March: SPS Monthly Roundup

Here's the TL;DR

• Trainee Case Conference on Tuesday, 3/11 at 6:15 PM
• "My Body is Here, Too: Inviting the Clinician's Body into the Therapy Room," panel and discussion event on Saturday, 3/29 at 4:00 PM

👇 Keep reading for more details about what we're doing at SPS in March!

Tuesday, 3/11 | Trainee Conference

We are happy to continue our interdisciplinary psychoanalytic case conference open to all trainees in mental health in the Sacramento area. This case conference takes place at Thor Cornelius' office every second Tuesday of the month at 6:15 PM. Trainees at all years of graduate programs are welcome to attend.

The case conference hosted by Drs. Thor Cornelius, MD and Barbara Fattig, MD will be discussion-based and focused on thinking together from primarily modern psychoanalytic perspectives (though additional perspectives are welcome). If you are interested in presenting at the conference, please email Drs. Cornelius or Fattig so that we can briefly discuss the case with you and help you to prepare (i.e. providing guidance to be sure the case material is adequately anonymized prior to the presentation, etc).

Saturday, 3/29 | "My Body is Here, Too: Inviting the Clinician's Body into the Therapy Room."

Join us on Saturday, 3/29 from 4-6 PM for a very special continuation of last year's popular "Wine, Cheese, & the Therapist's Body" event! SPS board member Jen Vera will be hosting some out of town colleagues for a panel discussion titled "My Body is Here, Too: Inviting the Clinician's Body into the Therapy Room." Wine and snacks will be provided!

Event Summary

Acknowledging the therapist’s body in the room—and in the transference— has remained a site of tension, discomfort and avoidance. As clinicians, we must interrogate our own relationship to our bodies to find the relational courage to hold our client’s projections and engage in this rich clinical material. A continuation of our November event on the subject, a panel of three eating disorder specialists will present their experiences in tracking how their own bodies are brought into clinical encounters, followed by a discussion. Particular attention will be paid to the range of visible and invisible identities—such as race, sexual orientation, gender, body size, ability and age—and how these manifest in the body.​

Presenters:

Lynn Welch, LMFT, is psychotherapist with extensive training in medical and Alzheimer’s residential settings. She has expertise in working with eating disorders, grief, loss, chronic illness and older adult populations. She is interested in how disruptions of the body psyche facilitate emergent interpersonal and intrapsychic processes.

Ashley Merriman, LCSW, is a psychotherapist, advocate, and consultant based in Los Angeles, California. Her practice centers Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and bi-racial/ multi-racial folks around issues of identity, racial & sexual trauma, eating disorders, alternative/ non-traditional relationship models (ethical non-monogamy/ polyamory, kink & BDSM), veganism & eco-anxiety, and interpersonal struggles.

Samar Warmerdam, LCSW, is a licensed psychotherapist providing collaborative and relational therapy in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her areas of specialization and interest include adolescence and young adulthood, eating disorders, perinatal mental health, and immigrant and first generation identity.

Panel facilitated by:

Jennifer Vera, MFT, is relational psychotherapist, clinical consultant and educator, in private practice in Sacramento, CA. She specializes in the treatment of eating disorders, ‘quarter-life’ transitions, reproductive and perinatal mental health, with a particular focus on supporting LGBTQ and BIPOC patients. Jen is also the co-founder of LEDE: Eating Disorder Education, an organization dedicated to increasing community access to culturally-relevant eating disorder treatment, while growing and training a diverse, inclusive community of eating disorder therapists. 

The Sacramento Psychoanalytic Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization led and supported entirely by volunteers who are dedicated to the promotion of psychoanalysis within the greater Sacramento region. 

We pursue our mission through organizing educational programs, reading groups, monthly presentations, case conferences, networking events, and hosting speakers of interest for the community of Sacramento – all are welcome to get involved!