The From the President Fall 2015 Board Gains Group Les Greene, PhD, CGP, LFAGPA ’ve become increasingly Iimpressed with how my Presidential powers are so, well, powerful. Let’s look at the evidence, as Circle we mental health The Newsletter of the professionals are American Group Psychotherapy Association prone to saying these days. Shortly and the International Board for Certification of before I gave my inaugural Presidential Group Psychotherapists address at AGPA’s Annual Meeting in Boston in 2014, the Red Sox had won the World Series. A year later, A Lacanian View on the Psychoanalytic Group: An as the late Yogi Berra would have Interview with Macario Giraldo, PhD, CGP said, it was déjà vu over again, as I presided over AGPA’s Annual Meeting Alexis Abernethy, PhD, CGP, FAGPA, Institute Co-Chair in San Francisco, home of the newly Steven Van Wagoner, PhD, CGP, FAGPA, Editor, The Group Circle crowned World Series champs—the San Francisco Giants. Mere coincidence? I think not! Let’s see what happens in our Editor’s Note: Macario Giraldo, PhD, CGP, will kick the unconscious. I begin to upcoming 2016 Annual Meeting in New off AGPA’s Annual Meeting with a Special Institute pay attention to certain words, York City. As this issue goes to press, both the Mets and the Yankees are at on From the Discourse of the Other to the Discourse certain phrases, gestures, the top of their divisions in their respec- with Others: A Lacanian View on the Psychoanalytic behaviors, that in Lacanian tive leagues and therefore most likely to Group. Dr. Giraldo came to the United States with a theory we call signifiers, be in the playoffs. It even seems possi- Fulbright scholarship to Georgetown University in 1961. which are units of organizing ble that the World Series will be a show- He obtained his Masters in applied linguistics in early meaning. I may invite some- down between these two iconic New 1964, and as part of his thesis, wrote two textbooks body, to tell us more about the York teams, which, of course, means that one of them will become the next for the teaching of English at the elementary level in word “afraid,” for example, World Series champs. If this comes the schools of his native Colombia, which were used that seems to recur in the nar- to pass, I’ll be using my official AGPA in many schools for some time. Dr. Giraldo has been a rative. I may sometimes invite gavel for the last time in the same town Faculty Member of the Washington School of Psychiatry the group-as-a-whole to give as baseball’s best team. since the early 70s, and is the Founding Member of the some thought to what somebody said in a casual way, to Now many, if not most, of you are Lacanian Forum of Washington, DC. He is the author of help the group and the group member to get into what likely skeptical that I had anything The Dialogues In/Of the Group: Lacanian Perspectives is not casual about it. In this process I am attempting to to do with these coinciding events between our AGPA Annual Meeting on the Psychoanalytic Group, the first book applying move the group member and the group to the dialogue and the World Series. Perhaps you Lacanian psychoanalysis to the psychoanalytic group. OF the group, the dialogue of the unconscious. The are right; perhaps my powers as your Dr. Giraldo has conducted numerous institutes at AGPA prepositions IN and OF are related to a very important AGPA President are more limited. But and has presented in the United States, Europe, and distinction between the object IN desire vs. the Object there is one prediction that I can make South America over the past 20 years. OF desire. The object OF desire is the lost object. The with complete confidence and that object IN desire is any object that comes as a semblance is that our forthcoming 2016 Annual Meeting—Transformation in Group: AA: What is the focus of your Special to cover that void. From Isolation to Connection—will be Institute? I will present Lacan’s three registers: Imaginary, a winner. As you can now see on our MG: I will apply central Lacanin concepts to the Symbolic, and Real and how I apply them to the work website, the Annual Meeting Committee work with the psychoanalytic group. I will address how with the group. My concept of dialogues in versus dia- has crafted an exceptional lineup of the work with the unconscious in the group transforms logues of will be presented and demonstrated. Desire, mental health experts and masters the subject from the one to the multiple, and from the jouissance, and unconscious will be the core of the of group psychotherapy presenting an multiple to the one. Participants will strengthen their day’s work. exciting array of plenaries, institutes, open sessions, colloquia, workshops, ability to use language in their clinical work. I am interested in helping clinicians contrast the and our large group event, all designed function of the pleasure principle as presented to us by to enhance our technical skills and SVW: Can you say a little more about how you Freud with Lacan’s concept of jouissance. Through this professional competencies, deepen our accomplish this in a group? concept, Lacan has enriched the understanding of the continued on page 4 MG: We can say that in the group members begin to unconscious and its manifestations in the symptom. The enter into different language interpretations according question of the truth of the subject is intimately tied to to their particular background. This constitutes the dia- it. This may bring an important discussion on what do logue IN the group. Group members are thrown into dif- we call normal and its implications in treatment. What’s Inside ferent ego states. What I do and most therapists do is to Practice Matters 2 act as mediators, trying to bring awareness of differences SVW: Can you tell us what Lacan meant by Mindfulness 3 and similarities and ways to bridge those different states. jouissance and how it relates to the “truth of New Fellows 4 This mediation reflects different styles depending on the the subject”? Group Assets Insert particular theory the therapist follows. MG: This concept has revolutionized the psychoana- New York, New York 5 I hear this dialogue as the dialogue of the ego, not lytic clinic. Jouissance is enjoyment. But it is a complex Consultation, Please 7 continued on page 6 necessarily the dialogue of the subject, the subject of Affiliate Society News 8 Practice Matters The Group Circle is Eleanor Counselman, EdD, ABPP, CGP, LFAGPA published four times a year by the American Group Psychotherapy Association, Inc. and the International arooq Mohyuddin, MD, CGP, FAPA, has joined me ders; describing competent group therapy and the training Board for Certification of Group as Co-Chair of the Public Affairs Committee. Dr. necessary to provide it; and interesting attendees in group Psychotherapists. FMohyuddin is the Chair of Psychiatry Training and therapy training. Editor Education and the Director of the Psychiatry Residency In May, AGPA received the disappointing news that Steven Van Wagoner, PhD, CGP, FAGPA Program at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital/DC Department of the American Psychological Association again rejected Behavioral Health and Past President of the Mid-Atlantic Editorial Staff the petition to have group therapy recognized as a spe- Michael Hegener, MA, LCP, FAGPA Group Psychotherapy Society. cialty. This was despite dozens of positive comments on Kathy Reedy, MSW, MFT, BCD, CADC, CGP The Public Affairs Committee continues pursuing the the petition when it was posted for public comments. Many Managing Editor possibility of a 90853 CPT code review and revision. We reasons were given for its decision, including lack of any Marsha Block, CAE, CFRE are all painfully aware of how group therapy reimburse- organized sequence of education and training for psycholo- Editorial/Production Managers ment rates have declined over the years. The Center for gists pursuing a group therapy specialty, inadequate meth- Nicole Millman-Falk Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sets its CPT code ods of evaluation of competency, and lack of psychologist- Angela Stephens, CAE reimbursement rates, and most insurance companies then specific group therapy practice guidelines. The Group AGPA follow suit. AGPA knows this is a very important issue for Specialty Council, along with Tony Sheppard, PsyD, CGP, 25 East 21st Street, 6th floor New York, NY 10010 members, so it is looking into what it would take to get FAGPA, Chair of the International Board for Certification phone: 212-477-2677 CMS to review group therapy reimbursement, as well as of Group Psychotherapists, and Marsha Block, CAE, toll-free: 877-668-AGPA pressing for a CPT code review. CFRE, AGPA’s CEO, has been discussing whether to reap- fax: 212-979-6627 AGPA, working with the American Psychiatric ply and if so, how to address the criticisms. These efforts e-mail: [email protected] www.agpa.org Association, is exploring possible revisions like devel- reflect a growing partnership between APA Division 49 oping modifier codes to the 90853, or creating separate (Group Psychology and Psychotherapy), the American Advertising Rates codes for group sessions of different lengths. Currently Board of Professional Psychology, and AGPA, relation- Display Ad Sizes there is no time definition for 90853, and in that respect, ships that will be significant no matter what the outcome Width/Height Cost it is different from other CPT psychotherapy codes. The of the petition process. Despite this particular setback, Full Page difference may provide a strong rationale for review.