The Pennsylvania Psychological Association (PPA) annual convention was held in King of Prussia PA in mid-June. The convention was a great success and PSCP was highly visible throughout the convention.

PSCP was one of the Exhibitors at the Convention’s Exhibitors’ Hall Wednesday through Friday. With the able assistance of our Administrator Nicole Dietz, many convention attendees learned about or became reacquainted with PSCP, filled out information cards for a drawing for a free 3-hour CE webinar, and picked up literature and our “swag”—new PSCP notepads and pens. We tried out a new motto: PSCP is “The home for professional psychologists in the greater Philadelphia area.” We also made contacts with other organizations that are interested in being sponsors for future PSCP networking events and with psychologists and other mental health professionals who are interested in presenting webinars or workshops for us in the future.

One of the highlights of the convention was PSCP Board member Gail Karafin’s Presidential Address as the new PPA President for FY ’25-’26. Gail’s theme for her presidency is “Advocacy: Translating Science Into Practice.” Gail described many ways that psychologists can engage in advocacy and she highlighted some of the gains made by PPA over the decades. Examples included PPA successfully advocating for psychologists to be recognized as providers of mental health services in the late 1980s. PPA also successfully supported legislation that school psychologists must be involved in formulating IEPs for students and has been successful in getting some school districts to switch to later school start times for secondary school students (Gail’s personal campaign!). I loved Gail’s phrase describing how advocacy often accomplishes positive outcomes–“Chunk by chunk.”

PSCP  member Mark Schenker presented a workshop titled “What is Psychotherapy: Integration of Recovery Principles with Psychotherapy.” Ironically, Mark was the winner of AA’s raffle for the book “The Plain Language Big Book.” Well, Mark speaks in plain language, so that fits!

In summary, this year’s PPA Convention was a success for PPA and for PSCP. We thank everyone who visited us at the PSCP table, who entered our raffle, or who chatted with us during the convention. And thanks, and congratulations to PPA’s Convention Planning team (Ann Marie, Erin, Rachael, Molly, Justin, and anyone else I’m omitting!) for an excellent job!

We would like to congratulate Dr. Lavanya Devdas for winning the raffle for one free 3 hour CE Presentation offered by PSCP.

Jerry O’Brien

President

PSCP: The Philadelphia Psychology Network