Looking Forward
Gordon Cohen
Five work groups gathered during the Strategic Planning session during SW ’13 to determine our next long term goal. Neil Makstein helped to consolidate the reactions of his group, which are reported below.
This group focused on the question of promoting psychotherapy to the public, and unanimously decided that this issue should not become our next central goal. While the group expressed gratitude to those members who are devoting time and energy toward this end, whether as part of the RAP Committee, or as individuals in public forums, they did not feel that AAP should elevate this issue above some of the other strategic goals which are aimed at the growth of our own organization.
Letters to the media from our leaders and the RAP Committee have been attempted with the NY Times and elsewhere and these efforts are seen as a valuable contribution to our profession. But, the group did not believe it would be a good expenditure of the energy of the “group as a whole” to try to influence the general public in their perceptions about psychotherapy.
Most AAP members are also members of other professional organizations that have larger resources to devote to addressing the need for public education about psychotherapy. So while members are encouraged to use their other organizational affiliations (state associations, national professional groups like APA or NASW, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, etc.) to voice our concerns, this subgroup reached a consensus that AAP should focus more on the immediate internal organizational concerns. One area, however, that might be worth exploring further is whether we could have some positive influence in graduate school training programs for future psychotherapists, particularly when the focus is on one’s own practice.
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