Article archive / January 1, 2011
Originally published: . Volume 2, No. 5. Source pages: 1, 3, 4.
Dr. Carolyn Weyand, as a faculty member with the China American Psycho- analytic Alliance (CAPA), recently traveled to China to teach, lecture and attend the ceremony for CAPA’s first graduating class in Beijing. Carolyn, also an instructor with the New Orleans-Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center, is a psychologist and psychoanalyst who practices in the New Orleans area. Along with other CAPA faculty, Carolyn attended the graduation of the first class on October 24th, 2010 at Peking University in Beijing. The event marked the completion of CAPA’s two year psychotherapy training of 28 Chinese psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors. They were the first in their country to receive formal training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
“CAPA was organized three years ago,” Carolyn explained to the Times, “when Chinese mental health professionals pressed CAPA founder, Elise Snyder, MD, to develop a training program. She [Elise] responded to their requests by organizing a multi-disciplinary faculty of mental health professionals, developing a curriculum, and establishing criteria for graduation.” Over 200 experienced psychotherapists from around the Western world became involved in teaching, supervising and treating Chinese trainees. These Chinese psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors became the first group of psychotherapy students and CAPA’s first graduating class.
“Americans teaching psychotherapy to Chinese mental health professionals usually do it over Skype or ooVoo.” Carolyn noted. This fall marked the opportunity for the CAPA instructors to teach and lecture in person to their students in China.
Carolyn told the Times, “Chinese mental health professionals find themselves grappling with mental health treatment issues far beyond the traditions of their training. Exposure to Western psychotherapy theories and techniques, through readings and visiting lecturers, enlightened them to the breadth of possibilities potentially available to them in their work,” she explained. She noted that these possibilities “…piqued their curiosity, stimulating a demand for more thorough study, for training in psychotherapy.” Carolyn lectured at the Southwest University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, China. There she spoke to 150 Chinese graduate students, medical students and mental health professionals from psychiatry, psychology, nursing and counseling. She spoke on “The Therapeutic Alliance.” Carolyn also lectured in Shanghai at the East China Normal University to a similar audience, on “The Meaning of Therapeutic Neutrality.” The CAPA team also traveled to Xi’an and Kaifeng to provided additional presentations.
Carolyn explained that the training involves two years of coursework to study theory and technique, and supervision of two long-term psychotherapy cases. Also psychotherapy or psychoanalysis for the developing therapist is included in the training. “The long-term mission of CAPA,” Carolyn added, “is to assist the Chinese to develop their own faculty and to take over the program.”
“The social conditions in China, particularly the expansion of the middle class and an increase in personal freedoms, make mental health issues more visible,” she said. “Traditional methods for dealing with mental health problems which involved herbal medicines and acupuncture, have fallen away, giving rise to psychiatric practices resembling those of the West. Patients are treated with psychoactive medicines and attempts are made to counsel them and their families. The pioneering professionals knew enough to recognize the deficits in their treatment arsenal.”
Part of Carolyn’s trip included a tour of the Forbidden City, a hike around the Great Wall, and attending the Red Theatre production of Kung Fu, a story about a little boy who is raised by the Shoalin monks. She said, “The production quality, costumes, lighting…rivaled anything on Broadway…. We all left the theatre stunned by the show.”
Dr. Carolyn Weyand is a licensed clinical psychologist and a psychoanalyst and until recently served as Chair of Outreach and Scientific Education for the New Orleans- Birmingham Psychoanalytic Center. She is an occasional columnist for the Times.
Dr. Carolyn Weyand (L) and Wendy Wen, a Chinese psychologist and graduate of the first China American Psychoanalytic Alliance psychotherapy class. Dr. Carolyn Weyand had the opportunity to see Pandas, called “living fossils” by the Chinese because of their phylogenetically ancient status. The Pandas eat constantly.
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