The Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN) is an advocacy organization dedicated to the promotion of dynamic therapies.  This is their first national conference!

The conference link is here.

Advancing Psychotherapy
for the Next Generation:
Rehumanizing Mental Health Policy and Practice

Golden Gate University
San Francisco, CA
13-15 December 2019

Mark your calendars now and join us for this Psychotherapy Action Network-sponsored conference in San Francisco!

Psychotherapy is alive and well, bringing growth, understanding, transformation, compassion and cure to millions of people across the globe. Psychotherapy is also under attack. Insurance companies are reluctant to cover treatments of any depth; psychology training programs are more and more constrained to teach only behavioral techniques rather than dynamically-informed, relationship-based treatments; and much public policy is strongly biased towards short-term, structured interventions and medications for people in distress.

So how do we safeguard psychotherapy? How do we buffer it from the assaults of medicalization, managed care, instrumentalization and reductionism? How do we create strong advocates in public policy, professional education and clinical practice? How do we create avenues of access not only for the rich, but for all?

We will gather to draw from psychology, psychoanalysis, social theory, cultural studies, public policy and public service in order to build on PsiAN’s success as a force of tikkun, of healing, of both individuals and our world.

There has never been a more important time than now for collective action to support substantive treatment. Please join us as we organize to ensure the future of psychotherapy!

Featured speakers include:

• Claude Barbre,  Ph.D., on self-care for the activist
• Meiram Bendat,  J.D.,  Ph.D., on advocating for psychotherapy in the courts and the recent UBH class-action victory
• Ghislaine Boulanger,  Ph.D., on using distance consultation to promote psychodynamic community treatment
• John Cornelius,  M.D., on talk therapy for psychosis
• Farhad Dalal,  Ph.D., speaking about his book, CBT: The Cognitive Behavioral Tsunami, and Britain’s national experiment in instituting CBT
• Todd Essig,  Ph.D., on respecting local therapy in the digital age
• Enrico Gnaulati,  Ph.D., on what constitutes quality therapy and why it’s important to preserve it
• Laura W. Groshong,  LICSW, How to effectively advocate for our field and our profession
• Susan Lazar,  M.D., on the cost-effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy
• Bill Meyer,  MSW, on the clinical evidence and profound value of long-term treatment
• Holly Passi,  Psy.D., on relational and integrative approaches to treating combat PTSD and moral injury in veterans
• Melodie Schaefer,  PsyD, on transforming advocacy into action
• Allan Scholom,  Ph.D., on the psycho-politics of evidence-based practice and the assault on our mental health and mental health care
• Jonathan Shedler,  Ph.D.,talking about the false narrative of quick-fix therapies
• Bryant Welch,  Ph.D., discussing the disappearance of talk therapy at the APA and what to do about it
• Oksana Yakushko,  Ph.D., on Rats, Stats, and the Search for Happiness: A Critical History of Psychotherapy in American Academia.
• Round-tables: Featuring representatives from San Francisco agencies and organizations, including RAMS, Inc., Access Institute, PINC’s Community Psychoanalysis Project, California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), A Home Within, Oak’s Children’s Center, Partnerships for Trauma Recovery, Reflective Spaces/Material Places (RSMP), and many other local groups
• And more!

Conference Sponsors Include:
Golden Gate University * Access Institute *
Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis * RAMS, Inc *
Wright Institute * Oakes Children’s Center *
Reflective Spaces/Material Places *
Northern California Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology *
California Institute of Integral Studies * A Home Within *
Partnerships for Trauma Recovery * Clinical Social Work Association *
Existential-Humanistic Institute * San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis

Come join us! December 13-15 2019!

Add your voice to protect the right to humane, effective mental health care for those who need it most.