President's Report

Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.

The practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy is a very private and intimate endeavor. We spend the good part of our workday in small, soundproofed (hopefully) rooms listening, reflecting, and feeling what needs to be felt. We may barely move for hours. During those hours, we are engaged in relationships that are meaningful and often profound, yet unknown to other people in our lives. It is a strange way to live. Insularity and isolation are omnipresent hazards. And, especially for those not affiliated with a psychoanalytic institute, the antidotes of fellowship and community can prove elusive.

NCSPP is committed to offering its members not only top-quality learning opportunities but also a context for affiliation, a chance to commune, a mission and people with whom one can identify. In short, we have set about to further our sense of shared community, and increase the possibility of meaningful connections arising between members. We envision it as a vibrant, welcoming professional home.

I'd like to share some of the new initiatives we've developed along these lines. One such initiative, piloted last year, is the organizing of “interest group” dinners for members. Are you a new member looking to meet other new members? Are you a couples therapist in the East Bay? Do you specialize in LGBT issues? Have you been practicing for 20 years and are you looking to meet other seasoned psychoanalytic practitioners? Well, we will be inviting you to dinner at an affordable local restaurant, where you will have the chance to meet other NCSPP folks who share your interest. We will also be thinking of other ways (dinner isn't everyone's cup of tea) that might afford opportunity for members with common interests to find out about one another, talk, and develop relationships. We thank Cate Corcoran, our Membership Chair, for directing this initiative's development. Thanks also to C