by Annette Richard, M.Ps.

In this column, I’m happy to present some of IAPSP’s youngest members who are or have been ECP scholarships recipients. The IAPSP Early Career Professional Scholarships program is held every year. It welcomes applications from individuals in psychoanalytic and psychotherapy training programs, graduate students in Psychology, Psychiatry, Social Work, Counseling, Psychiatric Nursing and other mental health disciplines, and from those who have completed graduate school or training programs within the past 5 years. Applicants must have a strong interest in Self Psychology and Intersubjective Systems Theory and wish to immerse themselves in these transformative psychoanalytic theories. The Scholarship winners receive a year-long mentorship with a senior member of the IAPSP community, complementary registration for IAPSP’s annual conference for that year, a 750$ stipend to defray conference-related expenses, and all other benefits from their year-long complementary IAPSP membership.

Our international community of mental health professionals is committed to improving the lives of individuals and society through the practice, development and expansion of Self Psychology and related contemporary theories. Mentoring young professionals in order for them to become contributors to this overall goal is therefore a priority for IAPSP.

In other pages of eForum, you can read an essay by one beneficiary of the ECP Scolarship, Meredith Nocek, and an interview I had the pleasure to do with Bruce Ervin who was part of the first cohort of ECP scholarship winners. I have asked others to tell us how their mentee’s experience has impacted their lives professionally and personally. I will add those testimonials as they come in.

PRESENTING:

Han Bertrand, MSW, MTS

I’m a psychotherapist working in private practice in Boston, MA, and I have been in the profession since 2019. I first heard of Kohut and Self Psychology in a Psychodynamic Theories class during my last semester of social work school at Boston College. The reading about Self Psychology concepts such as mirroring, idealizing, and twinship selfobject immediately spoke to my soul and made sense to me. Then I read Richard Geist’s papers on empathy and connectedness, which helped me set my theoretical orientation when I was just starting my career as a psychodynamic psychotherapist. During the pandemic, I started a small Self Psychology reading group online with a colleague and attended my first IAPSP Zoom conference where I met Shaké Topalian who made me feel so welcome in the IAPSP community and introduced the ECP Scholarship program to me. I started my application in 2020 and I won the scholarship in 2021.

I enjoyed the fruitful conversations with my mentor, Gordon Powell, over the past year. I was inspired to contemplate Kohut’s writings to deepen my understanding of self psychological conceptualizations in psychoanalysis and clinical practice. My mentor has helped me go over the concepts originally developed by Kohut and how those concepts have been evolved and enriched by contemporary self psychologists. I started to appreciate more the importance of empathic attunement and the clinician’s flexibility in the intersubjective and relational context of psychotherapeutic work. Our conversations also reflected on the philosophical aspects of self psychology on the nature of humanity and social justice issues we encounter in the world. I find Kohut’s prophetic views on humanity and selfobject needs for human development fascinating – not only because of their implications in psychoanalytic endeavors, but also the underneath wisdom that sheds light on understanding human suffering and universal emotions throughout human history. My mentor also helped me feel more encouraged to pursue further studies and training in psychoanalysis as well as interdisciplinary studies. As an early career professional, I’m grateful for this mentorship experience where I both intellectually and experientially witnessed the emergence and development of selfobject transference, mirroring, idealizing, and twinship, in our relationship that’s also built on mutual empathy and a sense of connectedness. The mentorship program is meaningful to me personally and professionally.