Search New Center for Psychoanalysis

The Board welcomed in a new year with great hopes that our lives will regain some stability and order and NCP will prosper incorporating our new vision and mission into all aspects of our organization. I’m pleased that our building project is moving along with plans soon to be given to our contractor so we can begin to get bids and an estimate on costs for the updating. Our hope is that the building will be freshly painted inside and out for a fall welcome back together. Cecilia and her team put together a calendar that was just sent out (a member roster is also soon to come), which we hope everyone will enjoy.

A program honoring Peter Loewenberg for his contributions to psychoanalysis worldwide will be presented on March 6. Please save the date. Cecilia announced that over 300 people from 23 countries registered for the Stoller Lecture featuring Ofra Eshel on January 23 and over 200 attendees on Sunday the 24th. Our programs are doing very well nationally and internationally.

I am continuing to work on organizing a board retreat, now moved to April or May. The board will discuss many important topics, such as: possible change of financial managers, reorganization of the board structure, bylaw changes, and partnerships with other Institutes. We also are beginning to plan for the BPPE renewal of our application that is due this summer. Some new updates and recommendations by the BPPE have been recently announced and it is unclear how that will affect us.

The Strategic Planning Committee made some recommendations to the Board on issues that concern the next six months and needed conversations about longer term issues around a reorganization as some key positions will be opening up. The need for a Board retreat becomes even more important to take time to explore different models of operation. As the American becomes more aligned with inclusion, advocacy, and different training opportunities (particularly because of Zoom capabilities), NCP is also exploring these new avenues. The addition of the Diversity Committee continues to move us on the cutting edge of psychoanalysis.

The finance committee is beginning to work with program leaders to create budgets for 2021-2022 for each division. Our aim is to establish a budget for each division, giving program leaders the responsibility to spend within the budget outlined. Our aim in this process is to empower program leaders to not only take financial responsibility for their division, but become better leaders as a result. I’ve been told that psychoanalysts and finance don’t mix well in Institutes, but I think maybe they just didn’t look at how empowering it is to successfully manage your department.

Cecilia gave an exciting report on donations from 4th quarter 2020 campaigns. We have raised to date $59,270 and there is still one week to go. Some went to scholarships, diversities fund, research analysts fund, child & adolescent clinic fund, John Peck Lecture Fund, and the Endowment Fund.

Jill Model Barth, EC members, and Cheryl just completed a 50 page Psychoanalytic Training Program Clinical Associates Training Manual. We appreciate the hard work Jill, Cheryl and others contributed to this important document in our ongoing efforts to clarify and structure the analytic training program. It comes at a good time because the ACPE inc. site visit is scheduled for March. Jill also announced that Janet Smith recently became a Training and Supervising Analyst. Congratulations, Janet.

Lastly, I’d like to thank all those who worked so hard in 2020. It was a very different year with great stress due to the racial unrest, election process, and COVID disaster and heartache. As hard as it has been, there is a silver lining for us– we are up and running successfully on Zoom with training and programs and took advantage of an empty building to begin renovations. I look forward to seeing what we will accomplish in 2021.

Paulene Popek