By Sandra Toribio Caballero (Spain) and Gadit Orian (Israel),
Co-chairs, Candidate Committee

Led by Margaret Black Mitchell (USA), our group consists of candidates from all over the world who come together to create a place where the focus is specifically on and for candidates and early career psychoanalysts.

Our most recent events took place during the international conference in New York (June 14-17, 2018). On the first day of the conference, our committee held the Candidates Reception, where candidate members were able to meet some of IARPP’s best-known writers and presenters. During the reception, Hilary Offman (Canada) and Kim Bernstein (USA), outgoing co-chairs, passed the leadership baton to Sandra Toribio Caballero and Gadit Orian, incoming co-chairs. Sandra and Gadit, along with the rest of the committee members, thanked Hilary, Kim, and María José Mezzera (Chile), the previous co-chair, for their extraordinarily valuable contributions over the last years. The committee also welcomed three new members: Afarin Hosseini (Canada), Lissa Schaupp (USA), and Andrea Rihm (Chile). We are so happy to have them join our committee!

The second event the Candidates Committee organized during the conference was the Candidates Panel. The theme of our panel was “Hope and Dread: Becoming a Therapist in an Uncertain World.”  For this panel, we called for papers that offer a clinical perspective on what it’s like to be a candidate in training at a time of such widespread insecurity and accelerating geopolitical, technological, and ecological upheaval.

We received proposals from candidates all over the world and had the difficult task of choosing only four to present: Fabio Bianchi of Italy–“Hope and Dread Within a First Therapeutic Experience,” Lissa Schaupp of the United States–“Room With a View: Grappling with Ubiquitous Uncertainty from Within and Without,” Gilly Katz ben Sheffer from Israel–“To Have and Have Not,” and Andrea Iturriaga Medrano from Spain–“Are We Alone Out there?” We were honored that Francesca Colzani (Chile) was our discussant for these papers. The panel was very rich and moving, and we really enjoyed the variety of interventions of the participants.

Our next event will be our yearly online webinar coming up in January 2019. Gianni Nebbiosi (Italy) has generously agreed to lead our webinar and we are looking forward to three weeks of learning and conversation. This webinar will run from mid January to early February, 2019. Designed specifically and only for candidates and early career psychoanalysts and relationally trained psychotherapists, the webinars sponsored by the Candidates Committee provide opportunities to learn from some of the most accomplished members of our community, as well as a chance to interact with an international group of peers.  We hope to “see” you there!

Gadit Orian
Email Gadit Orian

Sandra Toribio Caballero
Email Sandra Toribio Caballero