Inspired by Mary Watkins talk at the October 17, 2007 SB CAMFT luncheon, I was approached by several luncheon attendees about forming a group made up of SBCAMFT members interested in dialoguing about ways of furthering the scope of psychotherapy out towards community. In her presentation, Mary discussed the possibility that much of our psychological suffering goes beyond individual pathology and is more closely linked to the cultures and communities in which we reside. Working from a theme of “creating night vision”, Mary cited the work of psychoanalyst Neil Altman, who described the ability of psychoanalysis to critique society and probe the intrapsychic implications of culture. During her talk, Mary described the ways that we could imagine reorienting our practicing, teaching, training, and theorizing to strengthen this night vision which would include the confrontation of what has been normalized and taken for granted in our cultures.

Conversations of Our Time: Creating Pathways to Community

by Kathleen A. Barry, MFT., President,

Santa Barbara Chapter of Marriage and Family Therapists

Because I am an ecotherapist as well as a psychotherapist, I am committed to expanding my understanding of the many contexts that affect each individual, family and community. I have come to believe that we as therapists can no longer diagnose or treat "individual pathology" or even "family pathology" as if it were somehow disconnected from the health of nature or culture. Allowing our minds to explore these larger contexts can shift our foundational paradigms and radically expand our scope of practice. This can be a daunting and emotional process, so it's lovely to be part of a supportive local group of therapists with whom we can share the adventure!

My interest in expanding the scope of psychotherapy out towards the needs of community has been deeply inspired by my doctoral studies at Pacifica that merge the strengths of depth psychology with those of liberation psychology. The pioneering efforts of Freud and Jung at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century provide a valuable historical structure for depth psychology’s methodologies. From Freud’s work with free association and dream analysis, to Jung’s work with active imagination and dream interpretation, the field of depth psychology is rich with approaches to access the individual unconscious. However, many contemporary depth psychologists including Andrew Samuels (1993), Phillip Cushman (1995), and Lawrence Alschuler (2006), stress the criticality of depth psychology/psychotherapy seeing itself as an evolving tradition requiring continual renewal rather than a legacy that stays loyal to historical understandings.

With an over-emphasis on tending to the suffering of the individual psyche, a paralyzing disconnect has developed in our highly individualistic cultures which renders individuals unaware of community suffering. The creation of awareness and the design of social applications that can lead towards tending to the healing of community suffering is at the heart of linking depth psychological theories with those of liberation psychology. Ultimately the desire of this collaboration is to identify, understand and give voice to that which has been silenced or has not yet developed in both the intrapsychic life of the individual and the interpsychic lives of individuals. With the economic and ecological challenges we are facing individually and collectively, I believe we have come the "THE" critical time when reaching out to community is being demanded of the psychotherapeutic community. This is the time, an unfortunate perfect storm, to expand our efforts towards the needs of healing community.

As my ideas for Community Pathways began to materialize, I asked Linda Buzzell, MFT to join my efforts due to her work as an ecotherapist and psychotherapist.  For more information about Creating Community Pathways, please go to www.santabarbaratherapy.org.

From Linda Buzzell:

My current interest in how to create community pathways has been influenced by a new book from permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins called The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience. Based on his experience working with nearly 100 towns in the UK and abroad, Hopkins outlines a practical, step-by-step protocol for helping towns, neighborhoods or regions become more resilient in the face of the multiple challenges we now seem to be facing all at once: economic, environmental and social.

We are not asked to believe in a perfect world. We are asked to equip ourselves with courage, hope, readiness for hard work, and to cherish large and generous ideals

~  Emily Balch