Board chair's letter to our supporters
To the friends of the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute
From John Parlin, Chair of the Board of Trustees
           
 As the Institute ends this academic year and readies for another, we want to take the time to let you know that we are thriving in these difficult economic times primarily due to the significant endowment fund that was built over the past 10 years, and the dedication of our faculty and staff. Noteworthy to our successes are the directors, staff, and board working in collaboration to prioritize activities that keep us focused on our mission of training analysts and other mental health professionals.
 
This year, four outstanding candidates graduated after a multi-year analytic training program: Sydney Anderson, PhD from the child program and Brett Clarke, MSW, Marlene Kocan, PhD, and Karl Stukenberg, PhD in the adult program. Following in their footsteps, this fall will mark the beginning of a five-year analytic training program of seven new candidates. This represents a large class in comparison with other institutes throughout the country. We have been able to attract candidates from Indiana and Lexington, Kentucky.
 
There continues to be strong interest in the advanced psychotherapy programs, both adult and child, with 15 individuals enrolled this academic year thanks to the leadership of Drs. Marcia Kaplan and Sydney Anderson and Mr. Brett Clarke. We're very excited already because this number is likely to increase as the child and adolescent program is still actively recruiting additional students to begin in the next class starting in January, 2010.
 
CPI's child analytic program has recently been approved by the Committee on Child and Adolescent Analysis of the American Psychoanalytic Association for full accreditation as an independent program. This is a significant developmental step for the program. It indicates that our program is respected by child analysts on a national basis, and confirms the solidity of our curriculum and faculty. This accomplishment owes a great deal to Drs. John Hall, Sam Robertson, Sergio Delgado, Sarah Knox, Ed Kohn, and Sydney Anderson, as well as the Child Committee, the child candidates, our entire child analytic faculty, the Board of Directors, the current and past Faculty Directors, Mary VanAusdall, and the CPI staff. In addition to this organizational achievement, Sydney Anderson, PhD. successfully completed the process of becoming a certified Child Analyst.  Congratulations and thanks to all.
 
Last fall, the Institute received high praise from a five member site visit team from the American Psychoanalytic Association. This survey, which occurs every seven years and lasts for five days, was a great success due to preparation by the faculty and staff, particularly Clayton Gotwals, MD, and Mary VanAusdall, executive director of the CPI.
 
Keeping pace with modern technology, we are participating in teleconferencing with a consortium of institutes in Birmingham, Miami, Houston, and Atlanta. The library is in the process of putting online a catalog of their 4000 volumes, while staying current by subscribing to 30 periodicals. CPI has a new attractive, user-friendly website developed by a collaboration of Board and staff with special thanks to Board members Linda Cornell, Andrea Kay and Nina Strauss. CPI is also a participant in a program offered by Amazon.com where CPI receives a contribution of 4 to 14% of the value of any Amazon purchase made through the CPI website. Please do consider using the CPI website to link to Amazon.com when you are shopping online.
 
CPI and the Children's Home of Cincinnati have engaged in collaboration over the past two years, bringing together the psychoanalytic understanding of the child's inner world and the variety of services provided to children. Over the past eight months, this has included a series of "Lunch and Learn" programs in which a discussion relevant to the understanding of children has been co-led by a Children's Home staff member and a CPI faculty member or candidate. These sessions were prompted by the very successful collaborative lectures by Dr. Jack Novick and his wife, Kerry Kelly Novick, in 2008.
 
Beginning in October, clinicians from various teaching and practice sites around Greater Cincinnati will once again gather for CPI's annual Invitational Seminar, a clinical case conference on material presented by Institute faculty and candidates. The Seminar, to be led by Ed Kohn, MD, has the goal of looking at the role of the therapist in developing the therapeutic alliance and in making interventions which deepen the therapeutic process.
 
Thanks for your continued support of CPI. Training psychoanalysts and other mental health professionals is both unique and greatly needed in greater Cincinnati and the tri-state region. We look forward to meeting the challenge of fulfilling our mission.