Viewpoint - December 2023
IN THIS ISSUE
Holiday Cheer; Celebrate with TPI at “Winter Wanderland”
Rosalynn Carter; Activist, Humanitarian, Mental Health Advocate
World’s AIDS Day: Let Communities Lead
TPI’s 2023 Annual Fund
Hello TPI,
In my first days at the Institute, I rifled through the filing cabinets in the directors’ offices. I came across committee minutes, short biographies of former members, and bank statements from years ago. I also discovered back issues of TPI’s newsletter, VIEWPOINT. Those pages brought the history of the Institute to life. Resembling a newsletter / academic journal hybrid, VIEWPOINT included scholarly articles about psychodynamic psychotherapy, as well as reports on committee activities, board motions, and membership socials.
The periodical must have been a pride of TPI, so let’s celebrate this holiday season by reviving VIEWPOINT to share Institute happenings. Watch future issues to stay up on happenings at TPI. Reach out if you have news or perspectives to share. This issue is a holiday gift to our membership and the incredible volunteers who continue to make TPI a vibrant center of training and community.
Wishing all a joyous holiday season and a year filled with kindness, love, joy, and happiness.
With prayers for peace,
Jim
James Brandt, Executive Director
Holiday Cheer; Celebrate with TPI at “Winter Wanderland”
As December ushers in the Winter Holiday season, many of us are planning celebrations with family, chosen family, friends, or colleagues. Some are busy preparing their homes for guests; others are anticipating holiday travel or much needed time off. At TPI, we are busy preparing the Institute for our upcoming “Winter Wanderland” holiday party, charting through our training programs, planning the Spring Symposium, and recruiting instructors for an exciting line up of continuing education classes.
While we tend to focus on the joy of seasonal celebrations, we know that the holidays can also be a time of stress and anxiety. For some, time with family brings challenge; for others, empty seats at the holiday table stir memories of loss or estrangement. Acknowledging both holiday joy and challenge, this season is a time to come together to embrace hope and lift our spirits. Holiday traditions from many cultures include festivals filled with song, gift-giving, and traditions that kindle light against the darkness. Our celebrations have the potential to remind us of both the values we cherish and the blessings that bring our lives meaning.
TPI will gather at the Institute to celebrate the season at “TPI’s Winter Wanderland”, next Friday evening, December 8th. If ringing in the holiday season with your TPI friends and colleagues is not reason enough to attend, join us to wander through the Institute to experience holiday traditions from around the world:
Sip on a Stinger, a Kwanzaa cocktail that pays tribute to African American unity!
Taste some Diwali sweets and enjoy the beauty of the festival’s diyas (oil lamps)!
Nosh on Christmas cookies, peppermint bark, and Egg Nog!
Add your holiday wishes to TPI’s “Tree of Hopes and Dreams”!
Taste a Chanukah latke fried up by your own Executive Director!
Support the Institute by purchasing a special gift at TPI’s Holiday Gift Shop!
Invite your friends, bring your loved ones, gather the children, and schlep your reluctant colleagues. Your RSVP helps us not to have too, too many holiday treats, so if you haven’t already done so, please follow the link here to TPI’s Winter Wonderland to let us know that you will join us.
Remembering Rosalynn Carter:
Activist, Humanitarian, Mental Health Advocate
This week, we remember former first lady, Rosalyn Carter, passionate champion of mental health, care-giving, and women’s rights. During President Carter's administration, she served as honorary chair of the President's Commission on Mental Health. In that role, she helped bring about passage of the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980. With the founding of the Carter Center in 1982, Mrs. Carter continued to advocate for mental health services. She initiated the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy, the Carter Center Mental Health Task Force, and one of the most successful international programs in combating the stigma associated with mental illnesses. Mrs. Carter established the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers to address her concern for those who take care of people suffering from mental illnesses and other chronic illnesses. Mrs. Carter has received many honors and awards for her support of mental health causes including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor. She was an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. May the example of her work inspire us in ours and continue through the programs she initiated as an abiding tribute.
World AIDS Day 35: Let Communities Lead
Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day, a day for us to remember those we lost to AIDS and to renew our call to fund and enable the prevention and treatment of HIV. The theme of this year’s observation, the 35th World AIDS Day, “Let Communities Lead”, focuses attention on the organizations of communities living with, at risk of, or affected by people living with AIDS.
Communities connect people with health services, build trust, innovate, monitor implementation of policies and services, and hold providers accountable. Because of community action, great progress is being made, but community leadership is also being held back. Funding shortages, policy and regulatory hurdles, capacity constraints, and crackdowns on civil society and on the human rights of marginalized communities, are obstructing the progress of HIV prevention and treatment.
This World AIDS Day is more than a celebration of the achievements of communities; it is a call to action to enable and support communities in their leadership roles and to unleash the full potential of communities to enable the end of AIDS. For more information or to take action visit: sfaf.org
TPI’s 2023 Annual Fund
Thank you to all who have given generously to TPI’s Annual Fund! As we launch TPI’s next chapter and continue to recover from the pandemic, your gift this year is more important than ever. Over the coming month, our Development Committee will be focusing on raising the funds that support the Institute and enable us to provide high quality, cost-accessible psychotherapy to our community. To make a holiday gift to TPI, visit the Donation Page on our website by clicking here.
