The Candidates Committee supports new members of the analytic community from all over the world who come together through IARPP to create a place where the focus is specifically on and for candidates and early career psychoanalysts (i.e., those who have completed their training within the past five years).
The committee is led by Margaret Black Mitchell (USA), who founded it at the same time IARPP was launched. A founding board member of the organization, Margaret wanted to be particularly sure there was a “home base” for younger members. Sandra Toribio Caballero (Spain) and Gadit Orian (Israel) are the current co-chairs. The full committee includes members Fabia Banella (Italy), Erik Faberberg (Sweden), Afarin Kohan (Canada), Lissa Schaupp (USA), Andrea Rihm (Chile), Adrian Jones (Australia) and Konstantinos Mouchalos (Greece).
Currently, candidates and early-career psychoanalytsts who participate in the group represent nine countries, including Canada, Chile, Israel, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. The committee is currently working on its international connections with candidate members from other countries as well, such as Romania, India and Mexico.
As part of my efforts to give the IARPP membership a closer look at the various leadership committees of the organization, I recently conducted an email interview with the committee’s co-chairs, Sandra Toribio Caballero (Spain) and Gadit Orian (Israel). Reflecting their close collaborative spirit, they chose to answer my questions in one voice. Here is the interview, followed by an introduction of the full committee.
[MA]
How do you determine what topics will be interesting and useful to a group of candidates and early-career analysts?
We usually share our own experiences (and difficulties) in becoming analysts, and we also consider the interests we know of from our different local institutes and communities. We usually also think about who we would like to invite to be a presenter, in relation to the topics they write and teach about.
I understand that Margaret Crastnopol (USA) will be leading the next Candidates Webinar. Can you give us a sense of what she’ll be discussing?
We feel very lucky to have Margaret Crastnopol as a presenter! It will take place February 21 to March 3, 2020, and it will be titled “Micro-trauma: Uncovering and Repairing Cumulative Psychic Injury.” In her words: We “will explore certain troublesome patterns of interaction that subtly undermine an individual’s psychic development, compromising his or her sense of self-worth and well-being in the world. We will also look at how to identify these disruptive dynamics … Our discussion will examine how the psychoanalytic dyad can work to reshape these tendencies in order to enhance our patients’ inner experience and foster a healthier relatedness toward others. With this appreciation of subtle influences on one’s psyche as backdrop, we will also take a close look at the strengths and limitations of contemporary psychoanalytic technique.”
For those who haven’t attended the Candidates Reception at an IARPP conference, how would you describe it? Networking opportunity? Bacchanal?
Probably something in between! (Just joking). We think it is a great opportunity for candidates to meet personally the best well-known writers and speakers in the IARPP community. It is also a good moment to meet candidates from other countries and in general to expand their “relational” connections.
What else is your committee working on?
We are working on the Candidates’ Panel for the IARPP Conference in Los Angeles. It will be titled “Thinking, Participating and Speaking Outside the Box.” The call for papers is about to come out, so candidates and early-career analysts, stay tuned!
What’s the process like for you all, sharing ideas and making plans amongst an international committee? What are its challenges and pleasures?
I (Sandra) think one of the aspects we enjoy the most is seeing how, even though we are from different countries/continents/cultures/backgrounds, we have common interests, and we also worry and care about the same things in the therapeutic processes, and also in life. At the same time, we believe this diversity helps us grow as a community. I have to say the main challenge does usually have to do with technology. We meet on Sundays, and with big time differences (a lot of different time zones!), connection is not always easy. But we usually “work it through.”
I know that important professional relationships and friendships can be forged within the Candidates Committee’s offerings. Speaking from my own experience, after I presented on the Candidates Panel some years ago, I reconnected with that panel’s moderator a few years later at another IARPP conference. A friendship began, and now we’ve begun collaborating on presentations and discussing ideas for a joint paper. So, facilitating a sense of community among newcomers can plant seeds. I imagine this might be a gratifying aspect of your roles.
We as analysts work mostly by ourselves, so having the chance to connect among each other helps create a sense of belonging to a big community. As we usually meet face-to-face in different countries/continents/cultures, it also feels great to see familiar faces wherever you go. It somehow gives the feeling of a big “relational” family. We have the chance to share our professional (and personal) projects with each other. In a world where everything is connected (thanks to new technologies), we as mental health professionals have to stay tuned to what other people in our field are working on. In addition, we cannot forget that if we have chosen the “Relational” path, it is also because being in relation must be essential for each of us, so I think we all feel very grateful for the various activities IARPP organizes so that we can share experiences.
What were your own initial experiences with IARPP? Did you yourselves participate in any Candidates Committee offerings?
I (Sandra) trained at the Institute for Relational Psychotherapy in Madrid, so I participated, as a volunteer, in the Madrid IARPP conference back in 2011. It was very impressive to have the chance to hear and meet personally the people I had been studying. It just felt great knowing what I was interested in was not just something local, but something much bigger and which was still developing and in constant growth – I think IARPP is an organization that feels very alive. It also had a very big impact on me to see how IARPP was opened to young people. So when the prior Spanish representative, Raúl Naranjo, left the committee in 2014, I was happy to accept an invitation to join.
I (Gadit) participated in the IARPP Conference in 2012 in New York. I didn’t know the Candidates Committee until I went into psychoanalytic training myself.
Well, on behalf of candidates and early career analysts everywhere, as well as the candidate self-state within me, I thank you for all your efforts and for speaking with me.
Thank you, Matt, for the effort you’ve put into this. We are open to any suggestions candidates from different countries have, in order to develop activities where more and more candidates can feel represented.
Sandra Toribio Caballero (Spain)
Sandra is a child, adolescent and adult psychotherapist, a specialist in Relational psychotherapy. She holds a Master’s Degree in Women and Health and is currently working on a PhD in Psychopathology and Gender. She has been in private practice since 2005 and works as Education Coordinator at Ágora Relacional/Institute for Relational Psychotherapy (Madrid), where she is Faculty and member. Sandra has been co-chair of the Candidates Committee since 2018.
Gadit Orian (Israel)
Gadit is a clinical social worker and associate in training at Tel Aviv Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. She is a lecturer at Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya in the psychotherapy program. She has a private practice in Tel Aviv. She is co-chair of the Candidates Committee.
Fabia Eleonora Banella (Italy)
Fabia received her psychoanalytic training at the Italian Training Institute in Relational Psychoanalysis and Self Psychology. She holds a PhD in Clinical and Dynamic Psychology, during which she studied preterm neurobehavioral and socio-emotional development. Fabia teaches psychology at St John’s University in Rome and Torvergata University. She also trained in infant-parent mental health at the University of Massachusetts in Boston and completed a research project on Implicit Relational Knowing at the Child Development Unit. In addition to her work on the Candidates Committee, she is also a member of IARPP’s Child, Adolescent, and Parent Psychotherapy Committee.
Erik Faberberg (Sweden)
Erik is a licensed psychotherapist (MA, LCSW) trained in relational and interpersonal psychotherapy at Linköping University, Sweden. His work is mainly with adults suffering from affective disorders, anxiety and trauma. He teaches and supervises psychotherapy, is President of the Swedish Association of Relational Psychotherapy and, has been a member of IARPP’s Candidates Committee since 2016. After 20 years working in a specialist care psychiatry unit, Erik is in private practice in Malmö, Sweden.
Afarin Kohan (Canada)
Dr. Mehr-Afarin Kohan is a psychiatrist living in Toronto and a candidate at the Toronto Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis (TICP). She spends most of her time doing long-term psychotherapy in her private practice. She supervises residents at Toronto General Hospital and works with refugees at the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT). She was the recipient of the 2016 Susanne Chassy Memorial Paper Award from the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC)
Lissa Schaupp (USA)
Lissa holds an LCSW and is a psychoanalyst with a private practice in New York City working with individuals and couples. She is Co-Director of Curriculum at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies (NIP) where she trained, and currently teaching Relational Theory. She is an Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Perspectives and has been a member of the IARPP Candidates Committee since 2018.
Andrea Rihm (Chile)
Andrea is a psychologist with an MA in Art Therapy and a PhD in Psychology. She works as a therapist in private practice, teaches in undergraduate and graduate programs of psychology and art therapy, and belongs to the research laboratory of subjectivity and social change and to Collective Trenza, which is devoted to elaborating on our clinical practices with/from a gender perspective. She has been a member of the Candidates Committee since 2017 and is a member of IARPP-Chile.
Adrian Jones (Australia)
Adrian is a psychotherapist in private practice in Sydney. He completed his psychoanalytic psychotherapy training through the Master of Science in Medicine (Psychotherapy) program in Sydney. He received his PhD from the University of Sydney, based on research conducted at Harvard University. He’s been awarded research and post-doctoral fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute, the University of Texas at Austin, and the New York Public Library. His current research focuses on dream logic in Stanley Kubrick’s films.
Konstantinos D. Mouchalos (Greece)
Konstantinos studied Psychology at Deree the American College of Greece and at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (UoA), Medical Psychology. He trained as a psychotherapist in the C.A.T model and in relational group psychoanalysis at the Institute for Relational Group Psychotherapy. He is certified in P.F.A. through Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of AGPA. He’s been a psychologist in the Greek Army. He is in private practice in Athens.
Margaret Mitchell Black (USA)
Margaret holds an LCSW and is a Founding Board Member and Vice President of IARPP, where she also serves as Chair of the North American Conference Committee and liaison to the Candidates Committee. She is a Founding Board Member and Faculty of the Stephen Mitchell Center for Relational Studies and a Board Director and Director of Continuing Education at NIP in NYC. She is Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and Editorial Board member for Studies in Gender and Sexuality. Margaret is co-author, with Stephen Mitchell, of Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought (Basic Books, 1995, 2016). Her published articles concern the relationship between theory and clinical practice.