The 2012 Collection of Honor Your Mentor Essays
The 2012 Winning Essay
Keith Rand in Honor of Priscilla Kauff
Honoring my Mentor: Priscilla Kauff, Ph.D., DFAGPA
Little did I know when I enrolled in the Washington School’s two-year National Group Psychotherapy Institute in 2004 that my group work, indeed all of my clinical work, would go through such a radical revisioning. I had merely expected to develop a deepened level of competence as a group leader. But when Priscilla Kauff was invited by Macario Giraldo to present one weekend, and within only a few minutes of her speaking to us, I knew that she was someone very special.
Whether it was her warmth, the certainty with which she cleaved to her theory, or the clarity with which she explained working analytically as a group therapist (in itself, a radical idea to me, given what I had heard about contaminating transferences in my studies at a Los Angeles psychoanalytic institute), she had me in the palm of her hand. I leaned towards my friend and whispered, "I'm not sure if I want to be in treatment with that lady or whether I wish she had been my mother."
Several months later in Austin, I enrolled in Priscilla's workshop, The Group from Hell, because one of my three groups WAS that group. The level of competence in the room intimidated me, but Priscilla was very encouraging and by the workshop's end, much of my anxiety had dissipated. She recognized in me something I couldn't see clearly in myself, something to do with my readiness for more complex thinking about group process than anything I’d previously known. This is the true mark of a mentor – seeing your potential in a way that outstrips your own self image.
Despite our living on opposite coasts, she agreed to consult with me by Skype, which I’ve done for the last five years. My work has deepened enormously, my group and individual clients have both benefited from the change, and I have moved towards my goal of becoming more of a “master group therapist”. She has cared about me personally, has encouraged me to step out -- to supervise a student in China and to teach and supervise more -- but mostly she’s loved me into a better group therapist. I am and will always be eternally grateful for Priscilla’s mentoring.
- Keith Rand, LMFT, CGP, FAGPA
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Robert Schulte in Honor of John Dluhy
I want to recognize John Dluhy, M.D., CGP, FAGPA as a mentor who has been instrumental in my development as a group therapist, writer and theater director. I also want to recognize John for his personal authenticity and passionate commitment to his own work, whether he’s in the consulting room, classroom or on the stage. I’ve had the considerable privilege of witnessing John practice in all three venues. His example of excellence is a universal kind of mentoring that is a gift to anyone who has the chance to work with him.
Although John has opened many professional doors on my behalf, it is our ongoing collaboration as founding members of the Red Well Theater Group, a troupe of Washington, D.C. therapists using theater to teach principles of dynamic group therapy that continues to be of singular importance in my professional life. The RWTG project, with all its attendant risks and opportunities, has been bolstered by John’s unique blend of talent, personal example, intentional mentorship and collegiality, for which I am deeply grateful. John has been acting in plays, television and films for over sixty years, an impressive shadow professional career that he has pursued concurrently with his primary professional career as a psychiatrist. He is a past president of the Mid-Atlantic Group Psychotherapy Society and is highly regarded as a longstanding faculty member at AGPA Annual Meetings. He is well known for his many contributions in the fields of psychoanalytic psychiatry and group therapy as a leader, teacher, writer and master therapist.
Members of the group therapy community know of John’s acting talents through RWTG performances at AGPA and other conference settings. His character roles have included Marc in ‘ART’, Don in Rounding Third, Edward in Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Charlie in Off the Map, Howie in Rabbit Hole, Van in Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead and Alan in God of Carnage. Behind the scenes, John has been instrumental in helping shape our unique project of using performances, workshops and play reading study groups to learn about dynamic group therapy. Beyond his acting gifts, John’s enthusiasm, attunement and commitment to the process of developing a cohesive work group have been very important to our success and longevity. I watch. I learn. I marvel.
I’d like to share a personal anecdote as testament to John’s abiding interest in the professional growth of this colleague. A few years ago I was invited to submit a journal article for a special issue of Group on the topic of Lacan and group therapy. Even though I had not yet written for publication, I accepted the invitation confident that the nearly two years to deadline would be enough time to ensure success. Wrong. My premise of using the stage play ‘ART’, by Yasmina Reza, to illustrate Lacanian concepts applied to group therapy turned out to be something akin to a novice skier choosing a black diamond ski-mountain to make his first downhill run! After struggling for a year to produce about twenty pages of text, I finally had the good sense to read the first draft to John for comments. After reading aloud the first two pages, John commented, “wow, that was really nice”. Emboldened, I continued on with the next eighteen pages. Let’s just say the published version kept the first two pages unaltered. I went home that afternoon and decided to delete the last eighteen pages, with a calm acceptance that something different was needed and that I would find it. John knew me well enough to balance his response to the full breadth of my paper with a sensitivity that avoided the pitfalls of shame and defeat but with a fully informed and educative approach that would guide me down the unfamiliar and very slippery slope of academic writing. His very disciplined yet compassionate guidance was vintage Dluhy. John also knew the play ‘ART’ very well, having played all three roles of Marc, Yvan and Serge in various repertory productions and rehearsals for the Red Well Theater Group. John’s breadth of knowledge about group therapy, theater, and Lacan is encyclopedic, and I was the beneficiary. The article was successfully published in the March 2010 issue of Group. I presented John with a framed copy of the article’s cover page with a note of sincere thanks.
When I recently watched John deliver Marc’s final monologue in ‘ART’ at a performance for a Saint Elizabeth Hospital Residency Training Day, I felt an extra poignancy knowing what I had accomplished with his mentoring guidance. From the audience I watched John transform Marc’s contempt for a painting he did not like or understand into a humbling moment of self-recognition and courage. I watched. I learned. I marveled.
MARC: “Under the white clouds, snow is falling. You can’t see the white clouds or the snow. Or the cold, or the white glow of the earth. A solitary man glides downhill on his skis. The snow is falling. It falls until the man disappears back into the landscape. My friend Serge, who’s one of my oldest friends, has bought a painting. It’s a canvas about five feet by four. It represents a man who moves across a space then disappears”. (Reza, 1996).
I am honored to know John Dluhy as mentor, fellow thespian, colleague and friend.
Bravo, John!
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