Read about DSPP’s history, purpose, and board.
“This year at DSPP, the therapist will take the stage… How did we come to be therapists, and why do we continue? What conscious and unconscious motives drew us to this profession? What fears, doubts, joys, surprises and regrets have emerged along the way? How do these experiences shift across the therapist’s life cycle—from the anxieties of beginning practice, to the complexities of mid-career, to the questions of legacy, limitation, and loss that come later?”
Melissa Wallace, MD
President to the Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology
Learn about membership benefits and options.
The Dallas Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology (DSPP) is the Dallas, Texas chapter of Division 39, the Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology of the American Psychological Association.
Founded in 1983, DSPP provides programming and events that promote exploring psychoanalytic theory and its applications as a basis for understanding human experience and for various forms of psychotherapy across many settings.
See our list of monthly meetings, seasonal workshops, and other events.
When the Patient Appears in the Therapist’s Dreams
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
— Hamlet
Steve Scherffius, MD will present on working therapeutically with the therapist’s dreams. (1.5 CEUs)
Date: Wednesday, January 20th, 2026: 7:30pm-9:00pm (Refreshments provided at 7:00pm)
Credits: 1.5 CE
Speakers: Steve Scherffius, MD
Meeting is both on Zoom & in-person at:
The Center for Integrative Counseling & Psychology
4305 MacArthur Ave.
Dallas, TX 75209
Zoom link will be sent out via registered email within 24 hours of meeting.
What Therapists Mourn: An Interactive Workshop
Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak
Whispers the o’erfraught heart and bids it break.
— Macbeth
Date: Saturday, February 27th, 2027 9AM-2PM
Credits: 4 CE
Speaker: Deborah Cabaniss, MD
Meeting is both on Zoom & in-person at:
**HIGHLY ENCOURAGED IN PERSON PARTICIPATION FOR EXPERIENCE**
The Center for Integrative Counseling & Psychology
4305 MacArthur Ave.
Dallas, TX 75209
In this interactive workshop, we will explore our general feelings about mourning, with a focus on the many things we mourn as therapists. We will review a model for thinking about mourning and then speak to one another about how and what we mourn during our clinical work. In our clinical practice, we continuously need to adjust to a reality that is not necessary what we hoped for. This is the work of mourning that we, as therapists, can learn to practice every day.
GAP IN KNOWLEDGE:
As therapists, we are generally taught about mourning from the perspective of the people with whom we work. This is often in the setting of loss of a loved one. Depending on our training, we may have studied this from multiple perspectives, including scientific, psychological, psychoanalytic, religious, and philosophical. Much more rarely, however, do we talk about the things that we, as therapists, mourn in the everyday work of clinical practice.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Afterparticipating in this interactive workshop, participants will
1. Be able to articulate many of the things that they, as therapists, mourn in clinical practice;
2. Be able to outline a model for thinking about the process of mourning
3. Feel more comfortable talking and thinking about their own process of mourning in clinical practice, and begin to think about developing a regular practice of mourning to enhance their clinical work.
PRESENTER BIOGRAPHY:
Deborah L. Cabaniss, M.D. is Professor Emerita of Clinical Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Until June of 2025, she was Associate Director of Residency Training in the Columbia Department of Psychiatry. She received her BA from Yale, her MD from Columbia, and completed her psychoanalytic training at Columbia. She has won numerous teaching awards and has over 60 publications related to psychotherapy education. In addition to her work in the US, Dr. Cabaniss has lectured and taught in Sweden, Norway, Japan, Korea and Canada, and her books, “Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Clinical Manual,” “Psychodynamic Formulation: An Expanded Approach,” and “Different Patients; Different Therapies” are used widely across the US and abroad. She is in private practice in Manhattan.
REFERENCES:
1. Parens, H (2001). We All Mourn: C’est La Condition Humane. In Akhtar, S (ed). Three Faces of Mouning, Jason Aronson, North Bergen NJ.
2. O’Connor, MF (2023). The Grieving Brain. Harper Collins, NY.
3. Alberini CM, Ledoux JE. Memory reconsolidation. Curr Biol. 2013 Sep 9;23(17):R746-50. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2013.06.046. PMID: 24028957.
The Middle Distance
Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be
— Hamlet
J Unterberg, PhD Carla Pulliam, PhD, and Scott Nelson, PhD will present on the therapist at midlife.
Date: Wednesday, March 24th, 2026: 7:30pm-9:00pm (Refreshments provided at 7:00pm)
Credits: 1.5 CE
Speakers: J Unterberg, PhD Carla Pulliam, PhD, and Scott Nelson, PhD
Meeting is both on Zoom & in-person at:
The Center for Integrative Counseling & Psychology
4305 MacArthur Ave.
Dallas, TX 75209
Zoom link will be sent out via registered email within 24 hours of meeting.
“Becoming is better than being.”
ABOUT DSPP
DSPP is a local chapter of the Division of Psychoanalysis, Division 39, of the American Psychological Association
Founded in 1983, DSPP directs its efforts to exploring and promoting psychoanalytic theory and its applications as a basis for understanding human experience and for various forms of psychotherapy.
DSPP's members come from a number of mental health fields and include psychologists, licensed professional counsellors, social workers, physicians, and students. DSPP emphasizes the application of psychoanalytic theory to a variety of clinical and social settings.
The Family Web
The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together
— All’s Well That Ends Well
Monica McGoldrick, MA, LCSW, PhD will discuss Freud’s genogram after hearing Radhi Dani, MD Sivan Peleg, MA, and Beverly Bonnheim, MSW present an imagined analysis of Freud at the ages of 29, 40, and 83. (1.5 CEUs)
Date: Wednesday, November 18th, 2026: 7:30pm-9:00pm (Refreshments provided at 7:00pm)
Credits: 1.5 CE
Speakers: Monica McGoldrick, MA, LCSW, PhD, Radhi Dani, MD Sivan Peleg, MA, and Beverly Bonnheim, MSW
Meeting is both on Zoom & in-person at:
The Center for Integrative Counseling & Psychology
4305 MacArthur Ave.
Dallas, TX 75209
Zoom link will be sent out via registered email within 24 hours of meeting.
Learning Objectives
Examine how studying Freud’s development throughout his life can deepen reflection on your own development.
Develop greater comfort with identifying and reflecting on your own blind spots.
Explore Freud’s genogram across his lifetime and its implications for his imagined roles as patient and therapist, using these insights to reflect on your own genogram and enhance your therapeutic practice.