by Todd Rising, Psy.D., NCSPP President Elect

The smoke has cleared, the fires have largely been doused, and the ever-tardy rain season is just beginning to flush through the Bay Area. By the latest count, and barring any last minute desperate and dirty tricks, the reign of Trump is finally whimpering towards its conclusion, and the novel coronavirus may meet its foe in the coming months with the emergence of vaccines. The question, “can we breathe again?” crosses my mind, but not without the awareness of the words carrying the tragic associations of lethal White supremacy and the overwhelming number of racialized travesties and tragedies. 

My constant, months-long vigilance, demanding an exhaustive attunement to the actions and inactions of those in positions to prevent harm, will seemingly dissipate over the next while. I know but can only imagine the experience, however, given that I am a White man, that living with another lethal strain of this vigilance that will not lift for all in our communities. The overlapping pandemics of coronavirus and racism have again highlighted the fraught White-centric assumptions in the tensions between universality and inequities, the communal and the individual, and maybe most topical recently, historical privilege and oppression. NCSPP continues to grapple with the external tensions in our programming and our processes, but also internally within our own structures, mindsets, and histories. In addition to seeking to acknowledge and repair racialized missteps we have made, we continue to bump into the reality -- vis-à-vis our programming -- that some parts of psychoanalysis remain to be more fully analyzed through these lenses. 

As President-Elect of NCSPP this year, I am aware of my own need to do my work as part of an organization that seeks to serve our community with awareness, humility, transparency and accountability. NCSPP pledges to do our work towards these goals and will be meeting with consultants to work with the Board to strengthen our own internal understanding of our institutional racism and unconscious White supremacy. We aim for sharing air among our diverse community that invites breathing, speaking, and collaboratively thinking together in as safe and inviting a space as possible. We look forward to meeting you there.

I also want to impart to our membership that, due to the increasing risk of COVID-19 transmission, there will sadly be no holiday party this year. However, our regular communications via Impulse and emails will inform you of our incoming officers, the recipient of our annual Community Service Award, and our Annual Writing Award, so do stay tuned! We have been so honored, also, to have been joined in our continual evolution as an organization by Danni Biondini, Chair of the Impulse Committee; Asya Grigorieva, Education Committee Chair; and Priscille Schwarcz-Besson, Pre-licensed Clinician Members Committee Chair; all of whom will be stepping down from their positions at the end of this calendar year, in addition to Jeremy Mintz, Programming Committee Chair, who stepped down earlier this year. Thank you to all for your generous devotion of time, energy and creative thought to NCSPP. Your thoughtful contributions will continue their impact within NCSPP and our larger community for years to come, and we have been and remain so grateful for all of you. 

Thank you also to our community for your ongoing support, participation, and investment in NCSPP’s presence and growth as an organization. We will look forward to hearing more from you all in the coming year, and to keeping you apprised of our own evolution, development, and thinking via our quarterly and monthly periodicals and sundry emails. Until soon, and see you in 2021!