Presidents Remarks
by Karisa Barrow, PsyD
Thank you for welcoming me into this new role. My hope is to continue to champion the momentum of inclusion and a sense of belonging, which we aspire to promote at NCSPP, a place where budding psychoanalytic thinkers can feel welcomed and mentored by their seasoned peers. My goal as president is to continue to build bridges with our local training institutions and to revitalize a progressive psychoanalysis for the people (a là Lewis Aron and Karen Starr). We are invested in facilitating educational and social events that bring about social justice and improved mental health in our community. During these tumultuous times, especially politically so, I believe we have an opportunity to share our values and foster a way of thinking, holding, healing, and playing together that brings a sense of calm, integration, and collectiveness -- to practice "psychoanalysis as a social and humanistic enterprise," as Aron and Starr put it, for all, particularly the marginalized.
Getting connected: Please join us in any number of the upcoming events hosted by dedicated teachers and committee members for providers and students. Check out our wide range of courses and events.
Teaching and leadership: NCSPP provides seasoned clinicians opportunities to teach a range of topics from a psychoanalytic perspective in theory and practice, as well as to bring psychoanalytic ideas to community mental health agencies. Feel free to submit an original and forward thinking proposal online. Mentors, please know your early-career providers are longing for relationships from you, particularly during a time wherein the psychoanalytic discourse seems to be fading in their training institutions.
Collaboration: NCSPP would like to move toward providing a home for all who are psychoanalytically inclined. To that end, we hope to partner with our community institutions while offering all scholars, professors, psychoanalytic therapists, and community mental health members opportunities to cultivate a healthy co-existence. We have the same agenda: to keep psychoanalytic practices flourishing when "evidenced-based" pressures challenge quality care and lasting change. Psychoanalytic ideas and principles have much to offer our patients, our institutions, and society at large.