Turbulent times: Inside and Outside the consulting room

PLEASE NOTE THIS PROGRAM IS SOLD OUT! WALK INS WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO ENTER THE EVENT

Turbulent times: Inside and Outside the consulting room

Presented By: Cynthia Baum-Baicker, Ph.D., Barbara L. Goldsmith, Psy.D.

Panel: Rebecca Ergas, Ph.D., Julia Mayer, Psy.D., and Renée Roy, MA

Program Moderator: Dennis Debiak, Psy.D.

The Inn at Swarthmore 10 South Chester Road Swarthmore, PA 19081

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Workshop: 9:30am to 12:30pm Registration: 9am

Cosponsoring Group

• PSCP: The Psychology Network
• The Philadelphia Center for Psychoanalytic Education (PCPE)
• Widener Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology (IGCP)

3.0 CE Credits

During times of national crisis, Lincoln and FDR used the presidency to unite the country, inspire hope and reassure a fearful nation.  In contrast, today’s politics seeks to instill fear, not contain it.  We are barraged by twenty-four hours of breaking news and tweets, so-called “alternative facts,” and insults that foster division and polarization.  Reliance on the norms and rules to which we have grown accustomed can no longer be taken for granted.

The first part of this program will address the consequences of living and practicing under the impact of the toxic stress from the political climate, both on our health and in our work as clinicians. We will discuss how the politics of hate, fear and polarization play out in the consulting room.  The second part of this program will address clinical work in the community.  The panel members will discuss their advocacy work both in the local community and beyond.

Cynthia Baum-Baicker, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in -time practice in Philadelphia and Doylestown, PA. She is Board Chair of The Scattergood Foundation for Behavioral Health and sits on the Advisory Board of the Scattergood Program for the Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health at The University of Pennsylvania. Past-President of the Section on Couples and Family Therapy for APA Division 39, Cindy is currently Chair of the Public Policy Committee. She has published and given workshops on the topic of clinical wisdom. In the 1980’s, prior to embarking on training to become a psychoanalyst, Cindy authored the original papers on the health benefits of light and moderate drinking. A recent 2018 interview in Politico based on an essay penned with U Penn colleague, Dom Sisti, Ph.D., led to interviews on CBS talk radio and NPR, and form the basis of this presentation.

Barbara L. Goldsmith, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Philadelphia and Rosemont, PA.  She is adjunct associate professor at the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology and on the faculty of the Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis in Philadelphia. She is a training consultant to the University of Pennsylvania’s Counseling and Psychological Services, and was founding president and is a member of the Board of the Philadelphia Center for Psychoanalytic Education.  She is the director of the PSPP Mentorship Program since its inception in 2005.  In February 2017 she co-facilitated a Towne Hall meeting to discuss the impact of the political climate on therapists and the therapy process.

Panel

Rebecca Ergas Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist working in private practice with offices in Narberth and Philadelphia, PA.  From 1994-2017, Dr. Ergas worked as Director of Clinical Training and Psychological Counselor at the Counseling and Psychological Services of Haverford College. Dr. Ergas has a special interest in integrating mindfulness/meditation principles into her clinical work and previously taught yoga/meditation classes and facilitated a Mindfulness Skills Training group for students at Haverford. She was born in Chile and welcomes the opportunity to work in Spanish. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Ergas is a member of the Penn Center for Public Health Initiatives’ Asylum Evaluators Consultation Group. She consults with both private and public immigration attorneys and has conducted psychological evaluations of immigrants seeking asylum since 2009. Dr. Ergas is a current Board member of PCPE.

Julia L. Mayer, Psy.D is a psychodynamically-oriented psychologist in private practice in Media, PA. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 and her doctor of psychology degree from Widener University in 1991. Prior to becoming a psychologist, she wrote plays and interned as an assistant to the director for a theater company in New York. She has published professionally in the APA journal, Families, Systems & Health. She also co-authored various articles with her husband, Barry J. Jacobs, Psy.D., for WebMD and HealthCentral. She has been doing individual and marital therapy for 28 years, specializing in working with women who have histories of sexual trauma, eating disorders and troubled marriages. She has increasingly focused her work on supporting caregivers. She spent over 20 years consulting to agencies housing the chronically mentally ill. She has held adjunct faculty appointments at the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology of Widener University and was an Instructor for the Masters Program in Creative Arts Therapy at Hahnemann University, for which she taught classes in human development and psychoanalytic theory for eight years. She also completed a three-year certificate program at New Directions, in writing and psychoanalysis at the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis. In 2014, Julia published her novel, A Fleeting State of Mind. Most recently, in 2016, Julia and her husband co-wrote AARP Meditations for Caregivers, Practical, Emotional and Spiritual Support for You and Your Family. Since then, they have travelled the country and beyond together giving talks on positive caregiving, and have been on many radio shows and podcasts. Julia currently serves as president of the board for PSCP – The Psychology Network. Most recently, Julia has been doing a podcast about psychology and social justice, called Shrinks on Third.

Renée Roy, MA is a 5^th year doctoral candidate set to graduate from Widener University in May of 2019. She received her MA and is pursuing her PsyD from the Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology and pursuing her MEd from the Center for Human Sexuality Studies. Renée is actively involved in volunteer and research work in sexual health, including advocating for harm reduction and trauma-informed care. She is the current co-leader of a psychology graduate student group within IGCP dedicated to advocacy work, PsySSR-Widener, which recently led a voter registration drive and generally aims to support students to pursue action in response to social issues that matter to them. Renée has personally been involved in bringing more education regarding queer and trans populations to her various clinical rotations and regularly advocates for the clinical needs of sex workers.

Program Moderator

Dennis Debiak, Psy.D. is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Philadelphia and Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. He is a founding board member and the first graduate of the Institute for Relational Psychoanalysis of Philadelphia (IRPP) and is President of the Philadelphia Center for Psychoanalytic Education (PCPE). He is Past Secretary and immediate Past President of APA’s Division 39: The Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology. He is an adjunct faculty member at Widener University’s Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology.

PSCP: The Psychology Network is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. PSCP: The Psychology Network maintains responsibility for this program and its content.