Committee Reports

David Cushman, Psy.D., Chair

Our committee — consisting of Clara Brandt, Daniel Gunther, Stefania Pifer, and Chair David Cushman — worked this past year on developing programing that is meaningful to Bay Area CMH clinicians.

For the past two years, we facilitated several lunch outreach events at clinics in the East Bay and San Francisco, gathering feedback on how NCSPP could be useful and welcoming for CMH clinicians. Through this feedback, we were able to identify several needs NCSPP could address and ways that NCSPP might be more welcoming and valuable to CMH clinicians. After discussion with the board, these recommendations will be incorporated by other committees in the future. We hope to continue building connections with the clinics we spoke with as well as new clinics as we develop specific programming and outreach initiatives.

To that end, we continue to move forward several projects: a “helpline” to provide support and psychodynamic organizational consultation for clinicians navigating complicated systems in their work, a consultation group for early-career CMH supervisors, and an event highlighting effective leadership in CMH that encourages space for thinking while dealing with the realities of the system.

Please contact us at if you would like to become more involved in our committee's work, are connected to a clinic that may be interested in learning more about NCSPP, or just want to connect and share your experience in CMH.

Community Events Committee Report

Stephanie King, Psy.D., Co-Chair

The Community Events Committee (a.k.a. “the party committee”) consists of co-chairs Stephanie King and Molly Merson, and committee members Nicole Hsiang, Sohi Lachini, and Brooke Pomerantz. Our committee holds monthly Sunday brunches where we develop creative ideas for events and spaces for ongoing dialogue among those interested in psychoanalytic thinking. Our vision is to create inviting, thoughtful ways to link