Dear Colleagues,

As another calendar year comes to a close, I have thoughts of reflection on months gone by and hopes and resolutions for the future.  GPSCH continues to grow; new members add exciting, unknown, and challenging factors to blend.  I always hated the notion of our country being called a “melting pot” – it conjured up an image of overcooked, unappealing mush.  However, the eclectic separate dishes that don’t necessarily go well together require a different attitude and skill.  And sometimes we’re quite surprised.  For years I have found that hypnosis and much of cognitive treatment complement each other. Rather, I have found that hypnosis enhances cognitive therapy, accessing and reinforcing motivation and unconscious resources in a way that I could never access with CBT alone.  Our Practicum and Intern students from various graduate school programs tended to be cognitively trained and oriented; I learned from all of them.  More recently, and with greater excitement, I have been combining hypnosis and EMDR.  I wonder what your thoughts and experiences are.  We have an amazing diversity amongst us – let’s make the most of it.

I look forward to programming that challenges us to do something different, to better understand the paradigm each of us operates out of, and to be as aware of its limits as its contributions.  Which leads me to calling for contributions from you – mini vignettes of what you are doing in your practice, how you incorporate hypnosis, formally and informally in your communication with patients. 

Just today an old patient phoned – someone I saw more than ten years ago for pain management.  He wondered if I remembered him; I was flooded with thoughts and images of a patient, charming, intelligent, and high hypnotizable – a pleasure to work with.  As I get older that happens more and more often – patients return at a different phase of life with different or overlapping issues; it is a particularly rich experience, on both sides, I believe.

Some of you I have now known for many years, some going back to 1986 when I first came to a GPSCH meeting.  I have fond memories of a multitude of conversations and presentations, rich experiences that document how we have grown and changed over the years.  I look forward to the years to come, especially having some post-Board of Governors time, when I have no agenda at a meeting other than to talk to people, to “catch up” and share ideas.

As for New Year’s resolutions: 1. Utilize the relapse prevention protocol and training provided by Drs. Kumar and Pekala; 2. Make contributions to HypNews; 3. Enjoy my daughter’s wedding in Puerto Vallerta in February!

And, remember the old “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”  Well, for those of you who didn’t see this cartoon in the New Yorker:  “What if they gave a war and nobody profited?”

Best wishes to all -
Judith S. Berman, President

MEMBER NEWS

Congratulations! to Eileen Casaccio, Psy.D., on her becoming our new Secretary, GPSCH Board of Governors.

Congratulations! to Scott Fried, D.O.,F.A.O.A.O., on his being appointed our new Member-at-Large, GPSCH Board of Governors.

"You've Got Mail"

MARCH 14, 2007  GPSCH Monthly Meeting - Topic TBA

APRIL 15, 2007  All Day GPSCH Spring Workshop “Timely Topics in the Treatment of Trauma and Dissociation”  presented by Richard P. Kluft, M.D.,Ph.D.

MAY 16, 2007  GPSCH Monthly Meeting

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FROM THE EDITOR - Stephen G. Glass, ED.M.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

In 1905 Sir William Osler, M.D. offered, “I have three personal ideals.  One, to do the day’s work well and not to bother about the morrow… The second ideal has been to act the Golden Rule… And the third has been to cultivate such measure of equanimity as would enable me to bear success with humility, the affection of my friends without pride, and to be ready when the day of sorrow and grief came, to meet it with courage befitting a man….”