June 2020 CPPNJ Newsletter
Newsletter Editorial Staff
Co-Editor Marion Houghton, EdS, LMFT
Co-Editor Mirel Goldstein, MS, MA, LPC
Deb 3
DIRECTOR'S COLUMN
These are unprecedented times. I’m finding it hard to put into words all that has unfolded over the past six months; and of course, the significant challenges surrounding us had been accumulating long before that. The toll has been mounting, both individually and collectively, and we are encountering this at work, at home, and all around. 
What I know for sure is that each and every one of us profoundly experiences all of this. I also believe that we have grounded ourselves to various extents in the shared community that we have in CPPNJ. This issue of the newsletter reflects it: our writers are grappling directly with what we are all immersed in, from our graduation commemoration and a report on our Bergen Regional Brunch discussion – our last in-person event before lockdown – to three excellent articles written about confronting the changes demanded by racial disparities and navigating the chaos surrounding us, plus struggling to distinguish degrees of stress and trauma in our clinical work.

I would like to thank everyone who participated in our recent, first-ever virtual graduation ceremony and made it a warm success. We were pleased and proud to recognize our graduates from the One Year Introductory Program in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and the Supervision Training Program. A special congratulations to our multi-year certificate earners: Alexandra Granville as our newest certified Psychoanalyst, Lauren Poleyeff earning her Three Year certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and Devon Rizzo completing the Couples Therapy Training Program. I’d also like to thank the speakers: Director of Training Janet Hoffer, Coordinator of Continuing Education Students Genny Shineman, Director of the Supervision Training Program Karen Heffernan, and Founding Co-Director of the Couples Therapy Training Program Tom Johnson. 

In addition, there are a few leadership changes in the institute that I’d like to mention. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to outgoing Director of Training Nina Williams. Among her many initiatives and contributions to the institute are the design of our groundbreaking Writing Program and the collaborative Supervision Training Program, as well as earning us the status of Provider of Continuing Education Credits for Psychologists from the American Psychological Association. Although she continues to lead our Curriculum Committee in reviewing and revising our training programs, her wise and active presence on the Board will be missed.

I’d also like to extend tremendous thanks and appreciation to the Founding Chairperson of the Committee on Cultural Diversity, Marion Houghton. Marion’s vision of working toward making CPPNJ a more diverse organization is still critically important, now more than ever; CPPNJ is committed to preserving and extending her legacy in this committee. Finally, we welcome Janet Hoffer as the new CPPNJ Director of Training, and Susan Stein and Meryl Dorf as the new co-chairs of the Specialty Group on Couples Therapy. 

On behalf of the CPPNJ Board, I wish you all good health and peace.
Topics in this issue
  • Reflections on the world today
  • A look back at our events
  • Upcoming events
Reflections on the World Today
Personal Reflections on the Demands on the Analyst in These Chaotic Times
By Ruth Lijtmaer, PhD

We are living in an unprecedented time all over the world. We are living a global emergency. The virus is controlling our lives. We lost what we had, a stable home that we depended on, and in which we felt comfortable and secure. The appearance of the virus has changed our way of living, the way we relate to others, the way we eat, sleep and entertain ourselves. We have limited freedom, we cannot anticipate the future, we have to keep social distance, we feel anxious and isolated. Under these conditions, the way we work with patients adds new demands in our role as psychoanalysts. We are spatially distant but try to be emotionally close. As a result of what we are experiencing, there is a reactivation of prior traumas in the context of this current threat. This threat in the present opens up the past that at times was repressed, at other times we believed it was worked through. There is ego precocity invoking omnipotence/self sufficiency in response to threat. There is a mutual vulnerability between patient and analyst.
 
There is also a social issue that concerns me and it is the power differential and the inequality of the ones affected by the virus. Seventy percent of the people who contracted the virus in USA are Hispanics and African-Americans-- minorities. This is not only a health issue but also a political and social one. These minorities are the essential workers: the ones who take care of patients-- they are the janitors, garbage collectors and the ones that do other menial jobs.
 
By writing about this, I want to share and process my feelings about our work in these difficult times-- the changes in the structure of treatment and in ourselves. We have a “new home”: we are working remotely and we have new modalities through which to relate to patients and they to us. We have to adjust to these new ways of treatment as well as to the patient's acceptance of this change. There is a transformation of our inner life by the way we work.
 
There are changes in the frame and how we manage and deepen our work given changes to temporality and space. We used to shield with the frame since it creates both practically and symbolically, a therapeutic structure with clear and safe boundaries in which the process of therapy unfolds. As Bass (2007) states, the frame is meant to create and stand for, both practically and symbolically, a therapeutic structure with clear and safe boundaries in which the process of therapy unfolds and is an integral part of the process reflecting conscious and unconscious aspects of both patient and analyst. However this is not possible now. Our boundaries are loosening. We use the phone and technology to talk to our patients, not face-to-face. Gutierrez (2017) has recently suggested that videoconference tele-analysis presents a hindrance to reaching states of unintegration and interferes with symbolization due to “the greater ego demand [videoconferencing] imposes on both members of the analytic dyad to resolve the split brought about by the device” (p. 98). Yes, the device is between us but it is our only way of communication.
 
In a personal tone, my patients are concerned about me. The first thing they say when we talk is to ask me if I am OK. One patient jokingly said, "You better be OK because I need you". Was there some aggression behind this comment? Other patients are initially reluctant to start the session for fear of burdening me with their anxiety. I have to reassure them that I am fine, which I am.
 
Some patients connect with me (via Zoom or the phone) in their cars, bathrooms, closets, and outdoors if they can. They feel stressed, anxious and depressed. My older patients feel the loneliness in a more significant way, particularly the ones who live alone. Additionally, many are unable to use technology (only the phone) and are unable to see me "in person” or to see personally their loved ones.
 
The modalities in which we listen or "see" patients are different. On the phone I find myself being more attentive to the tone of voice and the nuances of it. Many patients like the phone because they feel it is more private. One young woman told that she preferred the phone because she did not need to put on make up to talk to me. Others, using Zoom, feel that despite the fact that they can see me, it is not the same. At times the image can freeze, or I cannot make out what the facial expression means. Some patients want me to call them to start the sessions, others want to call me. Is this a power/control issue?
 
We see the patients' homes and they can see ours. What we tried to make as a neutral environment, our real office, becomes a more open expression of ourselves. At times it leads to more fantasies about me, other times it makes me more real to them.
 
Some people live together in a close environment with family or roommates. This can create relationship problems. Couples have to do more negotiation about time, space and their idiosyncrasies (domestic violence is 20% higher in USA, than before the virus). Parents have a different relationship with their children and also with their own parents and grandparents who cannot be reached personally. On the positive side by working at home, as two patients told me, it gives them the opportunity to spend more time with their children.
 
The fortunate ones who are economically well to do, may have left the city or town they lived in and moved to their summer/country home. That created another set of issues for them, basically guilt for having left behind friends and some family and living comfortably in an "idyllic" place-- survivor's guilt?
 
I personally find that I need to work harder and be more attuned to processing non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language. Paying more attention to these consumes a lot of my energy.

Silence is another challenge. I realize I become anxious about the technology. If I am in Zoom, is it the patient's silence or something not working? With the phone, the silence is also difficult to deal with. I cannot read any physical cues to tell me what is happening. Some patients are more talkative over the phone than in sessions face to face. Others whisper for fear of being heard by whoever is in the next room or close physically. At times the work can be intense and there is a deepening of intimacy. Other times, patients are more defensive and fill in the time with superficial talk for fear of getting into the difficult issues, like their anxiety of the unknown.

Another issue for me is that being physically on camera, I am more aware of being watched and a feeling that I need to perform. I also feel more responsible now about the well being of my patients because transference is changed in that it is diluted since we both, patient and analyst are living similar experiences. Now more than even I feel like I have become a big container of the patient's anxieties.
 
What is also exhausting is that we only talk about the terror that is so real and present in our everyday lives. Many people have lost their jobs, others have relatives or friends who are sick or have died. They are worried and anxious about the future. Due to this reality, a theme that frequently comes up in treatment is death and survival. They are generally associated with the fragility of the human race and the reminder that death is a universal phenomenon within life. Never before had I experienced this anxiety about an uncertain future and the finality of life. Finitude and death are fundamentally relational-- they are always constituted in a relation to others. It is precisely through the loss of another that the reality of our own finitude becomes clear to us (Frie, 2013). To live authentically is to stand resolutely in the face of human finitude and the inevitability of death. Perhaps we are now more aware of the possibility of death.
 
I also struggle with self-care, experiencing the same trauma as my patients, manifested by fear, anxiety, limitations in space, and uncertainty of the future. In the meantime, I have to take care of myself to be able to take care of my patients. It is a difficult task since we share the same trauma. What I learned to do is to give myself time between patients. In this break I do breathing exercises, walking or stretching. In my free time I read, listen to music, use free streaming of the wonderful opportunities that the artistic organizations are giving us. I also have realized that there is no shame in acknowledging our own vulnerabilities and in accepting that we therapists have needs. We are living traumatizing times and we are trying to survive this common trauma.

Now, we use omnipotent thinking in that all is going to be fine, as a defense for our helplessness. However, this will be over sometime, and when it is over, we are going to return to a home (a "new" normal), not the same home that we left but different from "old normal". The place may be the same one, but the home we will find is not the same as the home we left and have ever since been dreaming of (Lijtmaer, 2019).

I question myself: What will we have we learned from this experience when this is over? Will we be more receptive of human pain? Will we have more solidarity and humanity towards others? Will we repeat the same mistakes that we made since the beginning of civilization manifested by wars and all kinds of aggression? My concern is reflected by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez who said that the coronavirus pandemic keeps unleashing “a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering.” He also said that “anti-foreigner sentiment has surged online and in the streets, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have spread, and COVID-19-related anti-Muslim attacks have occurred.” Gutierrez believes that migrants and refugees “have been vilified as a source of the virus, and then denied access to medical treatment.” He added that: “With older persons among the most vulnerable, contemptible memes have emerged suggesting they are also the most expendable” (Mercury News, 2020).

I hope that we, as a human race, will be able to show our humanity and solidarity, to bridge differences and to unite all of us so that we can rely on science to give us answers, and to maintain democracy to help us in our venture in the future.
 
References

Bass, A. (2007). When the frame doesn't fit the picture. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 17 (1): 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481880701301022

Frie, R. (2013). On the Nature and Meaning of Human Finitude. American Journal of Psychoanalysis , 73(2):158-172.

Gutierrez, L. (2017). Silicon in “pure gold”? Theoretical contributions and observations on tele-analysis by videoconference. International Journal of Psychoanalysis 98:1097–1120.

Lijtmaer, R. (2019). "Where do I belong? I do not have a home: I am a refugee". In panel: On Border Crossings and Displacements: Reflections by Border-crossing Migrants on Belonging, Identity and the Politics of the ‘Illegal Traveller. APCS. Conference theme: Displacement: Precarity and community. 10-25-19 to 10-26-19, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA

Mercury News UN Secretary: Retrieved from https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/07/un-chief-says-pandemic-is-unleashing-a-tsunami-of-hate/
Stress vs Trauma
By Mirel Goldstein, MS, MA, LPC

It’s no secret that many of us are waking up each day to a very stressful reality. Yet where is the line between stress (from which we can recover) and trauma that overwhelms us?

Trauma can occur when stress becomes prolonged, when we don’t have a chance to recover from a state of either profound shut-down or extreme hyperarousal.

Shut-down is a feeling of numbness, depression, lack of energy and motivation, withdrawal into the self and away from relationships.

Hyperarousal is a constant stream of adrenaline, activation, feeling restless, keyed up, on edge, braced for danger.

Being in either state for too long can have effects on our immune system, relationships, and ability to concentrate, focus, and function.

Yet it’s not just prolonged states of an overactive or shut-down nervous system that can turn a stressful situation into a traumatic one.

Our inner coping mechanisms, including our defense mechanisms, need to be functional and powerful enough to stop our egos from collapsing under stress. When our usual ways of coping with internal and external experiences are overwhelmed, we can find ourselves regressing to negative behaviors or emotions that feel out of control, younger, less consolidated, or habitual.

According to Judith Chertoff in the article “ Psychodynamic Assessment and Treatment of Traumatized Patients ”, there are 5 specific factors noted by Anna Freud that can turn a stress into a trauma:
·          The intensity and nature of an event and the meaning a person gives this
·          Sensitization due to prior trauma (This is when constant stress or trauma makes us extra reactive)
·          Inborn factors that affect one’s ability to cope (such as a genetic vulnerability to becoming depressed)
·          Age and stage of development when trauma happens
·          Environment at time of trauma (for example, is it safe and supportive)

PTSD occurs when an event collapses a person’s ability to use their regular defenses to mediate between external demands (like the need to cope in daily life) and inner tensions or emotions. A person’s normal defenses may not work anymore.

One example is when someone has a tendency to cope with difficult experiences or emotions by using the coping technique of distraction; if something happens that is so upsetting or overwhelming to the ego that distraction no longer works, he might find himself unable to cope with daily life as usual, regressing, or being completely emotionally overwhelmed. This could lead to PTSD.

What this means for all of us is that even though many of us are all dealing with objectively similar situations due to the coronovirus, such as health fears, schools and public places shutting down, being in quarantine, fear of running out of supplies, etc., each of us will have a unique reaction to these stressful circumstances.

Some of us will become especially frightened or overwhelmed by these events if we habitually rely on a sense of predictability or control in order to cope with our emotions and stresses in our daily lives. These defenses of control and predictability may no longer be available to us, although focusing on what we can control and creating routines can certainly mitigate some of the stress.

For others, leaning on loved ones may be a way to feel secure, but our loved ones may be so stressed themselves at this time that they perhaps withdraw from us, or else feel too anxious themselves to provide support. Learning how to be in this together while each person uses their own ways of coping is important but not so easy! For example, what happens if your partner wants space while you want connection, or if your child is acting up when all you want is quiet and decreased stimulation?

Another important point is that sometimes we feel anxious about things that are going on inside of us, for example wishes or feelings that feel forbidden or conflict with our values, such as wishing your kids would move out for a few weeks because it’s so draining to take care of them, or wanting to break free and stop following the rules you live by. We often suppress these wishes or feelings, or we justify them to ourselves consciously while feeling unconsciously guilty, and then we become anxious or feel things are out of control…and it’s easier to blame our anxiety on things like the coronavirus than the actual feelings or impulses that are fueling it.

This is also an opportunity to develop new coping mechanisms, for example, instead of distracting yourself from uncomfortable emotions, learning to sit with them. Or instead of withdrawing when you feel stressed or vulnerable, sharing yourself with someone else and letting them in. It’s a time for us to get closer to those we love, to reassess our typical coping mechanism, and to find small moments of recovery even as we struggle to get through each day.
Submitted to Division 39
by Kristin Washington, PsyD, PMP
President and CEO
Courtesy of Martha Temple, MBA, PsyD

"Many allies have acknowledged their privilege, but feel stagnant in what to do next to help. Here's a start:

1. Teach your children about what is going on so that we don't have to continue reliving the past, but instead learn from it. Buy them dolls of other races, encourage them to advocate for others. I have always taught my children to find the kid who is alone and ask them to join your group, because that's the person who could use a friend.

2. Educate yourself on the past so that you can better understand how people of color feel. There are mixed feelings over the looting, riots, and fires being set. Read about what happened in Tulsa, OK to Black Wall Street. Read the poem We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Learn about the Double Consciousness that EVERY black person has to possess in order to survive in this world. Read about African American Historical Trauma to understand how the effects of a multigenerational history of slavery, race-based segregation, racism, prejudice, and discrimination impact us currently.

3. If you see something, say something. In a time when your voice is heard while ours is discredited and silenced, please step up and say something about the injustices you see.

4. See us as people and not as a threat. There's enough room for all of us to succeed together and the notion that there isn't was bred on hatred and divisiveness. A funny thing happens when people are seen, they like it, they step up and do a great job because of it. 

5. Please don't say that you don't see color. That is extremely invalidating. We are different and have vastly differing experiences and that's what makes us all great. When you say you don't see color it means that you aren't acknowledging all we've had to overcome to be where we are today.

6. Please don't tell us how to grieve our oppression. I do not agree with the looting, fires, etc but I do deeply understand the anger and helplessness felt. Some will punch a wall, some will march, and sometimes when a dream is deferred it explodes (Langston Hughes reference).

7. Vote. Hold our elected officials accountable to accurately represent what the people want and how they feel. At some point we seem to have forgotten that they work for us and not the other way around. Take the time to research candidates and not just continue voting for the same person because they've held the seat forever. Bring about change for the better so that a day will come when we aren't consistently reliving the shameful past of this country. 

8. Step up and get angry because we are exhausted. Exhausted from having to explain why we deserve to have a seat at the table, why our lives matter, why instutionalized and systemic racism are alive and well. Every person that steps up lessens our load and makes it easier for us to live in peace together."
Reflections on Distance and Proximity:
Psychoanalysis during the Pandemic
By Wilda Mesias, PhD

More than twenty-eight years ago, when I was training to become a psychoanalyst, one of the readings that struck me in particular was Theodore Reik’s Listening with the Third Ear. In his book, Reik writes that “we receive impressions through senses that are in themselves beyond the reach of our consciousness” (p. 137). Our third ear is attuned to the unspoken. As analysts, we listen, according to our orientation, to our patients’ narratives, memories, transference, resistances, defenses, projections. We attend to our internal responses, to our mind’s ability to make sense of layers of emotional meaning, to symbolism, to those gradations in our relational dialogue perceived by the unconscious.

During my time as an analyst, there are events I have lived through with my patients—September 11, Katrina, Sandy—in which we shared a mutually-recognized experience. Moments in which the external was part of the intrapsychic space we inhabited in our therapeutic room. Moments that infiltrated the usual, very personal discourse of our sessions. They became a vivid presence in the world that we create each time we step into the therapeutic room.

During the first week of March, each of my analytical patients interrupted their narratives, for at least part of their session, to acknowledge the reality of COVID-19. Some were anxious, others curious. Early on, some in the healthcare field were still confident that the basic guidelines of washing one’s hands, avoiding touching one’s face, and following general sanitary precautions would suffice. No one thought that a few days later we would not be meeting in the office.

The change was unaccompanied by the usual discussion we work through most transitions with. What our new way of meeting meant for each of them was to be processed while adapting to technology as the conduit of our sessions and while attempting to understand what the pandemic demanded of us: getting the supplies we needed before the anticipated lockdown; not finding all of the household necessities that some of us take for granted; realizing that something fundamental was changing. Fear emerged and sought refuge in a false sense of security. Some felt we would not experience what Italy had experienced. Denial can feel so welcome when there is too much to contend with.

As we went into lockdown, the reality of the threat amplified familiar themes, motifs, ideas, spaces we had inhabited together. New spaces also took shape. Isolation, alienation, hopelessness, sadness, restlessness, resilience, apathy, creativity, hope, despair, the sheer comfort of being free of social pressures, pleasure for those who enjoy being alone, loneliness for those who enjoy social connection, time for family, bike rides with the kids, nightly board games, fear of the future, too much or too little intimacy. All those experiences that compose our humanity, that speak to our vulnerability and our pliability.

The comfort and closeness of the office became the intimacy of a phone and then evolved into the ability to see one another, freezing at times, on video. We processed how it felt to talk only by phone at first; for some, my voice felt very close—as if the earbuds allowed my voice to feel like an internalization—and, for others, not having visuals made them wonder what I was doing, where I was. Some of my patients described their surroundings, the places they went seeking privacy for our time together. I was brought into home gardens; I heard the sounds of the river and the wind. Some missed their usual entrance into the office, the arranging of the pillows, the place to put their coffee, the box of tissues. Our discussion of this loss of their space intersected with their experiences of not finding paper towels, of dealing with the mail. Do you disinfect it and wait three days? Maybe more?

The number of cases kept increasing, and the deaths brought anguish and uncertainty. Some of my patients in medical professions dealt with overburdened hospitals, with the knowledge that every day people died. Some of them remained isolated from their families to avoid any potential of bringing the virus home. For others, there was a feeling that someone—the omnipotent parent—had failed them. Others who had experienced the early trauma of not being able to trust their environment mistrusted what they were being told. Others slowed down so much that they began to notice things they usually overlooked. We talked, we wondered, we made connections. Soon there were Zoom social hours and drive-by birthdays. Peapod shopping and curbside pickup. Video-only funerals and the inability to visit family, settling instead for Facetime. Each week, confronting a “new normal” that is far from normal.
 
In the class I was teaching for CPPNJ, The Relevance of Freud and Ego Psychology for Psychotherapists Today, we moved online. As the world began to shelter in place, we were discussing Heinz Hartmann’s extension of the Freudian ego, his idea of the ego’s conflict-free zone with the major function of adaptation to the external world. The daily news gave this insight a new resonance. From balconies and windows, Italians elevated their spirits by singing songs like Volare (“To fly”) and Abbracciame (“Hug me”), so poignant amid physical distance and confinement. Spaniards applauded their healthcare workers. In Frankfurt, a white horse named Jenny strolled freely, lifting spirits during the lockdown. The Thunderbirds and Blue Angels flew through New York City to honor frontline workers. Some hospitals played the song “Here Comes the Sun” every time they discharged a COVID-19 patient. Despite the sadness, anxiety, loneliness, and fear—despite unbridgeable physical distances—the human spirit rose to meet the demands of the circumstances, resilient and accommodating.

Reik dwelled on the nuances of closeness, what we observe face-to-face: “The minutest movements accompany every process of thought; muscular twitching in face or hands and movement of the eyes speak to us as well as words” (p. 135). As we practice these days by phone or video platform, so many of the subtleties that the therapeutic encounter involves are missing. Each of my patients has an entrance into the room. What that entrance conveys depends on their mood or thoughts before they settle down for their session. Some take possession of the space. Some move into it slowly. Some bring the tissue box next to them. Some lie on the couch and arrange the pillows and blanket to make themselves comfortable. Some take their shoes off. Others bring a drink. They sit close, or they sit far away.

Nowadays, the entrance is a click on my keyboard and, immediately, I see their faces and a background. My unconscious tunes into whatever the video offers me, but the entrance, the settling-in, the nonverbal communication are more difficult to observe. I still absorb their speech modulation, their facial gestures, their pauses. Yet we are co-creating a different world. My patients give me the gift of orienting me to their whereabouts, and from there we begin. We have left the phone for the video platform, knowing that this move means that we must still wait to return to being in the room. We mourn that as we mourn so many other things. Things that perhaps have forever changed.

It’s now been almost three months since the stay-at-home order went into effect in New Jersey, and some restrictions are starting to be lifted. We—all of us—now experience myriad uncertainties about what human interaction will look like. Much of what we already do in our profession is the processing of the vicissitudes of intimacy. But now the distance and proximity inherent in the ambivalence of human relationships is regulated by the fear of contamination. Adhering to social distance, we have developed choreographed closeness.

Our therapeutic rooms have changed. They have changed regardless of whether we stay on video—with the faces of our patients close on the screen and our separateness so clear—or return to our offices where we will sit, at a minimum, six feet apart, wearing masks, hand sanitizer in place, disinfecting the space after each patient leaves, as if we could not hold all of what they bring in or, perhaps, as the only way to be there, to continue to be present. Amid the physical distance that mediates the dialogue, we tune in to a shared space—a space “beyond the reach of our consciousness.”
A Look Back at Our Events
What is the Therapeutic Course When You
Feel "Boxed-In" by a Patient?
By Janet Mayer

On Sunday, February 23, an intimate gathering of colleagues convened at the home of Chana and Moshe Kahn for a clinical discussion facilitated by Chana and Ozzie Haller, of a complex topic: What is the Therapeutic Course When You Feel “Boxed-In” by a Patient?”

Participants in this event were provided with several articles in advance that formed a framework for discussion of some of the practical, conspicuous and more subtle issues that can arise within the therapeutic dyad when working with the challenging patient.

Members of the group presented examples from their own experiences of dilemmas that arose with patients whose presentations ranged from the characterological to the psychotic and where aggression was often a salient issue. Strategies involved in recognizing the patient’s transference and managing the clinician’s counter-transference, leading to successful ongoing treatment or alternatively to appropriate termination and referral, were discussed.

Highlighted in this discussion was the intrinsic value of clarification of boundaries of the therapeutic alliance, both for the patient and the treating clinician. Also highlighted was the value of consultation with one’s peers especially helpful when there are treatment dilemmas that undoubtedly arise when treating the “difficult patient.”

Participants in this event agreed that the topic raised valuable discourse, and the possibility of topics for discussion at future such events was discussed.
CPPNJ Graduation Celebration
June 2020
By Lynn Egan, PsyD

For months, we have sat in our home offices, struggling to give patients the best of ourselves, and always wondering whether the medium of Zoom is good enough to enable the connections that are so important to our work and who we are. And before last Sunday’s graduation, many of us had similar doubts about whether a Zoom graduation could capture that intimacy and allow us the joyful celebration we wanted to share.

But as I watched — as we all watched together — those worries gave way to the feelings of pride, warmth, and community that are what CPPNJ is all about. In the end, our Zoom graduation fully captured our graduates’ experiences and reflected our encouragement and support for their continued professional growth. As Alexandra, Lauren, and Devon each spoke, they shared with us so honestly how important their training was for them, but also how the demands of training affected them and their families. They each spoke honestly and truly shared themselves with us. Alexandra’s showing the decade-apart images of her family drove home how much our lives can and do change in the course of our training, how we develop both personally and professionally, and how our personal evolution shapes our work. Lauren shared frankly how complicated it is to commit to psychoanalytic training and to deal with all the challenges that it poses. Particularly moving was her willingness to describe her process, including the ambivalence that we all have felt but may not have owned up to.  And Devon’s inclination (or instinct) to shrug off the formality of a graduation, and to recognize that her superhero-costumed children were as much a part of her analytic training as we are, was real and personal and captured her dependable openness. I felt like I knew each of them better after they spoke, and I’m not sure we could have pulled all of that off in a hotel conference room. And then Tom Johnson, speaking so eloquently for all of us — and in the way that only he can — captured who our graduates are and the gifts that each of them brought to their training and our community.

We also acknowledged those who earned their certificates in the One Year Introductory Program in Psychotherapy and the Supervision Training Program. We are very grateful for both groups — those who are beginning their discovery and exploration of analytic thought, and those who are eager to share their own experience with others.

To all of our graduates and certificate recipients — congratulations!!
Alexandra Granville, LCSW
Certificate in Psychoanalysis

When I began Columbia University School of Social Work in 1992 it was with the express intent of pursuing psychoanalytic training. So, I am just delighted to have completed the Program in Psychoanalysis, the New Jersey Couples Therapy Training Program in 2015 and the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program in 2014

Before becoming a CPPNJ candidate, I worked in supported work programs and on inpatient psychiatry units, first at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York City where I met my husband Tolga Taneli, and later in rural Fort Kent, Maine (population: 4000), where our sons Kaan and Eser were born. In 2000, I was accredited as a Certified Clinical Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Social Worker (CCATODSW) through the National Association of Social Workers and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Throughout my career, I have drawn heavily on my experiences as a competitive swimmer at the club, collegiate and Masters levels.

Tolga, Kaan, Eser and I moved to New Jersey in 2005 and in 2011 I opened my private practice in Morristown where I work with young adults, adults and couples with mood and anxiety disorders, workplace/career concerns, addictions, issues of sexuality, and couple distress.

While a candidate I served on the IDfest Committee and the Executive Committee of the Candidate’s Organization and was Candidate Representative to the Board and Training Committee. I joined the faculty of Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in 2014 where I teach and supervise medical students and psychiatric residents and fellows.

I enjoy cooking and eating, gardening, hiking, visiting museums, laughing and the everyday triumphs and tribulations of parenting Kaan and Eser with Tolga.

I look forward to my new role as faculty member of CPPNJ, the Couples Therapy Special Interest Group and the Training Committee.
Lauren Poleyeff, PsyD, LCSW
Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

I am grateful to have found in CPPNJ a community of diverse individuals interested in exploring the depths of psychoanalytic theory and its clinical applications.

Before beginning my career in psychology, I was a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for 12 years. I provided clinical services to children and families in foster care and preventive service programs in New York City until moving to NJ with my family in 2003. I then worked at a school based early intervention program with parents of infants with Downs Syndrome and at an outpatient clinic for children and adolescents. During this time, I also attained certification from the Infant- Parent Study Center in New York City where I studied attachment theory, neuroscience, infant development and research.

But I felt a need to gain a greater depth of understanding of the complex needs of individuals with developmental disabilities, and learning challenges, and to provide clinical support to these individuals and their family members. In 2010, inspired by Jenna, my older daughter with special needs and supported and encouraged by my husband Jacob and younger daughter Callie, I decided to return to school at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) to pursue my doctorate in school psychology.

While at GSAPP , I externed on the Infant and Toddler team at the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at Albert Einstein University Medical Center and interned at the Counseling and Psychological Services at Stevens Institute of Technology. I was later offered a full-time position there as a staff clinician and disabilities coordinator. I have remained part-time at Stevens as a supervising psychologist.

I opened my private practice in Montclair, in August 2017 where I work with adolescents, adults, and couples. My areas of specialty include college age students and families with a child with a developmental disability.

Throughout my years at CPPNJ I have learned to let go of old fears, take more risks, and “Just Breathe.”

Next year I will serve as co-chair of the Candidate’s Organization and candidate representative on the Training Committee. I look forward to continued growth and involvement with my peers, supervisors and faculty.
Devon Rizzo, MA, LPC, LCADC
Certificate in Psychoanalytic-Systems Couples Therapy

I received my Master’s Degree from Boston University in Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine. My master’s program training afforded me the unique opportunity to train in various clinical settings, including a community mental health clinic, a high school, and a suboxone clinic. After graduating in 2007, and returning to New Jersey, I worked in a substance abuse treatment facility. I held various positions within the agency, and gained an extensive understanding of addiction, and family systems. After eight years, and receiving my LPC and LCADC, I began to work in a group practice, and received further training in Structural Family Therapy. In my work with families, I found myself drawn to gain a better understanding of the parental and marital dynamic within the family system. My supervisor at the time, Catherine Bianchi, suggested I look into couples training at CPPNJ. I began the couple’s program in 2015.

The couples program expanded and enriched my understanding of therapeutic theories and approaches to couples and relationships. I have since felt inspired to continue learning, training, and developing professionally and personally. Since enrolling, I have pursued further training in Emotional Focused Therapy (EFT) and began training in psychoanalysis. I have also transitioned to a full-time private practice in Florham Park. I feel a great sense of accomplishment completing this program, which would not have been possible without the support of my husband, Brett, and two children, Archer, and Frankie Rose.


CPPNJ Congratulates the Following Individuals on Their Accomplishments:

Certificate of Completion of the Supervision Training Program

Catherine Bianchi, PhD
Mary P . Duguid, LCSW
Jennifer Leach, PhD
Linda O’Brien-Racine, LCSW
Janice Peters, PhD


Certificate in the One Year Introductory Program in Psychotherapy

Collette Crines, LSW
Eric S. Franzone, PsyD
Carla Gagliano, LCSW
Mary M. Lloyd, LCSW, LCADC
Johanna Rosenfield, LCSW
Lauren Spodak, LCSW
Leslie Tubul, LCSW
Stephanie Warm, LCSW
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