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From: Monique Savlin, Ph.D., Editor
Date: 20 Aug 2001
CALLS FOR PAPERS
Winter 2001 (Vol. 37, No. 4) Rituals in Psychotherapy: Beginnings and Endings Deadline for manuscript submission extended to September 20, 2001
Two important phases of therapy, the beginning and ending, require special care and attention. We may use some form of ritual--shaking hands at first meeting, setting ground rules, invitation to freedom of expression. During the beginning phase an atmosphere of safety and a working alliance (which may take many sessions) are established. Letting the patient know that this is a serious attempt to do something worthwhile and an opportunity to slow down is a powerful message and needs to be expressed.
The end phase may re-create fears of abandonment, separation and death for both therapist and patient that need careful working through. Endings may also be experienced as celebrations and rites of passage.
For the winter 2001 issue of Voices, the journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, we invite you to reflect and write about your work and understanding of these important phases of psychotherapy. How do you begin the first session and help your patient to feel safe? Do you use rituals to begin or end therapy? What is your focus? What does your setting say about you and psychotherapy? How do you explain what psychotherapy is about? Do you consciously set about to develop a working alliance? When does the first meeting take place? Is it on the phone? In person? How do you end a long-term therapy that has been deeply experienced? Do you have rituals for endings? Can an ending also be a beginning?
Articles should be submitted according to the instructions in “Guidelines for Authors.” For a copy of the guidelines, please send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Monique Savlin, Ph.D., Editor, 705 11th Street, Wilmette, IL 60091. To receive the guidelines by e-mail, send your request to msavlin@aol.com.
Spring 2002 (Vol. 38, No. 1) Philosophy and Psychotherapy Deadline for manuscript submission: November 1, 2001
As psychotherapists our definition of optimal mental and emotional health becomes narrow and rigid when we lose sight of the questions that are raised by philosophers. These questions deal with meaning, healing, creativity, authenticity, wisdom, the value of suffering, living deeply and with passion, and the human condition. They provide us with a larger vision and save us from becoming stuck in narrow points of view.
Many who are practitioners of psychotherapy came to this profession by way of philosophy, especially the existential philosophies of Sartre, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Buber, Lao-tzu, Teilhard de Chardin, William James, the Buddhist philosophers, and many others. Freud and Jung were both versed and educated to think philosophically about man and the human condition. These thinkers, and many others, asked fundamental questions about life, happiness, freedom, love. These same questions, in some form, are heard in our offices. How we think about the human condition colors our experiences and the way that we respond to our patients.
Without becoming philosophers ourselves, Voices is interested in your papers reflecting your encounter with philosophy and the way it helped shape your thinking about psychotherapy and your understanding of a life well lived. Does your philosophy influence the outcome of therapy? If so, how? Did it influence your own therapy? Do you talk about meaning, beauty, a good life? About how one lives in the face of loss and death? The meaning of connection? Of intimacy? Of family? Our connections to each other? The purpose of dreams? What is it that you hope your patients will know as a result of spending time with you besides the amelioration of symptoms, or is that enough and does that lead to a fuller life?
Articles should be submitted according to the instructions in “Guidelines for Authors.” For a copy of the guidelines, please send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Monique Savlin, Ph.D., Editor, 705 11th Street, Wilmette, IL 60091, e-mail, msavlin@aol.com.