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 Luba Palter, MFT
While I eagerly await submissions for our new column “Who is NCSPP,” I will share a little about my practice. By the way, if you are hesitating to send a blurb about yourself, please reach out. I would love to hear from you and support you to gain some visibility.
I have had several patients who refer to themselves as “we” over the years. For the longest time, I thought they meant themselves and me. I thought they were being relational, including me as they changed geographical locations, involving me in their processes. And then it dawned on me. I had nothing to do with it; they were referring to their states. They housed multiple and distinct personalities. Those personalities were so distinct that they could not touch sides or corners and only belonged in one singular container that could carry them through their lives. That container was the outside “I” that protected the inside “we.” In therapy my patients talked about the outside “I”, but only with safety they began to let me know about the “we” they carried.
How do we get the patients that we do? I do not know how my caseload ended up feeling like a family of multiples. Is there something about being an immigrant that I can identify holding multiple, distinct personalities inside? Is there something about being a therapist and a writer? Is there something about being a crisis therapist in a call center and a psychoanalytic therapist in private practice? Is there something about those types of distinct splits that I can identify with on a personal level? Maybe it is all those things.
by Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy Group (PCPG)
PSYCHOANALYTIC COUPLE PSYCHOTHERAPY GROUP ANNUAL LECTURE 2023
Saturday, October 21, 2023, from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm.
Use this link to learn more and register!
Join PCPG for our Annual Psychoanalytic Couple Psychotherapy Lecture of 2023 at the Brower Center in Berkeley, CA (also available online). Perrine Moran, MA, from Tavistock Relationships, is the PCPG invited-scholar presenting her paper, “I'll Be Your Mirror: Love Songs and Couples – a Mentalizing View," with discussant Adam Kremen, Ph.D. She will explore the ability of love songs to trigger the emotions experienced in infancy and in adult couple dynamics. The love song, “I'll Be Your Mirror,” by the Velvet Underground (1966), will serve as the starting point for considering the process of “mirroring” in early development as well as in adult couple relationships. She will show how concepts from Mentalization theory can be applied to clinical work with an enmeshed couple to help the therapist’s mirroring with a couple who is resistant to change.
by San Francisco Center For Psychoanalysis (SFCP)
SFCP PRESENTS: THE 2023-24 EAST BAY YEAR-LONG PROGRAM
Join us this Fall (October through May) as we explore psychoanalytic literature, practice, and thinking concerning historically left-out, dismissed, or complex issues.
We live in an era punctuated by violence perpetrated along the lines of gender, sexuality, race, class, polarized politics, and climate change. This stress informs our culture and is carried in our bodies. As clinicians, we are challenged to manage somatized trauma that is held in the body in many guises. Issues such as being LGBTQ+ in a culture that marginalizes sexual and gender identities, addictions, neurodiversity, and eating disorders will be explored. Taught by psychoanalytic clinicians, this program will help us work with clients through a psychoanalytic lens, to deepen our understanding and create more meaning in our work.
For registration and price go to https://www.sfcp.org/ebyl
by Mariya Mykhaylova, LCSW
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
The choices we make require us to weather ambivalence, especially when our selection entails foregoing all other options. While some decisions are foregrounded by uncertainty and mixed feelings, with others the doubt creeps in through an afterwardness. Our musings on the road not taken can be as seductive as they are fruitless, as relentless as they are impassable.
In order to become a therapist, I chose not to become a journalist. Sometimes I catch myself looking over my shoulder at the path I didn’t choose. Writing was my first love. From a young age, I wrote short stories, relished the annual Young Author’s Faire, and even took a stab at a fantasy novel. As an adolescent, I turned my angst into poems and wrote and edited for the school newspaper. Journalism seemed like a way to turn my creative yearnings into a tangible career.
But after a few years on the paper, I pivoted. Something within me whispered that this path wouldn’t satisfy me in the way that I hoped and that I needed to look deeper. The soul-searching that followed led me to psychology and eventually, clinical social work and psychoanalysis. Over the years, I have felt so at home as a therapist, filled with gratitude to have found a career that just feels right for me.
by Willow Banks, Psy.D.
Dear NCSPP Community:
It’s that time of year again when we are seeking nominations for our open 2024 Board Officer positions. This year, we are requesting nominations for one elected Officer position, as well as inviting inquiries into appointed committee chair positions. All positions will begin in the next calendar year, January 2024.
We invite our members and associate members to consider submitting themselves for nomination for the electable Board Officer position, and/or to nominate another person. If you would like to nominate someone else, please confirm with them that they are willing to run prior to sending in a nomination. When submitting your nomination, please provide the nominee's name, phone number, and email address. To submit your nomination, or if you would like more information on these positions and the election process, please contact us.
We are seeking nominations for the following Board Officer position:
- President-Elect (3-year term)
BEAUTIFUL, QUIET OFFICE AVAILABLE FOR SUBLET (OAKLAND). Rent includes a sunlit, fully furnished office with an analytic couch, a private side-office, utilities, WiFi, cleaning service, and Coway air filter. This office is in a suite with other therapists in a great location a block away from Rockridge BART. Contact me for availability and rates: ruthsimonphd@gmail.com, (510) 601-6906.
BUILDING FOR SALE. Prime location just off Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. 2417 Carleton Street. Five psychotherapy offices in commercial condominium building being sold as a package, also ideal for residential conversion. Large, light-filled offices. Asking price $1,500,000. Owners may consider financing for qualified purchaser. Inspection reports available. Five off-street parking spaces. Air-conditioning. Contact Patrick Ellwood (broker CA Lic. 00471233) to view, (510) 238-9111.
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.
There and Back Again: Into the Starry Night
Sat, Sep 2 (begins) / 11:00 am - 1:30 pm / Zoom
Jung Institute / (628) 688-0646 / Q. Ching, LCSW / $750
CCSW Clinical Consultation Group
Tue, Sep 5 (begins) / 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm / Zoom
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / E. Miller, LCSW; E. Simpson, LCSW / $50
Social Work in Community Settings
Wed, Sep 6 (begins) / 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm / Zoom
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / C. Datz-Greenberg, LCSW; J. St. George, LCSW / free
2023-2024 CAPPTP: Infancy and Early Childhood - First Year \
Wed, Sep 6 (begins) / 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm / 444 Natoma St. / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / B. Fife, Psy.D., et al. / $1,995
What The C.G Jung Institute Can Offer Psychiatrists
Sat, Sep 9 / 9:00 am - 12:00 pm / Zoom
Jung Institute / (628) 688-0646 / J. Beebe, M.D., et al. / free
South Bay Extended Study Series
Wed, Sep 13 (begins) / 10:00 am - 11:30 am / Zoom
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / H. Issa, Ph.D., et al. / $900 - $1100
2023-2024 San Francisco Continuous Case Conference
Fri, Sep 15 (begins) / 1:45 pm - 3:00 pm / Zoom
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / W. Beckman, Ph.D., et al. / $630 - $700
The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul
Fri, Sep 22 / 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm / Zoom
Jung Institute / (628) 688-0646 / C. Zweig, Ph.D. / $60
Symposium: Come Talk To Me
Sat, Sep 30 / 10:00 am - 12:00 pm / 530 Bush St. / San Francisco
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / P. Goldberg, Ph.D., et al. / free - $50
The Oblivious Object
Sat, Sep 30 / 10:00 am - 12:00 pm / 444 Natoma St. / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / M. Brady, Ph.D.; A. Alvarez, Ph.D., M.A.C.P. / free
Jungian Psychology for Everyday Life
Sun, Oct 1 (begins) / 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm / Zoom
Jung Institute / (628) 688-0646 / P. Holland M.D., et al. / $725
MODE: An Update from the Clinical Point of View
Mon, Oct 2 / 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm / Zoom
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / M. Leuzinger-Bohleber, Ph.D. / free
Early Career Case Conference - National Section
Tue, Oct 3 (begins) / 5:15 pm - 6:45 pm / Zoom\
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / L. Chow, Ph.D., et al. / $300 - $500
Early Career Case Conference – East Bay
Wed, Oct 4 (begins) / 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm / private office / Berkeley/Oakland
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / M. Holub, Ph.D., et al. / $300 - $500
Winnicott, Creativity, and the Place Where We Live
Wed, Oct 4 (begins) / 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm / Zoom
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / M. Mulkey, MFT / free
Early Career Case Conference – San Francisco
Wed, Oct 4 (begins) / 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm / 530 Bush St. / San Francisco
PINC / (415) 288-4050 / P. Alexander, Ph.D., et al. / $300 - $500
Working with Parents: Key to Child Psychotherapy
Thu, Oct 5 (begins) / 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm / 444 Natoma St. / San Francisco
SFCP / (415) 563-5815 / L. Brown, LCSW; A. Wallerstein Freidman, LCSW / $55 - $60