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 June Lin-Arlow, LMFT 

My time as Editor of Impulse comes to an end next month, as I turn inwards and go on maternity leave. This is likely the last time you’ll hear from me in a Letter from the Editor. Nicholas Hack will be covering for me as Interim Editor from October through December this year, through the end of my term. I am very grateful to him for stepping up as well as supporting me throughout my time as Editor. Recently I learned that we are both air signs, but I’m glad that he’s way more detail oriented than I am.

In Potential Space, it has felt important to encourage contemplative writing that values subjective experience, internal dialogue, and self-awareness of social position. Thank you to Amber Trotter and Rebekah Tinker for returning as writers this year, and it has been exciting to hear from new voices: Jasmine Khor, Tara Lasheen, Claire Greenwood, Ronna Haglili, and Mary Mykhaylova. And of course, thanks to Michele McGuinness for being the backbone to Impulse as well as all of NCSPP. 

I wish I could announce a new Editor who will be taking over in January, but I haven’t found the right person yet. There’s been a mental health crisis in California, and everyone I speak to seems to be at capacity in both their personal and professional lives. Being Editor is a great opportunity to get to know the local psychoanalytic community, hold yourself accountable to writing on a regular basis, and help shape NCSPP’s direction as part of the Board of Directors. If you’re reading this and are even slightly interested, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at jlarlow@ncspp.org!  

by New School for Existential Psychoanalysis

NEW TRAINING PROGRAM BEGINNING LATER THIS YEAR!

Benefits of our program are the following:

• Two years
• Conducted virtually throughout the world
• Affordable tuition
• For practicing therapists
• Follows a salon/seminar model of education
• Internationally established scholars and clinicians are on faculty
• Certificate in Existential Psychoanalysis

by Tara Lasheen, ASW

ON SILENCE, PAIN, AND FAMILY

I work with young children and their families who are involved in the foster care system. Which is to say, each week I stretch from Vallejo to Daly City to meet with my clients on playgrounds, cement tops, sidewalks, under causeways, in broom closets in schools, hot cars, and public housing, sometimes while avoiding sprinklers in parks. They are always telling me, through play, body, and affect, about the unbearable pain they’ve endured “in the system.” Inching my way home in Bay Bridge traffic, I nurse doubts about the reparative potential of this work.

My work has offered me an uncomfortable glimpse into an assemblage of institutions, policies, and discourses that police the family. The systemic removal of children from their parents is one arm of this assemblage; abortion control is another. I worry that the recent dismantling of Roe v. Wade is less about abortion than it is about expanding the right to surveil and control families – all families, but particularly Black and Brown families – in new, horrific ways. 

by Clara Brandt, Psy.D. 

ACCEPTING PROPOSALS FOR COURSES OFFERED FALL 2023 - SPRING 2024

The Education Committee strives to develop programming that represents the intellectual diversity of contemporary psychoanalytic psychology and the sociocultural diversity of therapists and patients. Proposals for 2023 - 2024 are due by September 30, 2022. Decisions will be delivered by November/December 2022.

We are especially eager to receive proposals that take an intersectional sociocultural perspective. We invite courses on topics that are necessary for CEs such as supervision and suicide assessment, and topics that are relevant to the realitites of working in the current COVID/sociopolitical/climate situation. Finally, please submit topics of passionate interest to you! You can submit proposals here, or contact the Education Chair, Clara Brandt, at cbrandt@ncspp.org

Classifieds: 

CULTURE AND THE UNCONSCIOUS: Expanding our Scope and Deepening our Reach, with Karim Dajani, Psy.D. Twelve week consultation and study group focused on applying the concept of a social unconscious to our work with patients. Group will meet online, Fridays from 8:00 am - 9:30 am PT, from September 2 through November 18. For further information, or to inquire about joining the group, please send an email to CatUconsultgroup@gmail.com.

NOE VALLEY OFFICE SPACE FOR DAILY SUBLET. Full time also available. Beautiful, quiet, and large office on 24th and Noe in a small suite. Please see: sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/off/d/san-francisco-psychotherapy-office/7504958908.html or contact Peggy Handler at peggyhandlermft@gmail.com.

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.   

Appointment Book: 

Early Career Psychoanalytic Case Conference
Wed, Sep 7 / 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm / Zoom / NA
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / S. Boulware, Ph.D., et al. / $80 - $170