Candidates for Area 2 Trustee

Private Practice, Psychiatry/Psychoanalysis, 1985-

Chair, APA Committee on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues, 2000-; Member, APA Council on Minority Mental Health and Health Disparities, 2002-

William Alanson White Institute: Training Analyst, 2001-; Supervising Analyst, 1999-

Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, SUNY-Downstate, 1987-

New York County District Branch, APA: President, 2000-01; Secretary, 1995-99; Ethics Committee, 1995-2000; Newsletter Editor, 2001-

American Academy of Psychoanalysis: Trustee, 1997-2000; Fellow, 1992-

If elected Area 2 trustee, I hope to bring to the APA Board a high degree of enthusiasm, much energy for creative work, a focus on outreach to our members and the public, and proven experience as an effective, professional activist.

Like many APA members, I am in full-time private practice. APA, its members, and our patients face many important challenges in the near future. These include challenges to patient-physician autonomy from third parties, including insurance companies and governmental agencies, and challenges to the psychiatric model of treatment from organized psychology seeking prescribing privileges.

I also spent the first nine years of my postresidency career working in the public sector in an urban setting in Brooklyn (SUNY–Downstate). I am well acquainted with the concerns of APA members making heroic efforts for underserved populations.

I have worked within APA governance at the district branch, Area 2, and national levels. In the New York County District Branch (NYC DB), I served on the Committees on Ethics and AIDS, later became DB secretary for four years, and then president. Currently I serve as the NYC DB's newsletter editor. I also chair the DB's Task Force on Constitution and By-Laws, which recently made necessary legal changes to bring the DB constitution in line with those of the national APA.

At the state level, I was an associate editor of the New York State Psychiatric Association (NYSPA) Bulletin. I now chair NYSPA's Professions Bill Workgroup, which has been interfacing with state regulators regarding the licensing of four new mental health professions—including psychoanalysts—in New York state. In this role, I have effectively collaborated with representatives of numerous psychoanalytic organizations, both state and national, concerned that the final regulations for licensing psychoanalysts will protect the public interest.

At the national level, I am currently chair of APA's Committee on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Concerns and a member of the Council on Minority Mental Health and Mental Health Disparities. I served on APA's Committee on the Abuse of Psychiatry and Psychiatrists and in the APA Assembly as deputy rep from the Caucus of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Psychiatrists.

I did psychoanalytic training at the William Alanson White Institute, where I am now training and supervising analyst. I am an elected member of White's policymaking body, the Council of Fellows.

My scholarly work has garnered interest in both the U.S. and abroad. I have authored a book, Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man (The Analytic Press, 1998). I have co-edited 10 scholarly books pertaining to issues of psychotherapy, gender, and sexuality. One of them, Sexual Conversion Therapies, won the 2002 “Best Book on GLB Psychology” from the Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues. I am editor in chief of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy, and to date I have edited three books in the Analytic Press book series, Bending Psychoanalysis.

I am a member of the AMA, the Medical Society of the State of New York, and the New York County Medical Society. I am a member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (past chair, Committee on Human Sexuality), the American College of Psychiatrists, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, and the International Academy of Sex Research. I am fellow and former trustee (1997-2000) of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis.

I am known for a proven capacity for hard work and getting the job done. As Area 2 trustee, I will represent the voice of private practitioners, those who are in the “trenches” in the public sector and, of course, our patients.