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 Willow Banks, Psy.D.
We are halfway through the year, which is hard to believe. It seems like the board just met for our January retreat to plan for the year ahead. In June, we met for an in-person board meeting and agreed that going forward we should do so quarterly. Being together strengthens us as a group and reminds us why we stay committed to our work for NCSPP. We’ve also had requests from our membership to have more in-person offerings, and while we are only holding virtual courses at the moment, we are planning a gathering in late summer for our membership at the Oakland Museum to enjoy the food trucks and music while we get better acquainted with one another.
An exciting announcement came at our June board meeting, as well. Although we started the year without a candidate for President-Elect, a board member stepped up to take that position. Candice Turner, Psy.D., our Outreach, Membership, and Liaison Division chair, has several years of experience on the board, making her an excellent choice to be our next President.
by Claire Greenwood, MA
THE SHADOW OF IDEALIZATION
I was a writer before I was a therapist. Before I knew the alphabet, I would staple pieces of blank paper together and draw stories or narrate the stories to my parents. I published two memoirs before the age of thirty. When I made the decision to train to be a therapist, I knew that I would have to contend with patients being able to access my personal writing. And I’ve already had patients who have read my books, or who have found me through my writing.
Being a therapist and being a writer invite projection in a similar way, but I’ve found that people have much stronger projections to me as a writer than to me as a therapist. As a writer, I show mastery, creativity, and a passion that is nearly lifelong. People assume things about me as a writer. They assume I seek fame; they assume I am confident. I’m not the most successful writer, but my words have a certain power.
But much of me stays hidden as an author. What people don’t see is a lot of insecurity, time alone crying and doubting myself, passivity, and hopelessness. Even when I am writing about emotionally trying experiences, or the lowest moments in my life (which I often do), people project a kind of resilience and strength onto me. It’s an odd paradox; by writing about my vulnerabilities, people view me as invulnerable.
by Ronna Milo Haglili, Psy.D.
THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE IS ACCEPTING PROPOSALS
We strive to develop programming that represents the intellectual diversity of contemporary psychoanalytic psychology and the sociocultural diversity of therapists and patients. We are also eager to develop programming that pertains to clinicians in different stages of their careers and/or psychoanalytic experiences.
Proposals for Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 will be accepted and reviewed on an ongoing basis. Decisions will be delivered within 90 days of submission.
Please submit proposals on topics of passionate interest to you! We are especially eager to receive proposals that take an intersectional, sociocultural perspective, including topics that are relevant to the realities of working in the current national/global sociopolitical and environmental situation. We also invite courses on topics that are necessary for CEs, such as supervision and suicide assessment. We look forward to hearing from you!
If you are interested in teaching a class, please click HERE to submit your course proposal.
For any questions, please contact the Education Committee chair, Ronna Milo Haglili, Psy.D. at rhaglili@ncspp.org
SPACE OPEN IN WEEKLY CONSULTATION GROUP. Wednesdays afternoons, for early-career clinicians. We aim to utilize the associative field of clinical, theoretical, and personal reverie in order to deepen our work with patients. Clinical orientation is contemporary psychoanalytic and relational, and we work to make foundational concepts therapeutically useful and experiential. Relevant papers are discussed in response to themes and concepts that emerge organically from our case discussions. Attention is paid to group process in order to maintain a safe and generative field for all participants. If interested email Jonathan Moss, MFT, at contact@jonathanmossmft.com.
SF PSYCHOTHERAPY OFFICES FOR RENT. Two large offices for rent in 4-office psychotherapy suite. Built-in bookcases and cabinets, air conditioning, and ventilation system in building with elevators near Mt. Zion/UCSF. Private waiting room with a separate exit. $1500/month. Attendant parking available. Please contact Gary Grossman, Ph.D. at (415) 928-4662 or gary.grossman@ucsf.edu.
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.