Impulse is a community newsletter produced by the Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (NCSPP) and distributed electronically at no cost to subscribers. We envision Impulse as an integrative source for local news, events, and thinking of interest to the psychoanalytically inclined. Our goal is to be your guide as you explore the Bay Area's rich array of analytic resources.
We invite you to become a member of NCSPP, if you are not already. And, we welcome you as a subscriber to Impulse. Join us as we highlight the exceptional diversity of psychoanalytic thought and practice in Northern California.
by Lorrie Goldin, LCSW
I see my client’s face. A bit pixelated, true, but more centrally framed now that the camera angle cutting her off just above the chin last week has been adjusted. I glimpse my own image and “office” in the small rectangle. Oh, no, has the covering slipped from my daughter’s old dresser? How many times will the screen freeze today?
Still, it’s better than nothing. I’m lucky to have a private space, with no children to homeschool or shush—the daughter whose room I’m in is long grown. Cursed, blessed technology exists now, at least for most people with the wherewithal to find their way into somebody’s private practice. I have been on Zoom support sessions for clinicians, and hear horror stories from those who work with people who are impoverished, undocumented, hungry, homeless, imprisoned, sick, overwhelmed by life even in the best of times. Some people they’ve been unable to reach altogether.
by Molly Merson, MFT
Therapy Under Lockdown: ‘I’m Just As Terrified As My Patients Are’. Have our lives pre-COVID-19 really been so separate from our patients’? It’s not the first time clinicians and patients alike have lived through something together (see HIV/AIDS, 9/11, WWI and WWII, Spanish Flu, racism), but we are living through a viral pandemic that is transforming the frame of traditional psychoanalytic therapy.
The Unmasking of Corporate America. This article critiques the branding associated with corporations utilizing “Black Lives Matter” languaging without doing the deeper institutional and personal work of upending racist policies, practices, and belief systems.
Asya Grigorieva, Ph.D.
THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE IS ACCEPTING PROPOSALS FOR 2021-2022.
The Education Committee strives to develop programming that represents the intellectual diversity of contemporary psychoanalytic psychology, the diversity of therapists and clients, and the expansion of psychoanalytic theory and practice. Our courses take place in San Francisco and the East Bay (currently all held online until Spring 2021), and are available to NCSPP members of all levels and to the larger community. Courses meet the continuing education credit requirements for LCSWs and MFTs through CAMFT (Provider #57020) and for psychologists through Division 39 of APA.
If you are interested in teaching a class, please click here to submit your course proposal: https://www.ncspp.org/submit-course-proposal.
TWO HALF-TIME OFFICE SUBLETS AVAILABLE. Located in Oakland and Campbell. Photos available upon request. The Campbell office is situated in a suite with several colleagues, multidisciplinary and collaborative, with weekly staff meetings; especially good opportunity to build a practice. Contact Christina Halsey, Ph.D. at 2chirp@comcast.net or (510) 418-0170.
LOVELY, QUIET PSYCHOTHERAPY OFFICE. Located in desirable upper Fillmore area, full-time. Below-market rent ideal for one (or two) therapists. Friendly, conscientious and collaborative analytic tenants reopening with a high level of sanitation and system of protection for clients and therapists. Kitchen with refrigerator, sink. Wifi, weekly cleaning and filtered water are shared expenses. Office furniture for sale: leather 6' sofa, teak credenza, leather therapist chair with foot stool. Contact: Karen Peoples, Ph.D., Karenina-p@comcast.net.
Old couches, new books, hot jobs, cool internships, office rentals? List them in Impulse's Classifieds for a modest fee. Please see our submission guidelines for details.