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I can still remember the excitement in the air at the first Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN) conference held in San Francisco at Golden Gate University in December 2019. As I write this, that was almost exactly one year ago, but it feels like it was in an altogether different world: a time when people came together in person without worrying about COVID-19. It was at this event that I first met the three remarkably dedicated women who developed and co-lead PsiAN – Nancy Burke, Ph.D., ABPP, Linda Michaels, Psy.D., MBA, and Janice Muhr, Ph.D.
Only a year previously I had learned about their vision for PsiAN. Inspired by this, when I discovered they were searching for a location to hold a conference in the Bay Area, I immediately reached out to offer space at Golden Gate University, knowing that we’d have plenty of room after students returned home for the winter holiday. The conference, entitled “Advancing Psychotherapy for the Next Generation: Rehumanizing Mental Health Policy and Practice,” was a huge success, drawing attendees from all over the country, each of whom shared a passion for preserving, promulgating, and elaborating dynamically-informed, relationship-based treatment.
The present issue attempts to capture the spirit of both this event and its predecessor held in Chicago two years prior. Many of the contributors were, in fact, presenters at one or both of the aforementioned conferences, whereas others have been involved with PsiAN in other ways. All of the authors express, each in his or her own idiosyncratic way, ideas that are integral to the mission of the larger organization. That mission recognizes that while depth-based psychotherapy is alive and well, it is also under attack. Insurance companies are reluctant to cover substantial treatments. Psychology training programs are increasingly constrained to teach manualized, behaviorally-oriented treatments. Public policy is similarly biased toward short-term, structured interventions and medications.