2010 Essay Competition Winner: Transformation at a community mental health centre

Abstract

The community mental health centre affords an opportunity for psychodynamic practice that is both challenging and rewarding. The experience of psychoanalytic education and supervision at a suburban mental health centre is described in terms of its transformative effect on the participants and the clinical setting. A parallel clinical transformative process is illustrated through an extended vignette of one client's experience in group psychotherapy. In both situations – that of the mental health team and that of the group therapy client – an initial jarring impact of the psychodynamic process gives way to a broad transformative experience.

Keywords:

• psychoanalytic supervision
• psychodynamic psychotherapy
• community mental health centre
• group psychotherapy

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Dr David Heilbrunn, and the colleagues and clients who were co-participants in the experiences described herein. The author also acknowledges the Fraser Health Authority for having funded and promoted psychodynamic training and supervision.