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This past year the NCP Psychoanalytic Training Programs have continued to do relatively well. We have four excellent Clinical Associates in the first-year class, six in the third-year class, three in the fourth-year class, 10 post-seminar Clinical Associates, and six active Child Clinical Associates. Because one Clinical Associate from last year’s first-year class decided to transfer to another local Institute, and another took a leave of absence, we decided to merge the remaining Clinical Associate and another, who had been on leave for several years, into the third-year class. Although that merger was somewhat difficult at first, the third-year class gradually adjusted and has come to work very well as a group. This past year three Clinical Associates have graduated from the Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program and we are hoping that three more will graduate in June.

The curriculum continues to build on a strong base of Freud’s work, with sequential courses in Ego Psychology, Melanie Klein, Object Relations, D.W. Winnnicott, Self Psychology, Intersubjective Systems Theory, Relational Psychoanalysis, and Bion. Interwoven between these courses are the usual twice a year clinical case conferences, a number of clinical practice courses including Building a Psychoanalytic Practice, Analytic Process, Transference and Countertransference, Interpretative Process, Impasses in Psychoanalysis, and New Developments in Analytic Technique and Ending Treatment, and a full year of developmental sequence courses. New additions to the curriculum this year have included courses on the British Middle School, Advanced Bion, the work of Donald Meltzer, and Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis. A favorite course for a few years running among fourth-year Clinical Associates has been a didactic course where each Clinical Associate chooses readings for one seminar and teaches that seminar to the rest of his/her cohort with the support of a Senior Faculty Member. As in the past, research articles have been included as much as possible in course syllabi, issues regarding ethics have been stressed, and courses to help Clinical Associates develop their case writing skills have been offered.

Given the excellence of our Faculty, Clinical Associates have continued to rate the teaching of courses very high and the Faculty’s praise is well deserved. Fortunately, given the strength of NCP’s endowment, we were again able to provide financial assistance to help support a number of students who were in financial need by providing scholarships and waived tuition.

This past year, the month of June turned out to be unusually busy. After being notified in late May by the Board of Post-secondary Private Education (BPPE) that our recently renewed exemption was rescinded, we began working with NCP President Myra Pomerantz, Cecilia Peck, Cheryl Difatta, and our legal representation to appeal that decision, and with a consultant to reapply so that we could continue to operate as a private educational institution.

That exemption was granted in the fall. In the June meeting, the Education Committee (EC) unanimously approved two policy changes: 1) changing the gender requirement for training cases from having at least one male and one female represented to having more than one gender represented for both the Adult and Child Psychoanalytic Programs, and 2) Formalizing our leave of absence policy, where Clinical Associates would have no more than six years of leave after completing their fourth year of seminars without having to re-apply for training. Also during the June meeting, the EC also approved the graduation of Agnes Regeczkey and Jamey Hecht. Agnes is continuing her work in the Child and Adolescent program.

At its July meeting, the EC welcomed the appointment of Joe Verrone as the new Committee on Diversities and Sociocultural Issues EC representative, Janet Smith and Gerald Sobnosky as the new Senior and Junior Representatives, respectfully, and Mara Thorsen as President of the Clinical Associates Organization. At that meeting, the EC continued to discuss at length the status of our BPPE appeal, how other local institutes were handling their loss of an exemption, and whether they would be able to operate as educational institutions. Also, in the month of July we instituted four monthly study group sessions to read and discuss the works of Jessica Benjamin, who was coming to spend a week in November as NCP’s Master Clinician-in-Residence.

In late September, the EC learned that NCP had its exemption restored. Prior to this notification, we had begun the year by having study groups representing each year of seminars meet weekly. Thankfully, despite the disruption of not knowing throughout the summer if we could operate legally, we were able to recommence operating as an educational institution. As a result of the threat of losing our ability to operate, NCP joined a task force comprised of leadership from all California psychoanalytic institutes to lobby for a change in California state legislation to permanently exempt psychoanalytic institutes from BPPE oversight. Nevertheless, the EC has felt that the disruption caused by having our exemption rescinded caused much anxiety and uncertainty amongst the Faculty and Clinical Associates such that their educational experience was affected during the first months of the academic year.

At its October meeting, the EC unanimously approved giving credit to Clinical Associates for participating in the study group sessions that replaced classes for two weeks while waiting to hear about the BPPE appeal. The EC also began to discuss whether to continue to offer a PsyD degree to Clinical Associates who completed their didactic course work, achieved the minimum numbers of hours of supervision on each of their three training cases, and wrote a thesis. However, since our accreditation body, the ACPE, Inc. had not yet been approved by the United States Department of Education, the EC decided that NCP would need to consult our attorney before re-instituting the PsyD Program in order to avoid jeopardizing our BPPE status. In this meeting the EC also approved two Training and Supervising Analysts who were associated with other APsaA-affiliated institutes, Aisha Abbasi, MD and Kathryn Zerbe, MD to supervise two Clinical Associates’ third training cases.

In November, the EC sponsored the 2nd Biannual Master Clinician-in-Residence program with Jessica Benjamin. For a week Dr. Benjamin gave daily evening presentations, provided individual consultations, and gave the annual Robert Stoller Memorial Lecture. For a finale, she gave a lecture at Shutters on the Beach, which was attended by our members, Clinical Associates, and members of many other local Institutes.

The event was oversubscribed and a great success. We thank Dr. Jimmy Fisher and his committee for the hard work arranging all the meetings and study groups prior to Dr. Benjamin’s visit.

At its December meeting, the EC welcomed Elena Bezzubova as the new Chair of the Faculty Committee, Lynn Kuttnauer as the new Chair of the TA/SA sub-Committee, and Agnes Regeczkey as the new Chair of the Research, Writing, and Thesis Committee. At this meeting, the EC voted to approve Joe Aguayo, who was an IPA-approved TA/SA, to be a Supervising Analyst for a Clinical Associate’s third training case. Since Dr. Aguayo had not undergone the examination process to become an APsaA-Certified Training and Supervising Analyst, he presented an example of his psychoanalytic work to Drs. Lebe and DeGolia and was found to be suitable to be a Supervising Analyst.

In January, the EC, along with the Clinical Associates Organization, sponsored the 2nd Annual Clinical Associates Organization Case Conference Workshop. This workshop was an exceptionally stimulating event where Kristen Melnyk presented her work with one of her training cases and Clinical Associates broke up into four small groups to discuss the case from Ego Psychological, Kleinian, Mentalization/Developmental, and Relational Psychoanalysis points of view. After an hour of small group discussion, all attendees met in a large group to share their formulations. Many felt that the event was enormously educational in that it illuminated the similarities and differences between different psychoanalytic orientations.

At its January meeting, the EC approved Joe Verrone’s graduation and voted to provide travel stipends to 17 Clinical Associates to attend the APsaA National Meeting in NYC in February. Our feeling has been that this meeting provides Clinical Associates with a valuable experience of psychoanalysis from a national and international viewpoint. As a result, following the standard set last year, NCP Clinical Associates represented the largest group of candidate attendees to the National Meeting from any APsaA-affiliated institute. To make the meeting not only educational but social, ten Clinical Associates attended a delightfully engaging Co-Dean sponsored dinner at a local restaurant.

In early February, the NCP community was deeply saddened by the death of John Kelleher, who died after a courageous 1 ½ year battle with cancer. At the time of his death Dr. Kelleher had been a Clinical Associate who was soon to graduate from the Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program. He was one of our very best Clinical Associates, a past-President of the Clinical Associates Organization, and beloved by his fellow Clinical Associates, the Faculty who interacted with him, and the NCP staff. He will be profoundly missed. At its March meeting, the EC voted to give John Kelleher an Honorary Certificate of Graduation.

In late March we had to contend with the shutting down of all in-person activities due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This meant that all classes went online, and all public events were cancelled. As a result, we did not have our Annual Open House, which had been organized by Dick Weiss and members of the Open House Committee. In its place, an online Open House took place via Zoom on Sunday, April 26. 

The event included a short introduction by Paulene Popek, followed by breakout groups where representatives of the Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program, the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Training Program, the Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program, and the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program met with interested attendees and responded to questions. As of today, two applicants have already been accepted into training in the Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program, with a few others expressing interest in applying.

Other events that had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic included a Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Training Program-sponsored presentation on “Making a Person: Psychoanalytic Work with Autistic and Psychotic Anxieties in Childhood” by Joshua Durban, “An Introduction to Colleague Assistance” workshop organized by Jeffery Seitelman, and the June Graduation Ceremony. We are hoping that all these events can be rescheduled in the fall or in the coming year.

Despite these cancellations, the Committee on Diversities and Sociocultural Issues is still planning to hold its Diversities Conference on September 10-13, 2020. The name of the conference will be “Otherness as a Psychoanalytic Subject: Race, Culture, Class and Difference in the Psychoanalytic Encounter,” and Anton Hart and Beverly Stoute will be the keynote speakers.

Other important developments that have occurred this year include the following: the addition of a Monthly Board of Directors Report at our Education Committee meetings so that the Education Committee can be better informed about what is taking place at Board Meetings, recommending that Research Committee be given funding by the NCP Board to make current research literature available on the NCP website, approving the Chair of the Diversities and Sociocultural Committee to be a voting member of the Education Committee, recommending that Jessica Benjamin, PhD, and Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, MD, become Honorary Members of NCP, supporting the Nominating sub-Committee’s recommendation of Jill Model Barth to become the next NCP Dean of Training, and approving Charlie Parks, PhD, of the Baltimore-Washington Psychoanalytic Center as a Child Supervising Analyst for a Child Clinical Associate’s third training case.

Issues that we are continuing to work on include: re-instituting our PsyD Program, developing procedures for our PhD Programs so that we can apply for accreditation by the ACPE, Inc., developing procedures for Research Clinical Associates to obtain a CORST Waiver so that they can begin to see supervised training cases, developing an integrated curriculum for a combined first-year class of the psychotherapy and psychoanalytic training programs, developing a policy on the use of Zoom or other electronic modalities in analyses, developing a policy on Clinical Associates seeing non-NCP Supervisors, developing a policy regarding needing six-month case reports to be up to date (and submitted) before starting new training cases, considering a recommendation to the Board of Directors to create a position of Dean-Elect, and developing a Post-Graduation Education Program. In addition, the EC, with the help of Cheryl Difatta and Cecilia Peck, are beginning to prepare for an ACPE, Inc. site visit in early 2021.

The development of an integrated curriculum for a combined 1st year class of the psychotherapy and psychoanalytic training programs has continued to be encouraged by NCP President, Myra Pomerantz. She and others have been concerned about the duplication of teaching in many courses across the Adult Psychoanalytic Training, the Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Training Programs with relatively few students in each. The hope is that a first year integrated curriculum for all programs will make the curriculum more appealing to prospective applicants, significantly increase the number of first-year applicants in all programs, and help students from all programs feel more apart of the NCP community. In the next year, we are planning to have many meetings with the Faculty to debate this proposal and settle on a finalized integrated curriculum.

As you know, the Education Committee meets monthly and all the Committee Chairs and the Senior and Junior Representatives attend. Ex-Officio members include the Clinic Director and the CAO President. We want to thank all of the Committee Chairs and their Committee members for the volunteer work they provide to the Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program: Admissions Committee Chair Jill Model Barth, who diligently interviews and vets all applicants and has worked extremely hard to develop a robust Recruitment sub-Committee whose members go out into the community to recruit potential applicants and let the world know who we are; Child Committee Chair and Program Director Susan Donner, who has given much time and effort to continue to develop and strengthen the Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Training Program and Clinic; Curriculum Committee Chair Dahlia Nissan Russ, who continues to work hard at updating and organizing our curriculum; Progression Committee Chair Martha Slagerman, who has been wonderful at keeping track of the Clinical Associates as they progress through the Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program, providing mentors and advisors for them and encouraging them to move toward graduation; Research Committee Chair Linda Goodman, who has helped energize our curriculum and membership with up-to-date psychoanalytic research; Research Training Committee Chair Jeff Prager, who worked hard to spread the reputation of NCP’s Adult Psychoanalytic Training Program to the worldwide academic community; Training and Supervising Analyst sub-Committee Chair Lynn Kuttnauer, who has begun to address important TA/SA issues, Faculty Committee Chair Elena Bezzubova, Julie Tepper, our ombudsperson and IAC Chair, the Research, Writing, and Thesis Committee Chair Agnes Regeczkey, and Clinical Associates Organization Co-President Mara Thorsen, who has encouraged Clinical Associates to get together socially and helped organize the 2nd Annual CAO Case Conference Workshop.

Again, we want to also thank Ethan Grumbach, who continues to contribute immense amounts of time running Infant Observation, and the entire Faculty and members who provided hours of teaching and committee work to NCP. This organization would not run without the effort of all of you.

In closing, we want to mention that this year we have lost four deeply loved and appreciated Faculty Members, Allan Compton, Alfred Goldberg, Mel Mandel, and Jim Gooch. All four devoted much of their time, energy, intellectual curiosity, and spirit to NCP Clinical Associates and Faculty as teachers, mentors, supervisors, and analysts. Their work, efforts, and human presence has been deeply appreciated and while their loss is profound, they will not be forgotten as they will always remain a part of all of us.

Finally, we want to thank Lucia Melito, who manages the Clinic cases, and the NCP staff, Cecilia Peck, Cheryl Difatta, Ebony Towner, Tina Walters, and Chris Reyes, with marketing support from Stephanie Carbone, who have continued to keep NCP functioning in high gear. They have all put in long hours during the week and weekends with all the activities that the Center does. Without them everything that our training programs accomplish would not be possible.

Again, we want to thank all of you, the Faculty, for the wonderful work you provide to NCP.

Van DeGolia, MD
Doryann Lebe, MD
Co-Deans