalytic understanding to the couple as a unit, to each partner in the couple and, to the therapist's relationship to each partner.  In working with gridlocked moments, his steadfast presence with the couple is based on the acknowledged experience of how the therapist, along with the couple, gets stuck.  The subsequent verbal acknowledgement to the couple of this experience of the therapist feeling stuck, "opens the door for everyone to be curious," which is essential to moving beyond the impasse.  He reflected on how certainty recedes with age, despite experience.  It is the earned humility in this realization along with the open acknowledgement with the couple of everyone feeling stuck, that I believe, makes him a compelling therapist and speaker.

 

He works both systemically and intrapsychically.  The couple system is an open system, which includes everything about their environment, such as, children, careers, extended family, social relationships, etc.  The couple works to shape their environment to reflect what they believe their world could be.  Clulow states, "They [the couple] are on a voyage of discovery throughout their lives, if they can be free enough," to explore.   When the partners come into conflict around the potential for new experiences, there is both the possibility to engage creatively or fight against change.  As the conflict raises opportunity, there is danger in the form of engaging defenses to protect oneself from the pain of loss.  When the couple's defenses increase at the expense of creativity, they are likely to seek treatment.

 

The understanding of intrapsychic dynamics is informed by attachment theory, which he sees as part of the object relations tradition.  The mother-infant or main care-giver dyad is the prototype of all future relationships.  We learn who we are through our relationships with others, and most of that experience is unconscious.  In experiencing the couple, Clulow, as therapist, will think about the parallel between the mother-infant dyad, and  will wonder how the couple attachment system is operating based on early care-giving and receiving experiences.  We choose our partners unconsciously, sensing who will activate undeveloped aspects of our own selves.  The choice of partner, he says, is biased towards choosing a partner who will help us develop rejected parts of our self. In this approach, one can see how he applies both attachment and object relations ideas to the system as a whole.

 

Overall, the day spent with Christopher Clulow and the NJTTCP community was warm, collegial, and friendly and made for interesting dialogue.


INTRODUCING OUR NEW CPPNJ FACULTY 

Evelyn Rappoport, PsyD 
 

I am delighted to join this wonderful community where, I look forward to supervising and teaching as well as learning from the many talented and experienced clinicians at the institute.  Very briefly, I am a graduate of Yeshiva University and of the NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and maintain a full time practice in Manhattan.   As a licensed psychologist, psychoanalyst and somatic practitioner, I treat individuals, couples and families and currently, I specialize in trauma resolution.  My focus is on integrating relational psychoanalysis, attachment and somatic modalities.  

 

Presently, I lead a number of ongoing supervision groups, both in New York and Jerusalem and present papers at APA div 39, IARPP, NIP and NYU on affect regulation and embodied experience.   A supervise and consult at a number of institutes and I also  serve as  a board member of the International Traumanization which supports workshops on Trauma and Emotional First Aid to mental health practitioners, first responders and community organizations.  Recently, I published an article on somatic practice in Psychoanalytic Dialogues( June 2012) and my chapter titled Dynamic Linking of Psyche and Soma is soon to be published in the forthcoming book "Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Integration: An Emerging Synergy." 

 
INTRODUCING OUR NEW CPPNJ CANDIDATES

Elizabeth A. Buonomo, LCSW 
 

I have been working as a clinical social worker for more than ten years. Currently, I have a private practice in Hackensack.  I started my career by providing primarily trauma treatment to World Trade Center victims, which led me to develop expertise in therapies such as EMDR, exposure, affect regulation work, and neuroscience.  In the past few years, I have developed an interest in contemporary analytic perspectives, and have been adding these ideas and techniques to my work.  For the past 20 years, I have been teaching the Alexander Technique, a mindfulness and body oriented modality, and it underpins every aspect of my clinical work. I am particularly interested in integrating the body and psychotherapy modalities and have begun exploring this with appropriate clients.

 

In my free time, I enjoy running, biking and swimming.  I was recently married and my husband and I are happiest when cooking, entertaining guests and working on our 100 year old home.  I have also been a Scottish country dancer for many years and it is a true passion.  I am so excited to begin and look forward to meeting all of you!

 

Lila Redmount, LCSW  
 

I am excited to join CPPNJ as a new candidate.  I was introduced to this organization when I met a wonderful group of colleagues, and now friends, who belong to the CPPNJ community.  I have worked with them in individual and group supervision, peer groups, and the Children and Adolescent Interest Group.  They have motivated and encouraged me to embark in this new project of professional training and belonging to a professional community that is accepting of different voices.   I am thankful to them for their guidance and help.

 

I was born and raised in Argentina, the daughter of a psychoanalyst (I guess it's in my blood); I live in Scotch Plains with my own family in transition, as the parent of 3 young adults and an adolescent boy.  I obtained my MSW from Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work, and have been a psychotherapist for over 15 years.  My work experience includes in-home therapeutic services with DYFS identified families and foster families, outpatient services at a community mental health agency and at a children's hospital, and as a psychotherapist in a therapeutic high-school.   Since June 2012, I work exclusively in private practice at my office in Scotch Plains.

 

Most of my clients are children and adolescents and their families, struggling with all sorts of life problems, including autism spectrum disorders, school issues, depression, anxiety, and difficult life transitions. I would like to expand my practice to include more work with adults, and I am looking forward to professional and personal growth associated with training in, and belonging to, this organization.

 


Member Presentations and Publications

Charlotte Kahn, EdD 

 

Discussant: at the Plenary Session of The 14th International Neuropsychoanalysis Congress,

(Cape Town, South Africa, August 2013) of the cases presented by members of the Neuropsychoanalytic Clinical Study Center of NPA  

 

Book Review: The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand The Unconscious in Art, Mind, Brain: From Vienna 1900 to the Present. Eric Kandel. Psychoanalytic Review, 100(3), June 2013.

 

Article: Aspects of Narcissism or Essential Neurosis of Twins. Psychoanalytic Review, 99 (3) June 2012, 316-331.

     

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 

      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 February 2014 when we will feature Demystifying Self Harm: External Wounds and Internal Strife by Janet Hoffer, LCSW. 

 

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