Downtown Clinicians Collective
Hat tip to Ben Michaelis, Ph.D. and Alicia Webb Scott, Ph.D. for their efforts in developing the Downtown Clinicians Collective, which I’ve recently joined.
Posts from the ‘Professional Activities’ Category
Feb 21
Antioch University New England Alumni Notes
Antioch University New England Notes, Winter 2012
I thought you might be interested in a project I’ve been working on the past four years. I founded a coalition of New York psychologists and social workers, www.TherapySafetyNet.org. Our organization operates as a free referral service to help uninsured New Yorkers afford psychotherapy in private practice settings. Our target demographic is uninsured workers who would otherwise fall through the cracks–earning too much to qualify for Medicaid or other public programs, yet not insured by their employers. Membership in our coalition offers psychotherapists in private practice an organized way of fulfilling the ethical obligation to devote some portion of one’s practice to those in need for little or no compensation.
Geoffrey Steinberg CP (Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology) ’05
TherapySafetyNet Four-Year Anniversary Dinner
Psychologists and social workers who participate in TherapySafetyNet’s coalition of socially responsible therapists celebrated our organization’s four-year anniversary over dinner on October 2, 2011.
Main finding:
“Since its inception, TherapySafetyNet has served a valuable role in metropolitan New York by assisting prospective clients in finding mental health services they can afford. Of the 300 outcomes recorded since 2007, we have referred 103 uninsured clients to participating psychologists and social workers in private practice at significantly reduced fees, thus connecting uninsured New Yorkers with psychotherapy of a quality that would otherwise be inaccessible and unaffordable.”
Read the full report here: Therapy Safety Net: Four Year Outcome Evaluation of a Free Referral Service for Uninsured New Yorkers
MilestonesNYC meeting
In my role as director of TherapySafetyNet, met with leadership of MilestonesNYC to collaborate on shared organizational missions to increase access to mental health care for uninsured New Yorkers.
Conference: Dating, Mating, & Procreating
Attended the conference Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Dating, Mating & Procreating in 21st Century America at the William Alanson White Institute.
Psychology students in training: Private practice is alive and well.
I gave a talk last week to the pre-doctoral internship class at Pace University’s counseling center on how to get started in private practice.
All across the country little groups like this are running the last miles of the marathon that is doctoral training: internship, dissertation, post-doc hours, license exam. For many who aspire to become a psychologist, private practice is the ultimate destination.
Yet seldom in doctoral training is anyone taught what to do once they reach that destination. In fact, the opposite message is taught: many graduate programs discourage students from their dreams, going as far as saying private practice is dead.
I tried to counter this message, explaining how to navigate the contemporary environment of mental health care, taking into account the impacts of managed care and the internet on the business of private practice.
I believe the freedom and autonomy that come with private practice allow for the highest quality psychotherapy because in other environments–agencies, institutes, etc–bureaucracy and organizational demands have the potential to distract clinicians from the core of their work. Private practice allows us to give our full attention to clients and provides the freedom to work at our best.
The environment for psychologists in private practice has changed over the years, but if managed wisely those can bring vitality to our work. May the students I met last week hold onto their aspirations as they reach the final stretch.
