Amidst pressures to oversimplify human psychology and to treat complicated issues in ten sessions or less, psychoanalysis insists on the depth and complexity of human experience. In honor of this vital and essential approach, the Masonic Center for Youth and Families will open in San Francisco's Presidio to offer youth an opportunity to be known and understood on their own terms and in their own time. 

Our mission is to offer quality mental health services driven by the needs of youth and families, rather than by artificially imposed limitations; to design research around thoughtful, integrated treatment of actual and diverse patient populations; and to add our voice to the debate about effective assessment and treatment of youth with mental health issues. Because of our committed charitable funding, no one will be denied services because of a lack of resources.

• Personality, cognitive, and neuropsychological testing and interviews with friends and family will focus our treatment. We seek understanding, not labels.
• The treatment plan focuses on the youth in their familial context, and services include individual psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis for youth and parents and family and couples therapy.
• A treatment manager will support families throughout the assessment and treatment process.
• Testing performed at treatment outset, on termination, and 18 months post-termination will allow for far-reaching and nuanced research.

We plan to communicate with the public about the possibilities of psychoanalytic work and its celebration of the complexity of human experience. We hope this will benefit our entire professional community and, most importantly, youth and families in need. Our website will launch in August, and our doors will open in late 2010. 

Steffani Kizziar, Exec. Dir., skizziar@mhcuc.org, (510) 675-1245 and 
Terrence Owens, Ph.D., Clinical Dir., towens01@comcast.net, (415) 359-1889 
Masonic Center for Youth and Families