Indwelling: Living in a Female Body

Saturday, March 3

1:00-3:00, reception to follow
Friends Meeting House
15 Rutherford Place
East 15th between 3rd Ave / 2nd Ave – A Short Walk from Union Square

Yes…All you sisters, friends, colleagues, brothers … anyone who cares about
building community – Please come and be a part of our project now and join the
revolution!!

This year, INDWELLING honors Jamia Wilson, a feminist media activist, organizer, and storyteller. Jamia is currently Vice President of Programs at the Women’s Media Center where she works on amplifying women’s voices and changing the conversation in the media.
--Speakout
--Performance by SPARK youth
--Reception

To find out more and register: click here

submitted by: Carol Bloom LCSW

The Tissue Issue

Clients' and patients' personal stories are road maps that help psychotherapists and clients navigate unexplored areas in the clients' lives. But what isn't said can be just as important as what's spoken. There is a long tradition in treatment modalities such as play therapy, art therapy and dance therapy of interpreting non-verbal cues. Though I was never a student of those schools, session after session, I started to see that behavior in treatment spoke volumes. I noticed that clients' actions could reveal unconscious beliefs about themselves and others. This essay explores how clients use tissues and what that might tell us that words alone cannot. 

Click here to read the article...

submitted by: Janet Zinn, LCSW

Komen’s Betrayal of Women’s Health, and their Voice

"A clinical psychologist reflects on the Komen foundation's decision to cut, and then refund, breast screening for poor women at Planned Parenthood. Women all over the U.S. have made clear that our voices and our efforts to fight breast cancer should not, and cannot, be co-opted for political gains, especially not at the cost of women's health." 

to read the article click here...

submitted by: Lisa R. Rubin, Ph.D.

Perinatal and Postpartum Mood Disorders

Statistics on the prevalence of perinatal mood disorders suggest that up to 20% of women experience diagnosable pregnancy related mood disorders. This increasing awareness has also resulted in legislative and healthcare initiatives to screen, assess, and treat such disorders. But a major barrier to successful implementation of such programs is the lack of available resources to train healthcare professionals in this specialty.
 
This book offers a major resource for healthcare professionals, mental health professionals, and medical, nursing, psychology, and social work students who will be confronting this problem in their practices. The contributions, by renowned experts, fill a glaring gap in the knowledge professionals need in order to successfully manage maternal mental health.

Submitted by: Alexis Menken, Ph.D.

Yoga and the Mind/Body Connection

NEW YORK ABLE NEWSPAPER-FEBRUARY 2012: FOCUS ON WOMEN'S HEALTH
Coordinated by the Initiative with Women with Disabilities

Over the past three decades, yoga has swept the nation with a health care reform of its own.

Yoga has become a multibillion dollar industry, encompassing the weight loss industry, clothing industry,
mats and accessories and complete yoga retreats at international luxury destinations.

So how does a fitness trend so ingrained in popular culture and commerce have anything to do with Social Work?

Organizations like the Yoga Research and Education Center and the International Association of Yoga Therapists have contributed considerable evidence showing benefits to people with physical disabilities, mood disorders and severe mental illness. Unfortunately these groups often have limited or no access to the mainstream practice of yoga.

click to read more...

submitted by: Alena Gerst, LMSW, RYT

NEW GROUP FORMING

A new psychotherapy group for men and women  - 20’s-30’s, struggling with identity, career and work, interpersonal relationships, and separations from family of origin.

The group will be on-going and process oriented, with a lot of interaction by the members, stressing the “here-and-now, and relationships between group members. It will be supportive and nurturing, helping members fill some of the unmet emotional needs from earlier times in their lives.  I am an experienced and trained group psychoanalyst, and I teach at the Center for Group Studies.

Group will meet on Wednesday evenings from 6:30-8:00 pm in my Upper West Side office.  It will begin in early February. Individual consultation required. Feel free to contact me by telephone.

Sincerely,

Susan I. Frankel, LCSW, BCD, CGP
212 866-5756
www.psychotherapistsnyc.com

OCD Support and Education Group

Location-Upper East Side.

Time- The group meets from 6-7:30 on the first Thursday of every month.

Description-This group has a few different components and serves as a supplement to individual treatment for OCD.

The first component is that of a support group. 

-Support: Many times the symptoms of OCD, the specific obsessive thoughts and/or the compulsive behaviors, bring about feelings of shame and isolation.  This group addresses these feelings by providing members with a safe accepting environment in which to meet with others who have similar experiences. There will be an emphasis on those common experiences and the challenges of treatment.

The second component is education.

-Education- Participants will learn more about OCD and will learn strategies that may be helpful to cope with symptoms. Guidance will be given around creating personalized goals that can be integrated into their current treatment regimens.

 Participants-All individuals with a diagnosis of OCD are welcome. Participants include those experiencing an episode triggered by pregnancy, postpartum, or other life events and those with long standing OCD.

Fee-The initial phone consultation is free and group sessions are $75.

Contact Information-Please contact Dr. Marika Kyrimis at (646) 684-2170 or mck@mkyrimis.com  if you would like more information about the group.

WOMEN’S POST-TRAUMA THERAPY GROUP

This group serves the needs of women who sustained significant early-life relational trauma and who are currently higher-functioning. For example:
  ◦ those who were raised in an atmosphere of pervasive emotional neglect, derision or criticism
  ◦ women who experienced exploitive, disturbed, substance-abusing, or otherwise 'absent' primary caregivers
  ◦ those with a history of physical or sexual maltreatment.

  Members are specifically supported in working on
  ◦ themes of persisting shame, guilt and self-blame
  ◦ healing of relational wounds and isolation
  ◦ becoming more comfortable with a range of emotions, and
  ◦ understanding the function of self-sabotaging and destructive practices.

 This is an ongoing psychotherapy group conducted within a highly supportive context. Group process emphasizes the longer-term, present day ramifications of developmental trauma. It is not intended as a forum for stabilization of acute post-traumatic symptoms.

Group meets weekly on Wednesday evenings from 7:30-9 p.m. Members are asked to make an initial commitment to attend 10 sessions with the option to continue open-endedly thereafter.

          Location: Upper West Side.

          Fee: $60 per group.

An initial consultation is required and offered at no charge.  

For more information please contact:
Sandra L. Green, LCSW

Director, Faculty and Supervisor, Trauma Treatment Center, Manhattan   Institute for Psychoanalysis
Ph. 212-874-0022
sangreen@mindspring.com



The Relational Void: Gains and Losses

We are delighted to announce that the newly published book Loneliness and Longing: Conscious and Unconscious Aspects [Paperback] contains a paper written by Joan Lavender, Psy.D. on The Relational Void: Gains and Losses.

This is a solid collection of contemporary psychoanalysts writing both theoretically and personally about the topic. Routledge is the publisher.

Brent Willock (Editor), Lori C. Bohm (Editor), Rebecca Coleman Curtis (Editor)

submitted by: Joan Lavender, Psy.D

Complicated Grief and Deficits in Emotional Expressive Flexibility

Sumati Gupta and George A. Bonanno
Columbia University
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
2011, Vol. 120, No. 3, 635–643

There is growing evidence that deficits in emotion regulation may be at the heart of maladaptive reactions after bereavement. Expressive flexibility, or the ability to flexibly enhance or suppress emotional expression, appears to be especially important for adjustment in the aftermath of highly aversive events (Bonanno, Papa, Lalande, Westphal, & Coifman, 2004). In this study, we compared expressive flexibility in a sample of bereaved adults who lost their spouse 1.5–3 years earlier and a comparable sample of married adults. Approximately half of the bereaved adults had Complicated Grief (CG) and half were asymptomatic. Using a within-subjects design, we asked all participants to either enhance or suppress their expressions of emotion or to behave normally while viewing evocative pictures at a computer screen. Observer ratings of expressiveness made blind to condition showed no group differences in overall emotion. However, bereaved adults suffering from CG exhibited deficits in expressive flexibility. Specifically, the CG group was less able to enhance and less able to suppress emotional expression relative to asymptomatic bereaved and married adults.

to read the article: click here

submitted by: Sumati Gupta, PhD