I must have struck a chord last month in my column. I've received a number of responses from pre-licensed people who are interested in being mentored. I've also heard from a number of licensed members expressing their interest in being a mentor. These responses excited me and allowed me to think more about this idea becoming a new program within NCSPP. I'm in the initial stages of developing support, and the NCSPP Board, as well as an ad hoc committee I'm currently putting together, will all be thinking about it. But I wanted to state here that I plan to devote a large part of my presidency to building the foundations of this promising program. 

I plan to call it Mentoring Our Future: Giving Back by Bridging the Gap. By this I mean I want to develop a group of licensed members who are willing to be mentors to graduate students and pre-licensed folks. Out of this large group, pre-licensed folks will have a one-to-one relationship with a mentor, as well as a forum whose frequency has yet to be fully planned and determined. Licensed NCSPP members will have the opportunity in a colloquium setting to present their ideas about relevant topics such as clinical work, setting a frame, countertransferential issues that arise when building a practice, boundaries, ethics, as well as plain old advice to the eager and curious. 

I see this program as a way to help build the larger psychoanalytic community, as well as develop relationships within the community whereby our psychoanalytic traditions may be passed on to future generations here in Northern California -- to bridge gaps of education, affiliation and mentoring. When this is more formalized, NCSPP will hopefully launch it with a large event for the whole community. Stay tuned! Also, let me know if you are interested in being a mentor.

Warm regards,
Drew Tillotson, Psy.D.
NCSPP President