Home Base

by Jen Sermoneta

Recently, I attended an intimate gathering with a well-formed and long-established group outside our ICP+P community. Though we had many commonalities and the group members were welcoming, I felt out of place and uncomfortable. It reminded me how hard it is to enter an established group; how, just by existing, a group creates an inside and outside.
 
The experience made me reflect on when I was new to ICP+P: Our community prides itself on values like warmth and empathy, and I was welcomed kindly. But, no matter how nice individuals are, coming into a group is challenging. I was entering a community that already shared norms, expectations, friendships, and history.
 
For better or worse, my way of getting comfortable in a system is to try to be useful and find a role. For the last few years I’ve been working on ICP+P’s Diversity Interest Group, DIG. Yu Ling Han, a DIG member, had the idea for each of us to share their own personal story every month, focusing on experiences of identity, privilege, and oppression. We discuss the ways context and identity interact, and the ways they iteratively define and redefine each other.
Yu Ling facilitates DIG’s monthly sharing and discussion, as we grapple with feelings of trauma, guilt, pain, empathy, and confusion – as well as pride, satisfaction, and sources of strength. We learn about each other, and ourselves, in new and unexpected ways. The members of DIG are generous in sharing experiences that allow us to experience our vulnerabilities with richness and depth, and connect to parts of each other that resonate in ourselves, even that which is painful.
 
This weekend, ICP+P’s excellent conferences on gender and sexuality featured Mark Blechner, PhD and Janna Sandmeyer, PhD, along with case presenters, a moderator, and community members who came to the mics. The conference highlighted the vitality of using countertransference in working with patients, especially patients who have aspects of themselves that may be discriminated against. The speakers reminded us how powerfully our own presence affects what people share and how they feel about the things they share. The need to do our own work, to know ourselves in our multiple and sometimes unintegrated parts, is essential.
 
In clinical work, we work hard to try to join with patients, both consciously and unconsciously. We find the parts of ourselves that coincide with our patients and we hope patients can sense that empathy in our interactions. Yet we all have blind spots, fears, and unconscious biases that can injure people or leave them feeling misunderstood. We may alienate newcomers, patients, or colleagues, despite our best intentions.
 
How can clinicians come together around professional identity and use our own personal identity factors to enrich our understandings of our work, our self, and our world? How can we be knowledgeable but also curious and open about what is unique in people? How can we form – and reform – a professional community that recognizes the power of belonging, but also welcomes newcomers in ways that provide depth and feel good?
 
I’m grateful to ICP+P for being a professional and personal home base. This community provides a sense of belonging, stability, identity, and safety. Remembering what it’s like to be an outsider trying to come in, I’d like to do what I can to keep the doors open for new people – and new parts of my self – to join and make ICP+P a home base too.

Call for Submissions for Clinical Reflections Day Due by November 1, 2019

by Dawn Taylor

Clinical Reflections Day is Saturday, February 22, 2020

This conference, formerly known as Scientific Day, is an opportunity for ICP+P members to present clinical material to the membership at large.

We are looking for presentations that educate the audience and generate rich discussion. Articles, case presentations, experiential sessions, psychodrama, creative writing and other art forms, and therapeutic or educational use of media are all examples of approaches we would welcome. In general, we encourage you to think creatively about ways of sharing your concepts or insights. All work is expected to be rooted in contemporary psychoanalytic thought.

Members are invited to submit a paper or other media form and, if necessary, a note about how it will be shared with the audience. To make this event successful and welcoming, we will facilitate consultation and guidance to help each presenter.Each presenter will have 30-35 minutes, followed by 15-20 minutes for discussion. We plan to have three speakers.

Please send your submission to Dawn Taylor, Conference Chair, at dawney66@aol.com by November 1st. The Clinical Reflections Committee will then review the applications. We look forward to sharing the insights and creativity of our excellent community!

Invitation to Child and Adolescent Study Group

The Child and Adolescent Study Group currently has openings. Additionally, we would like to send an invitation to members to drop into the group. Our study group is for members who work with children and adolescents. We look forward to meeting other members in ICP+P who work with this population.

This year we will discuss Autism, vaping, clients who identify as transgender, a medication review, and exploring how families are not connected in this age of devices. Whether you would like to join the monthly group or just come visit one month, we look forward to meeting you. The leaders of the group are Deborah Marks (301-530-5607) and Martha Blechar Gibbons (202-364-3919). The group is held at Deborah Marks’ home in Rockville (aka North Bethesda) the first Tuesday of the month from 9:30-11am.

Dawn Taylor

Upcoming Training + Education

Short Course

Keeping the Body in Mind: Affect Regulation for Trauma Survivors

Friday, November 15, 2019, 12:00 – 3:15 pm (3 CEs) ~ ICP+P Office, 4601 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008

Presented by Tally Tripp, LCSW, ATR-BC, CTT

Traumatic stress can evoke emotional extremes in survivors who are often described as feeling “too much” (flooding) or feeling “too little” (shut down). This workshop introduces participants to a range of neurobiologically-informed therapeutic tools and techniques that can be utilized in clinical practice with dysregulated clients. Keeping the body in mind, we will experiment with a range of body-based, “bottom up” interventions designed to promote grounding and attunement and facilitate self-awareness and affect regulation for trauma survivors.

At the conclusion of the short course, attendees will be able to:

  1. Describe the basic (mind-body) neurobiology of trauma.
  2. Identify and assess affect dysregulation in clients and self.
  3. Practice a range of somatic interventions focused on grounding, attunement and affect regulation.
  4. Apply neurobiologically-informed (brain wise) approaches in clinical practice.

This program is appropriate for clinicians at all levels of experience and offers 3 CEs.

Conference

Engaging Diversity through the Therapist’s Being Moved: Radical Openness and the Patient Who is ‘Other’
Featuring Anton H. Hart, PhD, FABP

Saturday, December 7, 2019, 9:00 am-12:30 pm ~ Silver Spring Civic Building at Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring, MD

Patient: “I think you might have prejudice against people like me, and you don’t understand and don’t really care about people like me as much as you do understand and care about your other patients who are more like you.”Therapist: “I do care about you and, even though we are different from each other in some respects, I believe I have understood a lot. Could it be that you might be experiencing me this way because of all you have been through?”

In this clinical exchange, the therapist is openly disclosing aspects of her feelings and intentions in a manner that many psychotherapists might, but she is failing to be open—radically open—to the possible truths contained in what her patient is conveying to her.

Every psychotherapist has had the experience of being seen, by the people whom we are trying to help, in ways that are different from how we see ourselves. Therapeutic dialogues across the borders of diversity can intensify this dynamic. It can be extremely difficult, for example, to have the subjective experience of feeling dedicated and engaged but, in contrast, be experienced by the person we are working with as detached. Or, similarly, we may have the challenging experience of having predominantly benevolent feelings as we strive to be of help, but being experienced, nevertheless as dangerous or malevolent. Often, as psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists, we rely on the concepts of projection and transference to emotionally protect ourselves and sustain us, as we attempt to survive and make therapeutic use of the experience of feeling misrecognized.

This workshop offers an introduction to the presenter’s concept of “radical openness” as an alternative to a stance of emphasizing transference conceptualization and interpretation. Fleshing out the concept, we will engage in case-based exercises designed to enhance our abilities to listen openly and receptively to communications that we might otherwise be inclined to experience, both intellectually and emotionally, as misplaced or foreign. In short, a stance of radical openness will be shown to seek to receive our patients’ strange experiences of us as if they are bound to contain personal truths and insights, for both them and us alike.

At the conclusion of this conference, participants will be able to:

  1. Discuss the anxieties associated with engaging issues of diversity, difference and otherness.
  2. Recognize and discuss the central roles of curiosity and radical openness as antidotes to cultural ignorance and insensitivity, and be able to cultivate such qualities in themselves and in their patients.
  3. Recognize and discuss pitfalls and breakdowns that can occur in diversity-related explorations and find ways to use these in the service of the restoration of open dialogue.
  4. Enhance their capacity for receptive engagement in the psychotherapeutic process by implementing a stance of radical openness.

This conference is appropriate for mental health professionals at all levels of experience and offers 3 Diversity CEs.

2019-2020 ICP+P Training

  • November 15, 2019, Short Course: “Keeping the Body in Mind: Affect Regulation for Trauma Survivors” with Tally Tripp, LCSW, ATR-BC, CTT. ICP+P Office, 4601 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 8, Washington, DC 20008, 12:30 – 3:45 pm (3 CEs).
  • December 7, 2019, Conference: “Engaging Diversity through the Therapist’s Being Moved: Radical Openness and the Patient Who is ‘Other'” with Anton H. Hart, PhD, Silver Spring Civic Building, 9:00am-12:30pm, 3 CEs. Fulfills Diversity credit requirement.
  • February 22, 2020, Conference: “Clinical Reflections” (previously Scientific Day), Silver Spring Civic Building, 9:00am-12:30pm, 3 CEs.
  • May 1, 2020, Pre-Conference: “Misogyny, Hatred and Envy” with Adrienne Harris, PhD
  • May 2, 2020, Conference: “Gender Fluidity and Gender Fixed: Contemporary Intersectional and Psychoanalytic Models of Gender and Gender Development” with Adrienne Harris, PhD. Georgetown University Conference Center, 9:00 am-5:00 pm.

News + Notes

Dana Harron is proud to announce that her book, Loving Someone with an Eating Disorder: Supporting, Nurturing and Connecting with Your Partner, has been published with New Harbinger. It is available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The updated and revised 10th year anniversary edition of Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders: Scientific Foundations and Clinical Applications edited by Julian D. Ford & Christine A. Courtois is in press and will be published by Guilford in February 2020.

An article by Christine Courtois and Laura Brown was published September 2019, Guideline orthodoxy and resulting limitations of the American Psychological Association’s Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of PTSD in Adults, in Psychotherapy, 56(3), 329-339.

Numerous ICP+P members will be featured at the 42nd Annual IAPSP Conference October 17-20 in Vancouver. Their participation includes:
  1. Plenary V: Gendered Power and Powerlessness in a Clinical Dyad — Engaging the Limits of Empathy, Speaker: Elizabeth Carr, APRN, MSN, BC
  2. Education and Psychoanalysis: Enriching Awareness of the Contextualities of Contemporary Subjectivity, Co-Presenter: Leslie F. Smith, MSW
  3. Looking for Love in All the Same Places: Accessibility, Shame, and Digital Collisions, Discussant: Marie Hellinger, MSW
  4. The Complexity or Sameness and Difference in Needed Relationship, Presenter: Robert Benedetti, PhD, Moderator: Leslie F. Smith, MSW
  5. Race, Melancholia, and the Fantasy of Whiteness, Presenter: Cherian Verghese, PhD
  6. Gender as Perspective: The On-Going Psychoanalytic Privilege of the Penis, Discussant: Janna Sandmeyer, PhD
  7. Metaphors of Agony: The Culture Bound Syndromes of Hyper-independence, Discussant: Rosemary Segalla, PhD
  8. Suffering Together: When Accessing the Analyst’s Suffering Serves a Twinship Need, Discussant: Sandra Hershberg, MD
  9. Revisiting Resistance: The Patient’s Effort to Make Therapy Work, Moderator: Lawrence Ballon, MD
  10. Similarities, Dissimilarities, and Blind Spots in Therapeutic Relations, Discussant: Joseph Lichtenberg, MD
  11. Meet-the-Author: Revisiting Charles B. Strozier’s Heinz Kohut, The Making of a Psychoanalyst, upon the occasion of its Hebrew translation’s publication, Moderator: Roger Segalla, PhD

Bulletin Board

Beautiful DuPont Circle office available to rent

Beautiful DuPont Circle Office Available to Rent in the Corcoran House Building at the corner of 18th and Corcoran Sts. NW, all day Friday + additional half day on Tuesday. Spacious, recently painted and re-decorated, a sunny office, waiting room and private bathroom. Many other amenities available, including wi-fi and fax. Excellent location, 2 blocks from DuPont Circle metro. 2 parking spaces available (1 inside bldg. and 1 outside for patients). If interested, please contact Sarah
Pillsbury, PhD by email, pillsburysarah@gmail.com or by telephone at (202) 904-7510. Photos are available. Thank you.

Full-time office space available in downtown Silver Spring

Lovely, sunny office, in a suite with two friendly, established psychotherapists. Large waiting room, kitchen and bathroom in suite. Please contact Leslie Kent at (301)589-8696 or lmariekent@hotmail.com.

Bethesda office space to rent

Bethesda Office Space. Interior, furnished office (10′ x 9′) in attractive suite on the 11th floor of downtown Bethesda office building. Perfect for part-time or beginning practice. Ten minute walk from Red Line. On street & county parking. Complimentary coffee and tea for patients. Private, insuite restroom for therapists. Wifi and fax/copier, office cleaning included. Available immediately. Contact Jacob Melamed at 301-656-5360 or email jmelamed@jacobimelamedphd.com.

Full-Time office in Bethesda available

Full-Time Office in Bethesda available December 1. Large office sublet with window overlooking trees. Share suite with two other collegial therapists and with waiting room, kitchenette and bathroom. Limited on-site parking; (2) blocks from Metro and county garage. Reasonable rent. For more information, contact Jonathan Lebolt at Therapy@Doctor-Jon.com or (240) 507-7696.

Looking to rent an office in Bethesda, Chevy Chase area

Looking to rent an office part-time in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Connecticut Ave. (north of Nebraska Rd) or Friendship Heights. Please contact Brigitte Ladisch. PhD at 301- 651 7592 or brigladisch@aol.com.

Sunny Office in Falls Church available full-time

Sunny Office in Falls Church available full-time. Bright, sunny office in Falls Church, available immediately. Spacious office (156 square feet + bay window) in suite with 4 other mental health professionals; shared waiting room, kitchen, and bathroom. Three-story building with plenty of parking. Near East Falls Church metro and intersection of Broad Street and Route 29. Extremely responsive landlords dedicated to excellent upkeep. Reasonable rate of $810/month. Furniture available for purchase. Please contact Alisa Schreier at alisa.schreier@gmail.com or call (202)215-9202.

Part time sublet in Woodley Park available

Lovely, large furnished office with windows. Includes an on site parking space. This two office therapy suite includes a kitchen, bathroom and waiting room to be shared with another therapist. Close to two metro stops with ample on-street parking for clients.

For more information please contact Peggy Miller at 202-265-5071 or pegmill21@msn.com.

GWSCSW Eighth Annual Alice Kassabian Memorial Conference

Audrey Thayer Walker is sharing that The Greater Washington Society for Clinical Social Work announces the Eighth Annual Alice Kassabian Memorial Conference: On Being a White Therapist: Countertransference, Color and Culture in a Diverse Psychodynamic Practice. Barbara Berger,PhD will present. Saturday, November 9, 2019 from 9:00 am-12:30 pm at the Cosmos Club, 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.

Ongoing long-term Experiential Training Group

Ongoing long-term Experiential Training Group – Meets one Saturday morning a month
  • Promotes self-care reflection and interpersonal attunement
  • Confidential setting with professional peers
Earn Group Supervision Hours
Openings available.
_______________________________________
Trish Cleary, MS, LCPC-MFT-ADC, CGP

Openings in group for men who survived sexual trauma

Joanne Zucchetto and Cornelia Tietke have openings in their group for men who survived sexual trauma. It is an open-ended, psychodynamic process group that meets Tuesdays from 5:00 to 6:30 PM in Friendship Heights, DC. Previous members have commented that this group is one of the only places they can be honest and real about their abuse. The group creates space that allows members to become curious about their experiences, let go of shame, and embrace self-understanding and compassion.

If you would like to learn more about the group, please call Joanne at 410-507-2569 or Cornelia at 202-271-5673.

Remove Barriers to Love group forming

Remove Barriers to Love ~ A 12 week experiential group, and a 2-hour workshop.

Angie Snyder, PsyD is accepting members for a group targeted to single women who are seeking to deepen their potential for happy, healthy love. The group will meet on Tuesday Evenings, 6:30 – 7:45 pm, beginning October 2019 in Dupont Circle. The cost is $150/session. The Group Membership Requirements are an ability to be self-reflective; willingness to embrace radical self-responsibility in an empowered manner; openness to spirituality; a commitment to move into a place of possibility rather than staying in victimization; desire and capacity to support others in their vision and intention for love; and commitment to spend 30-60 minutes/day engaging in reading and exercises. This group will integrate psychodynamic, spiritual, somatic, metaphysical and mindfulness principles to create a supportive, vibrant, and transformational experience.

In addition, there will be an optional 2-hour workshop on Thursday, September 19 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm that will introduce concepts offered in this group. For more information about the workshop.

Angie is excited to offer this group and workshop, and looks forward to collaborating with you about any patient you believe to be a good fit. Contact Angie Snyder at (202) 549-7310, Drangelamsnyder@gmail.com or www.angelasnyder.com.

Space available in a longterm, experiential process group

Space available in an interpersonal process group of high functioning, creative professionals. The age range is from 30 – 57 at present. This group meets on Tuesday evenings from 7 – 8:20 pm. Most clients are in concurrent, individual psychotherapy with me or a referring therapist. Several therapists have self-referred themselves to the group at various times. Group members are motivated to increase their relational capacity within and outside the group with significant others. In the safety of the group, members learn to present their feelings in more vulnerable and authentic ways which help them learn what brings others closer to them and what pushes others away. Such expression leads to healing and personal growth. I’d be happy to talk with you in more detail if you have questions about whether this group might fit your or your client’s needs. ~ Tybe Diamond, MSW, BCD | O: 202.966.1381 |M:202. 213. 9871 | http://www.tybediamond.com | 4707 Connecticut Ave., NW, Ste.205, Washington, DC 20008.

Case consultation group openings

Openings are available in the psychotherapy case consultation group run by Cherian Verghese and Barbara Wayne. The group has been ongoing for several years and has developed a style of working that is warm, collegial, curious, and thoughtful.  They are eager to incorporate new members.
The group works from a broadly psychodynamic standpoint. Cherian Verghese has particular expertise in self psychology and relational theory and practice, as well as contemporary racial and cultural issues. Barbara Wayne has taught British object relations theories, especially Fairbairn, Winnicott, and Klein, as applied to both individual and couple psychotherapy. The members share expertise in numerous areas, including Jungian, cognitive behavioral, and other types of psychotherapy. Members present cases on a rotating basis.
The group meets weekly on Tuesdays, 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. at 5225 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 310, in Friendship Heights (across from the Jenifer St. entrance to the Friendship Heights Metro Station), Washington, DC 20015. Contact Cherian, cverghese@mindspring.com, or Barbara, bhwayne@verizon.net, for more information or click here.

Mixed and men’s groups forming

Mixed and Men’s Groups forming for adults of all ages to start in January. Relational approach; leader is Certified Group Psychotherapist with many years of experience collaborating with individual therapists. Both groups will meet weekly and focus on improving relationships with self and others (partners, family, friends, colleagues) and issues in members’ lives. Men’s Group (which includes a focus on recovery from childhood trauma) scheduled for Tuesdays at 12 pm, Mixed Group (welcome to women, men and gender nonconforming persons) for Thursdays at 5 pm. Bethesda office near Metro and county garage. Sliding fee scale. For more information, contact (or have client contact) Jonathan Lebolt at Therapy@Doctor-Jon.com or (240) 507-7696.