by Stephanie King, Psy.D.

Over the years in my practice I have, on occasion, used the analogy that therapy and self-discovery can be like climbing a spiral staircase. It’s certainly not an original analogy, but when well-timed can be quite containing. In case you’ve never heard this analogy, it highlights the way that climbing a spiral staircase can, at times, feel like you’re not getting anywhere, just going in circles, or maybe even regressing – a lot like the therapeutic process. Like the stairway, in therapy you don’t always have your destination in sight. However, with each step you are getting to a different place, even if it looks like where you were before. While it can seem like we’re going around and around, if we stop and look down we can see how far we’ve climbed.

I’ve been thinking about how this relates to my role as President of NCSPP and our goals as an organization. What revolutions are we making? Where is change needed? Where can we grow? How do we keep climbing toward a destination that we can’t always see?

One of our endeavors this year was to integrate more social justice and anti-oppression content into Impulse. To write and speak more freely and courageously on issues involving power, privilege, and whiteness as they pertain to psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychology, our institutions, and our community.

When we discussed this as a board, we realized this endeavor might not be a welcome change to all of our readers. It became clear that one of the ways we would know that we were making an impact would be if people began to react to this change. Even reactions of distaste would be a sign that we were getting the attention of our readers. So far we have received these reactions, as well as those of applause and encouragement. In this way we know we are on the right track, and also know that we cannot please everyone.

Please think of NCSPP as climbing that proverbial spiral staircase. We’ll continue writing about issues that are uncomfortable and difficult, and we’ll also make forays into playfulness and fun, as we did with the horoscope column last month. The last thing we want is to truly go in circles, doing the same thing again and again, paying no mind to the issues that have already been neglected for far too long. We continue to eagerly read your feedback, both the disagreement and applause, as we climb the staircase.