Highlights from our SICP Weekend Retreat

SICP weekend retreat committee:  Mara Nellis, Gary Jacobson, and Charles Sommer

This past month we celebrated the second annual post-pandemic return of SICP’s (Society of the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy) weekend retreat.  On April 13th, ICP community members from across five decades of ICP joined current training candidates in person for a full day of thought provoking presentations, community and fun!

In the morning session, Holly Levenkron presented a fascinating paper to which Patricia Ticineto Clough made a compelling response.  The subject was how malignant narcissism and the dissociation of anger/shame can silence authentic aspects of the self, and the patient/analyst relationship.  And how amidst societal complexities like Class, Race, Immigration, and Cultural Dislocation, emotional scars compel silence to maintain a stability which needs to be disrupted for progress, enabling the exploration of “The Existential Scream.”  The presentation and response generated a lively and thoughtful discussion among attendees.   

After lunch, the space was literally taken over by Creative Art Therapists Brian Harris and Kristin Long who had attendees form a large circle with their chairs.   After some invigorating movement and sound exercises, they demonstrated with volunteers from the audience the powerful ways in which music, performance, play and other creative techniques can “queer” the traditional analytic space to enhance a verbal psychotherapy process.  It is hard to convey in words and with deference to confidentiality just how moving some of these demonstrations were.  Everyone in the room seemed deeply affected.

After the presentations, a large group of attendees walked down 9th Avenue to a local restaurant, Medi Wine Bar, for a reception and delicious dinner.  For those able to attend, it was great fun catching up with old friends and welcoming new members of the ICP Community.  

Overall, it felt wonderful to be together in person again after such a long hiatus.  And it was especially nice for candidates who had been training on Zoom for years to have the opportunity to connect in person with alumni, former instructors and supervisors, and to hear about the special history of ICP.  We even discovered and had fun looking through a photo album from an SICP retreat in 1980!

Many thanks to the SICP Committee (Gary Jacobson, Mara Nellis, Charles Sommer) and to Maeve Hanley for putting it all together.  Our expectation going forward is that next year’s weekend retreat will be at an off-site location.   And our hope is that even more of the ICP Community will be able to join.