The Clinician Vol. 48, No. 2, 2017 Fall

T H E  N E W S L E T T E R  O F  T H E  N E W  Y O R K  S TAT E  S O C I E T Y  F O R  C L I N I C A L  S O C I A L  W O R K
FALL 2017 | VOL. 48, NO. 2
IN THIS ISSUE 
3
SAVE THE DATE
March 24, 2018
NYSSCSW’S 50TH 
Anniversary Party
5
SAVE THE DATE
April 21, 2018
Annual Education
Conference
15
Tribute to Hillel Bodek
16
Art of Relationships
Conference Reviews
19
Eating Disorders
Healing with Laughter 
20
Book Review:
Bereavement Theory
Challenges to Practice	
1
Student Scholarships	
7
Impact of ACA Repeal	
9 
Two New Diplomates	
10
www.nysscsw.org 
Two New Diplomates
At the October 2017 Annual Meeting, 
two distinguished Society members 
were honored as Diplomates. They are 
(l.) Lisa Miller, LCSW-R and Janice Gross, 
LCSW, pictured with Richard Joelson, 
DSW, LCSW.
READ MORE ON PAGE 10
Photo: Orhan Akkurt
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
A
s I begin my eleventh year of 
writing about the business 
of professional practice, I 
am struck by all the complex issues 
that psychotherapists have had to 
confront over the last decade. Listed 
below are some key developments 
and how you have handled them.
Your ability to adapt has been 
tested time after time, yet you have 
remained resilient, proving that 
success goes to the dedicated profes­
sional, the life-long learner. With the 
support of the NYSSCSW, clinical 
VENDORSHIP AND MANAGED CARE COMMITTEE 
Challenges to Our Practice: 
A Ten-Year Look Back
By Helen T. Hoffman, MSW, LCSW, Chair
social workers have risen to each 
challenge and surely will continue 
to do so.
New technology: Many of you have 
become technologically savvy. You 
have begun filing claims on line and, 
in the process, you have developed 
written privacy policies required by 
HIPAA. Some clinicians have mas­
tered record keeping software, and 
many can now accept electronic 
and credit card payments, or deposit 
checks electronically from their 
cell phones. 
2  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
NEW YORK
STATE
SOCIETY
FOR
CLINICAL
SOCIAL
WORK,
INC.
The New York State Society for Clinical Social Work, Inc.
2017 NYSSCSW BOARD OF DIRECTORS
STATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
President 	
Shannon Boyle, LCSW 	
shannonboyle@hotmail.com
1st Vice President 	
Andrew Daly, LCSW-R 	
apdalylcsw@msn.com
2nd Vice President 	
Richard B. Joelson, DSW, LCSW 	
rbjoelson@aol.com
Recording Secretary 	
Helen H. Krackow, LCSW, BCD 	
hhkrackow@gmail.com
Treasurer	
Chris Ann Farhood, LCSW 	
chrisfarhood@yahoo.com
Past President 	
Marsha L. Wineburgh, DSW, LCSW-R	
mwineburgh@aol.com
MEMBERS-AT-LARGE
Nassau 	
Patricia Traynor, LCSW	
ptraynor@optonline.net
Rockland 	
Dore Sheppard, Ph.D., LCSW 	
doreshep@yahoo.com
Staten Island 	
Joyce Daly, LCSW-R 	
jdalylcsw@msn.com
Westchester 	
Martin Lowery, LCSW-R 	
mlowery@maryknoll.org
CHAPTER PRESIDENTS (P) & VOTING REPS (VR)
Metropolitan P. 	
Karen Kaufman, Ph.D., LCSW 	
karenkaufman17@gmail.com
Mid-Hudson P. 	
Rosemary Cohen, LCSW	
rosemarycohen@gmail.com
Nassau P.	
Joseph Reiher, LCSW, BCD 	
mitygoodtherapy@gmail.com
Queens P. 	
Lynne O’Donnell, LCSW-R, ACSW	
odonnell80@gmail.com
Rockland P. 	
Orsolya Clifford, LCSW-R 	
ovadasz@optonline.net
Staten Island P. 	
Janice Gross, LCSW, ACSW	
JGross1013@aol.com
Suffolk P. 	
Sandra Jo Lane, LCSW-R, BCD, CGP	
sjlsunshine@aol.com
Westchester Co-Ps. 	
Jody Porter, LCSW 	
jodyp100@aol.com
	
Roberta Rachel Omin, LCSW	
goodomin@gmail.com
STATE COMMITTEE CHAIRS
By-Laws 	
Beth Pagano, LCSW 	
Bethpagano678@msn.com
Creativity & Neuro-Psycho-Ed.	
Sandra Indig, LCSW, ATR-BC 	
psych4arts@hotmail.com
Ethics & Professional Standards	
Martin Lowery, LCSW 	
mlowery@maryknoll.org
Friday E-News	
Helen T. Hoffman, LCSW 	
helenhoffman@verizon.net
General Membership Meeting	
Dore Sheppard, Ph.D., LCSW 	
doreshep@yahoo.com
Issues of Aging	
Helen Hinckley Krackow, LCSW, BCD	
hhkrackow@gmail.com
	
Henni K. Fisher, LCSW, BCD	
henni@hennifisher.com
Leadership 	
Beth Pagano, LCSW 	
bethpagano678@msn.com
Legislative 	
Marsha Wineburgh, DSW, LCSW-R	
mwineburgh@aol.com
Listserv	
Marsha Wineburgh, DSW, LCSW-R	
mwineburgh@aol.com 
Membership 	
Richard B. Joelson, DSW, LCSW 	
rbjoelson@aol.com
Mentorship 	
Helen Hinckley Krackow, LCSW, BCD	
hhkrackow@gmail.com
Newsletter – The Clinician	
Helen Hinckley Krackow, LCSW, BCD	
hhkrackow@gmail.com
Vendorship & Managed Care 	
Helen T. Hoffman, LCSW 	
helenhoffman@verizon.net
Website – www.NYSSCSW.org	
Helen T. Hoffman, LCSW 	
helenhoffman@verizon.net
The Advanced Clinical Education Foundation of the NYSSCSW
2017 ACE FOUNDATION BOARD AND OFFICERS
President	
Karen Kaufman, Ph.D., LCSW-R 	
Karenkaufman17@gmail.com
Treasurer 	
Marsha Wineburgh, DSW, LCSW-R	
mwineburgh@aol.com
Secretary	
Amy Meyers, Ph.D., LCSW	
amymeyers2002@yahoo.com
Members-at-Large	
Shannon Boyle, LCSW, President NYSSCSW	
Shannonboyle@hotmail.com
	
Richard B. Joelson, DSW, LCSW-R 	
rbjoelson@aol.com 
	
Greg MacColl, LCSW	
gregmaccoll@aol.com
	
Joseph Reiher, LCSW, BCD	
mitygoodtherapy@gmail.com
Director of Professional 
Development	
Susan A. Klett, Psy.D., LCSW-R, BCD	
SuzanneKlett@aol.com
NYSSCSW Headquarters
Administrators:
Sheila Guston, Kristin Kuenzel
243 Fifth Avenue, Suite 324
New York, NY 10016-8703
Tel: 800-288-4279
Email: info.nysscsw@gmail.com
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  3
T
he past year has been a busy 
one for all the hardworking 
Society members who volun­
teer their time and expertise to keep 
us moving. I would like to take this 
opportunity to recognize those who 
have served on the State Board of 
Directors last year as elected Board 
Members, Chapter Presidents and 
State Committee Chairs. Their con­
tributions make it possible for this 
organization to function successfully.
Elections for upcoming vacancies 
on the State Board were held at the 
October 2017 Annual Membership 
Meeting. Congratulations and special 
thanks to the candidates elected to 
serve for two-year terms, beginning 
January 1, 2018. They are: Andrew 
Daly, LCSW-R, First Vice President; 
Chris Ann Farhood, LCSW, Treasurer; 
Patricia Traynor, LCSW, Member-at-
Large (Nassau Chapter); and Joyce 
Daly, LCSW-R, Member-at-Large, 
(Staten Island Chapter).
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Published twice yearly by the
New York State Society for Clinical Social Work, Inc.
243 Fifth Avenue, Suite 324, New York, NY 10016
Website: www.NYSSCSW.org / Tel: 1-800-288-4279
Ivy Miller, Newsletter Editor
3 Sunset Drive, Sag Harbor, NY 11963
E-Mail: ivy.lee.miller@gmail.com / Tel: 631-725-9845
Helen Hinckley Krackow, Newsletter Chair
Ad Deadlines: March 15 and October 15
HAVE YOU SAVED ANY ITEMS
FROM OUR EARLY YEARS?
We are collecting materials to help trace the Society’s 
five decades of achievement as we celebrate the our 
50th anniversary in 2018.
Do you have photos, documents, letters, audio/video 
recordings, newsletters, brochures, or anything else of 
historical interest in your files?
If so, we’d appreciate hearing from you.
Please contact Kristen Kuenzel at 800-288-4279 or 
info.nysscsw@gmail.com.
Thank You!
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
State of the Society 2017
By Shannon Boyle, LCSW, President
I am honored to have been elected 
President for a second term of office. 
According to our procedures, I will 
be President and President Elect 
next year, until my first term ends on 
December 31, 2018. My second term 
will begin on January 1, 2019 and last 
through December 31, 2021.
We have much to celebrate as we 
approach the end of the year. The ACE 
Foundation of NYSSCSW has grown, 
and now offers over 200 approved 
programs, providing opportunities to 
earn continuing education (CE) con­
tact hour credits at reduced rates for 
our members. 
In this issue of The Clinician, 
you will find reviews of last spring’s 
48th Annual Education Conference, 
a well-attended success. In the 
Headquarters report, you’ll find details 
about the updates to the Society’s 
website that make it more user 
friendly and helpful to our members. 
You can also get an overview of our 
SAVE THE DATE
Saturday, March 24, 2018
NYSSCSW’s 
50th Anniversary
Celebration Cruise
Please join us for a festive afternoon 
aboard the yacht Atlantica, departing 
from Chelsea Piers for a three-hour 
cruise around lower Manhattan. We 
will enjoy panoramic views, a delicious 
brunch, and the camaraderie of 
colleagues and friends.
More details coming soon.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
4  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
profession in New York State and support the thou­
sands of social workers here. This is a tremendous feat. 
Our celebratory year will be marked with special 
events, programs and remembrances of the many 
members and volunteers who have made our success 
possible. We hope you will join us. More information 
will be available in the coming months and throughout 
the year. As Society President, I look forward to our 
continued work together.
Sincerely,
Shannon Boyle, LCSW
President’s Message, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
President Shannon Boyle and speaker 
Debbie Hutchinson
Dennis Guttsman and Helen Hoffman
Friends
Barbara Lidsky, Greg MacColl and Helen Krackow
Friend, Marsha Wineburgh, Helen Krackow and Martin Lowery
legislative and membership recruitment efforts, and 
the work of our chapters and committees, in the issue. 
Please take the time to read about the tremendous 
efforts of our Vendorship & Managed Care Committee 
featured here. Long-serving committee Chair Helen 
Hoffman has done yeoman’s work in steering its prog­
ress and assisting members facing a myriad of chal­
lenges. She has tackled each issue with intelligence, 
serenity, grace and unlimited energy, making difficult 
situations a bit more manageable. On behalf of the 
Society and all of us who have benefited, I extend special 
thanks to Helen for leading the charge for so many years. 
We are excited to look ahead to 2018, when we 
will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the New York 
State Society for Clinical Social Work. We have accom­
plished so much over five decades to advance our 
At the 2017 Annual Membership Meeting
Photos: Orhan Akkurt
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  5
T
he Advanced Clinical Education (ACE) Foundation of New York 
State Society for Clinical Social Work (NYSSCSW) continues to 
thrive, with over 205 programs approved, including some that 
have been repeated due to popular demand. 
ACE is approved to provide continuing education (CE) contact 
hour credit for licensing to LMSWs, LCSWs, LPs, LMFTs and LMHCs 
within New York State. In addition, ACE covers the continuing educa­
tion needs of LMSWs and LCSWs in every state in the country. Please 
be sure to visit our website for program updates. 
49th Education Conference
Planning is underway for NYSSCSW’s 49th Annual Education 
Conference, co-sponsored by the ACE Foundation. Scheduled to take 
place on Saturday, April 21, 2018 in New York City, the conference 
will address the needs of clinicians working with various populations 
through all the stages of development, and will examine the fears and 
joys of each rite of passage. 
• Jack Novick, M.A., Ph.D., and Kerry Kelly Novick will present 
Going to Big School—What Does This Mean? 
• Neil Altman, Ph.D. will present The Evolution of 
Adolescence(ts): Challenges and Dilemmas, New and Old. 
• Elissa K. West, LCSW will present Being in Time: The Problem 
of Hope in Older Adulthood, the Last Developmental Frontier. 
The topic and speaker for early-through-late mid-life will be 
announced. The brochure for this outstanding conference will be 
mailed by early January, posted on the ACE Foundation website, and 
highlighted in The Clinician.
Office Courses
If you have an interest in running an office course for CE contact 
hour credit for licensing, and you meet the requirement of special 
training in the field and teaching experience at a master level univer­
sity of social work or a psychoanalytic institute, kindly send your pro­
posal to me, Dr. Susan Klett, Director of Professional Development, 
ACE Foundation via email to suzanneklett@aol.com.
I look forward to your continued interest in our programs and 
would love to hear from you about any topics for courses that you feel 
would enhance your clinical practice and professional development. 
ACE Foundation News 
www.ace-foundation.net 	
By Susan A. Klett, Psy.D., LCSW-R, BCD, Director of Professional Development
SAVE THE DATE
Saturday, April 21, 2018
The 49th Annual 
Education 
Conference
Co-sponsored by NYSSCSW 
and the ACE Foundation
The conference will address the 
needs of clinicians working with 
various populations through all 
the stages of development, and 
will examine the fears and joys of 
each rite of passage. 
Continuing Education (CE) credits 
will be available.
Expected speakers:
Jack Novick, M.A., Ph.D. and 
Kerry Kelly Novick
Neil Altman, Ph.D.
Elissa K. West, LCSW
More information will be available soon.
6  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
Medicare is moving toward electronic record keep­
ing but does not yet require it. However, it does require 
acceptance of Electronic Funds Transfers instead of 
paper checks, and a recent new requirement is that all 
claims be typed. Commercial insurance plans have 
also been “going green,” exerting increasing pressure 
to manage all authorizations and claims online or 
accept EFTs in payment. You have adapted to these 
changes well.
Beyond purely business issues, psychotherapists 
have been confronting ethical issues that arise with the 
use of social media, email, texting and video coun­
seling. The best 
solutions are still 
under debate.
Parity laws: 
With the introduc­
tion of Timothy’s 
Law in 2007, you 
have learned 
which diagnoses 
(e.g., biological­
ly-based) are most 
likely to be cov­
ered by insurance. 
As insurance 
companies began 
to rely on “med­
ical necessity” to manage costs, fewer plans required 
OTRs. However, the telephone review became a tool 
commonly used by companies to limit sessions. Out-
of-network providers have felt targeted by demands for 
interviews. You have learned how to prepare for them 
well and to justify your work with patients.
Coding changes: You have absorbed the changes 
that came with the new DSM-5, and learned to use 
new ICD-10 diagnostic codes on your claim forms. 
Confusingly, the changes in October 2014 came one 
year after changes in the procedural codes (CPT 
codes).
Massive data collection: In 2010, as a result of the 
Affordable Care Act, Medicare rolled out the highly 
frustrating Physicians Quality Reporting System 
(PQRS). It required Medicare providers to document 
the evaluation of specific conditions (e.g., tobacco use) 
Vendorship and Managed Care Committee 
www.nysscsw.org/vendorship-and-managed-care-committee	
By Helen T. Hoffman, MSW, LCSW, Chair
on each claim or else face penalties. You spent many 
hours learning how to comply. Although this program 
ended in 2017, social workers will have to deal with its 
successor, the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, 
beginning in 2019.
Falling reimbursement rates: Medicare’s allowed rate 
for 90804 went from $76.62 in 2007 to $69.62 in 2017 
($68.51 with Sequestration). You have seen commer­
cial insurance rates drop as well, sometimes after 
one company was absorbed by another (for example, 
Oxford by UBH and HIP by Emblem). You have made 
your choices, either staying on or dropping off some 
insurance panels. You have also learned to be tough 
with MultiPlan’s attempts at “repricing,” rejecting their 
offer of prompt payment for a discounted rate. 
Higher deductibles: As insurance plans have created 
ever higher deductibles, the financial burden of therapy 
has shifted to the consumer. High deductibles often 
cause premature termination of treatment, and the issue 
requires a careful response from you. You have been 
educating your patients to expect to pay the full fee in 
the early part of the year, because insurance companies 
will deny payment until the deductible is met.
Over the last ten years, the Committee has been 
following these other important issues:
Workers Compensation: The NYSSCSW continues to 
lobby the New York State Legislature to allow LCSWs 
to become Workers Comp providers – a decades-long 
effort. 
Performance Ratings: Insurance companies started 
rating clinicians, for example, based on compliance 
with the Optum Wellness Assessment or on coordina­
tion of care with PCPs.
Affordable Care Act: In 2010, Congress passed the 
ACA establishing healthcare exchanges. The New York 
State Healthcare Exchange gave relief to many for­
merly uninsured, but offered “skinny networks”. These 
were more limited than employer-covered plans but did 
include mental health.
Lawsuits: In 2009, the New York State Attorney 
General won a $350 million class action suit against 
UnitedHealth Group. Using its Ingenix database 
of Usual and Customary fees, United had been 
Challenges to Our Practice, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Your ability to adapt 
has been tested 
time after time, yet 
you have remained 
resilient. Clinical social 
workers have risen to 
each challenge and 
will continue to do so.”
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE 
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  7
F
ive MSW students who 
attend graduate schools of 
social work in the New York 
metro-area were presented with 
scholarship awards on November 
1 at the Sixth Annual Diana List 
Cullen Memorial First-Year MSW 
Student Writing Scholarship 
Awards Ceremony. 
They are Rina Ben-Benyamin, 
Wurzweiler School of Social 
Work at Yeshiva University; Katie 
Five MSW Students Win Scholarships
(L–R) Rina Ben-Benyamin, Katie Cardwell, Tia Mancusco, Hannah Aubrey Nugent and Tex Gibson.
underpaying patients and doctors for out-of-network 
services. Since then, United has used a benchmark 
based on Medicare rates to set fees, even as Medicare 
rates decreased.
In 2015, the State Attorney General announced a 
$900,000 settlement with Beacon Health Options –for­
merly ValueOptions. ValueOptions had issued denials 
twice as often for behavioral health claims as they did 
for other medical or surgical claims, and four times as 
often as they did for addiction recovery services. The 
company was forced to dramatically reform its claims 
review process to settle allegations of widespread vio­
lations of mental health parity laws.
In 2013, a suit was brought by the New York State 
Psychiatric Association against United Behavioral 
Health, claiming that UBH has been relying on a 
specific system to determine limits on visits, and that 
Ethics & Professional Standards 
In addition to responding to members inquiries, 
the Committee continues to meet once a month to 
update the Society’s Code of Ethics and explore the 
ethical issues relating to technotherapy. 
— Martin Lowery, LCSW-R, Chair 
preauthorization requirements are in violation of parity 
laws. The suit is still ongoing.
Lobbying for Medicare Rate increase: Since 2015, 
NASW has been lobbying Congress to increase the 
reimbursement rate for clinical social workers from 
75% to 85% of the Medicare physician rate. 
Cardwell, Graduate School of Social 
Service at Fordham University; Tia 
Mancusco, Silver School of Social 
Work at New York University; 
Hannah Aubrey Nugent, Silverman 
School of Social Work at Hunter 
College and Tex Gibson, Master of 
Social Work Program at Lehman 
College. 
Recognized for the quality of 
papers they had written, each of 
the students received a $500 award 
and a one-year membership in the 
NYSSCSW. They presented aspects 
of their papers at the awards cere­
mony, and engaged in lively discus­
sions with the audience of deans 
and faculty, supervisors, Society 
board members, friends and family.
Richard Joelson, DSW, LCSW, 
the Chair of both the State and Met 
Chapter Membership Committees, 
introduced members of his team, 
and Chris Ann Farhood, LCSW, the 
Coordinator of the Scholarship, 
emceed the program. The stu­
dents’ papers had been reviewed 
by NYSSCSW President Shannon 
Boyle and members of the Met 
Chapter Board and Education 
Committee.
The goals of the scholarship 
program are to foster collaboration 
between NYSSCSW and the gradu­
ate schools, introduce graduate stu­
dents to the Society, and support 
the students, who are the future of 
our profession. From the quality 
of the students’ presentations, it 
was apparent that the future is in 
thoughtful, creative and capable 
hands. 
Challenges to Our Practice, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
Photo: William Reade
8  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
Legislative News 
	
By Marsha Wineburgh, DSW, LCSW-R, Chair
T
his year, we worked in 
collaboration with several 
state-level mental health 
professional groups on joint efforts, 
while protecting our scope of 
practice from the less well-trained 
Mental Health Practitioners. Yet, 
as the legislative session drew to a 
close this July, we had little to show 
for our all our efforts. 
As we know from experience, 
however, vigilance and persistence 
are the keys to success in stopping 
or passing legislation. Our new lob­
byists have seamlessly continued 
to represent our organization in an 
effective way.
Banning conversion therapy: Our 
lobbying on behalf of this legisla­
tion was a highpoint of interprofes­
sional coordination. Ross McCabe, 
LCSW-R from Albany, represented 
NYSSCSW in an intense media 
campaign to pass protections for 
minors from sexual role brainwash­
ing. Though it was unsuccessful, 
we plan to continue to work with 
key stakeholders next session. (See 
memo in support, A.3977/S.263, on 
our website).
Scope of practice protection: Our 
lobbyists successfully overcame 
the Governor’s initiative, which 
appeared in his draft budget, to alter 
social work scopes of practice. We 
also successfully halted another 
attempt by the Licensed Mental 
Health Practitioners to mandate 
Medicaid and insurance reimburse­
ment for their services. As you 
know, they do not meet the same 
direct clinical experience require­
ments that LMSWs must have to sit 
for the LCSW exam. (See memos in 
opposition, S.3981-A/A.1890-A and 
A.2163/S.3952, on our website.)
Workers’ compensation coverage 
for LCSW mental health services: 
We continue to work directly with 
the Workers’ Compensation Board. 
LCSWs were integral to the process 
of introducing a program bill in 
each house, and were among the 
professions included in the list of 
additions. However, last minute 
opposition ended the bill’s advance. 
We will continue to work to achieve 
it in 2018. 
Parity implementation: NYSSCSW 
worked in partnership with the 
New York State and New York City 
Chapters of NASW, the New York 
State Psychiatric Association, 
the New York State Psychological 
Association and Families Together 
in New York State to advance a bill, 
SB 1156 /AB 3694, that we devel­
oped. It was written in response to 
our analysis of the State Attorney 
General’s suits against six insur­
ers who failed to comply with the 
state’s mental health parity bill, 
also known as Timothy’s Law. 
The purpose of the bill is to 
require insurers and health plans 
to submit certain data to the 
Department of Financial Services 
(DFS) and the Commissioner of 
Health to be used in measuring 
compliance with federal and state 
mental health and substance abuse 
parity laws. The data will be used 
by the DFS to prepare an annual 
Mental Health Parity report as part 
of the annual Consumer Guide. We 
made several amendments to the 
bill (introduced late in the session) 
and continued to work to mitigate 
last minute concerns until the final 
moments of session. The initiative 
will remain a priority in 2018. 
The major components of the 
bill will capture data on:
•	 Articulation of Timothy’s Law 
Compliance plan
•	 Rates of utilization for both 
mental health and substance 
abuse (such data groups will be 
separate)
•	 Number of concurrent authoriza­
tion requests for mental health 
and substance abuse and the 
rate of denials
•	 Number of cases/denials that 
have gone into peer review
•	 List of services that require 
prior or concurrent review and 
the number of days/threshold 
that triggers such reviews
•	 List of covered medications 
for the treatment of substance 
abuse disorders
•	 Percentage of mental health 
and substance abuse disorder 
claims paid for in-network vs. 
Med/Surg 
•	 Percentage of mental health 
and substance abuse claims 
paid for out-of-network vs. 
Med/Surg
•	 Medical necessity criteria 
•	 Number of behavioral health 
advocates (as per AG set­
tlements) available to policy 
holders
•	 Network adequacy
•	 Number of mental health 
providers who have left, or 
have been removed from a 
provider network.
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE 
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  9
LLC bills: We continued our multi-
year campaign with the Title VIII 
Coalition on an omnibus bill, A. 
1943-People Stokes /S. 4125 LaValle, 
which would allow licensed social 
workers to form a corporate prac­
tice with other licensed profession­
als who are not expressly prohibited 
by law to do so. This is a long-term 
initiative that must overcome many 
hurdles related to business corpora­
tion laws and the legislature’s lack of 
appetite to act on such bills. 
We also worked to advance a 
stand-alone bill, A. 4432-Pretlow, 
that seeks to allow LCSWs to 
form a corporate practice with 
psychiatrists and psychologists. 
The bill was reintroduced into the 
Assembly earlier this year, and we 
recently identified a Senate spon­
sor in Senator Richard Funke, who 
introduced the bill, S. 5175. We will 
continue to work toward advance­
ment of these bills in 2018. 
OTHER ISSUES
Duty to warn: We are gathering 
material to evaluate duty to warn 
legislation to protect private 
practitioners from law suits should 
they find it ethically necessary to 
report a patient who is a danger to 
himself or others. 
Single payer bill: This bill passed 
the Assembly again, but was 
never addressed by the Senate 
committees. 
Licensing of military personnel: 
Regulations to expedite licensing for 
military service personnel and their 
spouses has been created. A 50% 
reduction for the licensing applica­
tion fee and a temporary practice 
permit have been arranged. 
T
he Republicans and the White House have 
made several attempts to repeal some or all the 
Affordable Care Act. The proposed changes in 
federal policies would impact all mental health ser­
vices, particularly those provided by Medicaid. 
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid 
coverage in New York has been extended to everyone 
below a threshold of 138% of the federal poverty limit. 
Medicaid is the single largest payer for behavioral 
health services, including mental health and substance 
abuse, and covers prescription drugs as well. 
As of June 2016, the state’s Medicaid program has 
more than six million enrollees, with another 100,000 
eligible to enroll, comprising one out of four residents. 
These are people who qualify for health care coverage 
because of low income. They often deal with additional 
issues of insufficient housing, relationship problems, 
and difficulty accessing and using available services 
effectively. 
Medicaid coverage includes elderly, blind and dis­
abled persons as well as non-elderly adults, low-income 
parents and 1,783,000 children, representing 37% of the 
Medicaid population. Often, they have dual diagnoses, 
combining mental illness with addictions and chronic 
health problems, in the context of serious daily living 
complications.
How Repealing the Affordable Care Act Cripples 
New York’s Medicaid Program
By Marsha Wineburgh, DSW, LCSW-R, Legislative Committee Chair
Repealing the ACA would seriously narrow the 
state’s Medicaid programs, and could include restric­
tions on eligibility and serious limits on federal fund­
ing. This could force New York’s expanded Medicaid 
program to eliminate coverage for millions of low 
income beneficiaries and/or force the state to cover its 
expanded Medicaid rolls entirely with state funds.
What Medicaid reforms have the Republicans been 
proposing?
Currently, Medicaid is considered an entitlement 
program. The federal government reimburses the 
states for a set percentage of the total spending on 
health care costs for Medicaid beneficiaries. This guar­
antees a fixed and predictable match of federal funds, 
and allows each state great flexibility to serve the 
unique needs of its Medicaid population. It also allows 
states to respond to emerging public health crises, 
such as the opioid epidemic.
Plans to reform Medicaid include ending the federal 
government’s guarantee of funding expenses in favor of 
capping the amount of funds that each state receives for 
its Medicaid spending. This new system of “block grants” 
or “per capita structures” could be reduced every year 
by Congress, forcing the states to make up the deficits or 
restrict services to the most vulnerable people who need 
mental health and substance abuse treatments.
Legislative News, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8
CONTINUED ON PAGE 21
10  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
MET	
Signorella, Nunzio
NEW MEMBERS OF NYSSCSW*
CHAPTER KEY: MET–Metropolitan, MID–Mid-Hudson, NAS–Nassau County, QUE–Queens County, 
ROC–Rockland County, SI–Staten Island, SUF–Suffolk County, WES–Westchester County.
*These new members joined between March 1 and October 31, 2017.
CHAPTER / NAME
MET	
Acosta, Melody J.
MET	
Bahan, Kathleen
MET	
Ben-Yehuda, Raphael, LCSW
ROC	
Birnbaum, Deborah S.
MET	
Bloom, Jamie, LCSW
MET	
Brinkley, Katherine
MET	
Buquicchio, Jennifer S.
MET	
Burstein, June, MSW, LCSW-R
ROC	
Calhoun, Diana F.
MET	
Caputo, Lorraine E.
MID	
Cea, Rachael, MSW
MET	
Cheung, Michael W.
MID	
Cirnitski, Carolyn, LCSW
SUF	
Clague, Barb, MSW, LCSW-R
ROC	
Davis, Lindsay D.
QUE	
Dibenedetto, Marie, LCSW-R, MSW
MID	
Diego Santacruz, Jose, LMSW
ROC	
Devivo, Nicole
WES	
Drohan Forbes, Deirdre
MET	
Dyckman, Yaffa, MSW, LCSW
MET	
Early, Martha A.
MET	
Ferguson, David
MET	
Fider, Lloyd, MSW, LCSW
SI	
Fleischer, Dr. Nanette I., BCD, DSW, 
LCSW, LCSW-R, MA, MSW, LMSW, CSW
QUE	
Gonzalez, Yvette
MET	
Gray, Donna L.
MID	
Grunblatt, Andrea, Ph.D.
MET	
Harvin, April R., MSW, LCSW
MET	
Henshaw, Lisa A.
MET	
Higa, Grace
NAS	
Hushion, Kathleen, LCSW-R
NAS	
Jewett, Orval A.
MET	
Kinn, Gail, LCSW
MET	
La Joie, Myra, MSW, Ph.D., LCSW-R
CHAPTER / NAME
MET	
Laviera, Jessina, LCSW, LCSW
MET	
Lippin, Mary
MET	
Malloy, Emily C., JD, LMSW
NAS	
Mankowitz, Rachel
MET	
Margulies, Marian
NAS	
May, Elizabeth R.
MET	
McDavid, Rachel, MA, LMFT
NAS	
Mcguire, Barbara A.
MET	
Modi, Shweta
NAS	
Morse, Kathleen D.
WES	
O’Connell, Clelia C.
MET	
Orito, Mary A.
MET	
Penn, Emily, LCSW
MET	
Peresman, Zoey, MSW
MET	
Pettenato, Jocelyn R.
NAS	
Raymond, Christina
ROC	
Reiser, Vanessa, LMSW
MET	
Ripley, Amanda K.
MET	
Rosenberg, Ann, LCSW-R
MET	
Ross, Julie, MSW, Ph.D., LCSW-R
QUE	
Sabino, Claudia E., LCSW
MET	
Schneider, Leah
MET	
Shanahan, Kate E.
WES	
Showalter, Linda, MSW, LCSW-R
MET	
Shuzman, Beth
WES	
Stern, Rebeca A.
MET	
Stevens, Candise
MET	
Stitt, Grant, LCSW-R
MET	
Szymczak, Patrycja
MET	
Toppa, Saima Y. 
NAS	
Toone, Eileen, MSW, LCSW-R
NAS	
Torrisi, Rosara
ROC	
Walters, Colleen
MET	
Wendell, Zachary
NAS	
Zaretsky, Lisa R.
Two New 
Diplomates Honored
By Richard B. Joelson, DSW, LCSW
The Diplomate is a special membership 
status conferred upon NYSSCSW members 
who have been recognized for their distin­
guished contributions to the field of clinical 
social work. These might include teaching, 
publishing, research and innovation in clini­
cal social work education or service.
In addition, and importantly, their 
leadership activities in the Society must be 
considered outstanding. Whether serving as 
state board or state committee members, 
they must have demonstrated effectiveness, 
initiative, responsibility and dedication 
in carrying out their duties. On the chap­
ter level, they must have contributed to 
the growth of their chapter and given of 
themselves in a variety of other ways. This 
year we honor two new Diplomates of the 
Society:
Lisa Miller, LCSW-R has been a 
tireless contributor to the Society in many 
ways and for many years. After earning 
her master’s degree, Lisa became the 
Recording Secretary for the Met Chapter 
and performed her duties continuously for 
nine years. In 2006, she became Co-chair 
of the Met Chapter Listserv Committee. 
Later that year, she became Co-chair of 
the State Listserv Committee, serving until 
2015, when TMS began to take over listserv 
responsibilities. 
Lisa has continued to coordinate the 
posting of chapter and state offerings on 
the Met Chapter Listserv. She also helps 
members design effective announcements 
for maximum impact. Lisa shows no signs of 
tiring, and we are fortunate to benefit from 
her contributions. 
Janice Gross, LCSW has been the 
President of the Staten Island Chapter since 
2011. Earlier, from 2005 to 2011, she 
served as the chapter’s Membership Chair 
and, from 2009 to 2011, as its Treasurer. In 
addition, for several years she has organized 
the Staten Island Chapter Annual Education 
Conference. 
Janice has extensive training as a 
couples therapist, and teaches at several 
schools of social work. She also has pre­
sented courses through the ACE Foundation, 
and has held workshops at several chapters. 
Her presentations include, “Engaging and 
Understanding Couples,” and “Extra-Marital 
Affairs: Understanding Effective Ways to 
Navigate Difficulties.” Janice has made sub­
stantial contributions to our Society. 
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  11
Membership Committee 
By Richard B. Joelson, DSW, LCSW, Membership Chair, State and Met Chapter Committees
Career Day for Students and New Professionals 
The State and the Metropolitan Chapter 
Membership Committees are planning an event, 
Student and New Professionals Career Day, for January 
20, 2018. It is designed to provide graduate social work 
students and new professionals with opportunities to 
learn more about the various fields of practice. 
It comes as a direct response to our current student 
representatives, who have expressed their eagerness 
to learn more about practice settings as they contem­
plate future fieldwork assignments and employment 
possibilities. We are asking seasoned Society members 
representing different fields of practice to serve on that 
day as resources for new professionals and students. 
Stay tuned for more on this event.
First-Year MSW Student Writing Contest 
The annual Diana List Cullen Memorial First Year 
MSW Student Writing Contest reception was held 
on November 1. The five student award winners are 
from metropolitan-area schools of social work. Each 
received a $500 scholarship for the second year of 
graduate school and a free one-year membership in 
the Society. They presented summaries of their win­
ning papers to the audience at the event, including 
Society members, deans and faculty from participating 
schools, as well as family and friends. [See photo and 
article on page 7.]
This annual contest and reception has proven to 
be an excellent opportunity to strengthen our relation­
ship with the schools of social work, an increasingly 
important source of new members, as well as to help 
students appreciate the value of an affiliation with the 
Society.
Membership Renewal in Full Swing
By now, you should have received membership 
renewal information. You’ll note that it has been 
streamlined and the process is more efficient. We hope 
you will renew before the end of 2017 so you can enjoy 
another excellent year of membership in our Society.
Consistent Membership Growth
Most chapters have enjoyed an influx of new mem­
bers from all practice settings—academic, agency, 
private practice—and with an age and ethnic diversity 
that is quite gratifying. It seems that more and more 
social workers are finding our organization an excel­
lent professional community where they can reap many 
benefits. 
The credit for our membership growth is shared 
by every chapter with active efforts to recruit and 
retain new members, and insure that the membership 
experience is a good one. I believe that much of our 
recruitment and retention success can be traced to 
the personal interest we show each new member. This 
includes welcome packets and letters from the State 
and chapter, invitations to member receptions, the 
Society Partners program, and outreach e-mails and 
phone calls. We want each recruit to feel welcomed 
and valued, and to find a place in this growing organi­
zation with so much to offer. 
This summer was a busy one at the Society’s head­
quarters. We updated the membership data base and 
enhanced our website to make finding information, 
registering for events, and paying dues faster and easier. 
Here are some of the improvements you’ll see:
• The Find-a-Therapist feature is more user friendly 
for potential clients, providing extra information, such as 
the distance to the therapist’s office. 
• Chapters can now offer online registration for their 
programs, and members will find the forms easier to use, 
as your basic information will be filled in automatically. 
• Members will receive dues renewal invoices via 
email this year. The invoice will be linked to your online 
NYSSCSW profile, so you will not need to log in to find it. 
• The Events Calendar is easier to navigate. Each 
chapter has its own separate tab, so you can go directly 
to your local listings.
Please visit www.nysscsw.org to see all the website 
improvements and to check your profile and make any 
necessary changes or updates. We would be glad to help 
you if needed. We wish you a very happy and healthy 
holiday season. 
Kristin 
Kristin Kuenzel, Account Executive for NYSSCSW
Total Management Solutions (TMS)
800-288-4279 • Info.nysscsw@gmail.com
Headquarters Update 
12  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
Chapter Reports
T
he Metropolitan Chapter continues to grow and has had 
a very active year offering workshops, presentations, 
and opportunities for networking, discussion, and intellec­
tual exchanges. April was a particularly busy month, with 
presentations offered by the Group Therapy Committee, the 
Committee on Aging Issues, the Trauma Studies and Treat­
ment Committee, and the Committee on Psychoanalysis. The 
diversity of programming caters to various styles of learning 
and discussion, from speaker presentations to movie nights 
and book discussions. 
In October, the Education Committee offered a presen­
tation on Women and Addiction with Betsy Robin Spiegel, 
LCSW. Robert Weiss, LCSW, CSAT-S presented for the Com­
mittee on Substance Use Disorders and Behavioral Addic­
tions on Sex Addiction 101: Understanding the Assessment, 
Diagnosis and Treatment of Hypersexuality and Problem 
Sexual Behavior Disorders. On November 1, the Membership 
Committee will be sponsoring its annual Student Scholarship 
Awards Ceremony and, on November 3, its bi-annual Member 
Reception. 
The Chapter has student representation from all the local 
schools of social work, including Hunter, Fordham, Lehman, 
New York University, and Yeshiva. The students serve as 
liaisons between the Society and their academic programs. 
Their participation on the Membership Committee is essential 
to encouraging other students and new professionals to partic­
ipate in the Society, and is instrumental in informing future 
programming geared towards the needs of this population. It 
is exciting to see new graduates and young professionals at­
tending events and seeking greater involvement in our vibrant 
clinical community.
As always, please visit the NYSSCSW website for a 
complete list of Met Chapter committee events, workshops, 
meetings, and brunches. We encourage you to get involved 
in the leadership of your chapter and pursue an interest by 
joining one of our committees. We look forward to seeing you 
at future events. 
Met Chapter Committee on Psychoanalysis
by Helen Hinckley Krackow, LCSW, BCD
F
or several years, the Met Chapter Committee on Psychoanalysis 
has presented films to help deepen our understanding of 
human relationships. Additionally, the Committee has sponsored 
prominent speakers addressing a myriad of attachment issues. 
In April 2017, the Committee, headed by Barbara Lidsky, 
LCSW and Janice Michaelson, LCSW, with able assistance from 
Don Appel, LMSW, presented “The Matchmaker,” a film set 
in post-World War II Israel. It is a comic-drama depicting the 
damage of the Holocaust on the attachment issues of its survivors 
and succeeding generations of Israelis. Directed by Avi Nesher, 
the film was the official selection of the Toronto International Film 
Festival in 2010.
The plot centers on Yankele, a Holocaust survivor living in 
Haifa in 1968, who is a matchmaker by trade. Ironically, he can­
not seem to make his own match with his vivacious love interest, 
Clara. 
Yankele hires a 16-year-old boy, Arik, to shadow his clients to 
learn their vulnerabilities. The information will help him convince 
the prospective grooms of the suitability of the women he finds for 
them to marry. Arik is a naturally curious boy who likes to study 
adults to learn all he can about life. He comes to idealize Yankele 
and begins to shadow him, and discovers that Yankele is running 
an illegal gambling operation, assisted by the seductive Clara. 
Arik has a crisis of conscience, and decides to report the illegal 
activity to the police, who raid the gambling den. Yankele and 
Clara flee just in time. 
Later, Arik’s father tells the naïve boy that everyone in the 
community already knew about the gambling operation. The 
people who run it are just using the survival skills they developed 
during the horrors of the Holocaust in their lives today. Beyond 
that, Arik learns that Yankele’s “bad boy” qualities make him 
attractive to Clara. Then he develops an attraction of his own to 
a young woman he does not approve of, but who nevertheless 
intrigues him. 
The movie reveals many other complex relationships and, 
following the screening, a lively discussion was held about the 
impact of war on the development of relationships.
Another presentation earlier in year was given by Inna 
Rozentsvit, MD, Ph.D., titled “Understanding the Parent-Child 
Bond through the Lens of Neurobiology.” On November 14, 
“Imago Relationship Therapy: The Paradigm Shift in Couples 
Work,” will be presented by Dr. Herb Tannenbaum. The 
Committee plans many more exciting programs on various aspects 
of relationships. Please check the listserv for future events.
METROPOLITAN CHAPTER
PRESIDENT KAREN KAUFMAN, PH.D., LCSW; VICE PRESIDENT AMY MYERS PH.D., LCSW
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  13
MID-HUDSON CHAPTER
PRESIDENT ROSEMARY COHEN. LCSW
T
he Mid-Hudson Chapter comprises 
a five-county area in the Mid-Hud­
son Valley: Dutchess, Putnam, Ulster, 
Sullivan and Orange. We are pleased 
to provide four annual CE-approved 
workshops to mental health clinicians at 
the Mental Health America of Dutchess 
County (MHADC) conference room in 
Poughkeepsie. 
On September 16, the CE-approved 
workshop, Traumatic Narcissism: 
Relational Systems of Subjugation, was 
presented by Daniel Shaw, LCSW. Matt 
Fried, Ph.D. returns on November 4 to 
present his program, Healing Attach­
ment Wounds via the Therapeutic Rela­
tionship: An Introduction to Accelerated 
Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy 
(AEDP).
The number of pre-registered clini­
cians for our workshops has reached 
near capacity in the MHADC conference 
room. MHADC offers programs to the en­
tire community, including support groups 
and social, housing, and shelter services, 
individualized support, workshops, and 
educational programs. Its Beacon office 
offers the New York State Office of 
Mental Health PROS program, a recov­
ery-oriented program for individuals with 
severe and persistent mental illness.
METROPOLITAN • MID-HUDSON • NASSAU • QUEENS • ROCKLAND • STATEN ISLAND 
At the Nassau Chapter’s 
2017 Spring Fling: 
(l. to r.) Society President 
Shannon Boyle, Patricia 
Traynor, Francine Futterman, 
Honorees Susan Kahn and Prue 
Emery, the editors of Nassau/
Suffolk NewsNotes, Chapter 
President Joseph Reiher, 
Lorraine Fitzgerald, Eleanor 
Perlman, and Judith Schaer. 
NASSAU CHAPTER
PRESIDENT JOSEPH REIHER, LCSW-R, BCD
W
e are happy to report that the Chapter is continuing to do well. Since our last re­
port, we gained ten new members, and we continue to work with other chapters 
and organizations. We continue to be well represented on the State Board: President 
Joseph Reiher, LCSW-R, BCD is a member of the ACE Foundation and Legislative 
committees; Patricia Traynor, LCSW-R, CLC continues as a Member-at-Large, and 
Susan Kahn, LCSW, BCD serves on the Vendorship committee.
Nassau/Suffolk NewsNotes continues to thrive thanks to the efforts of Prue Emery, 
LCSW, Clinical Editor and Susan Kahn, Editor, along with Administrative Assistant 
Bunny Chapman. I am happy to note that a new issue of this unique newsletter is in 
the works.
The Chapter Board includes Ellie Perlman, LCSW, DCSW, BCD who, in addition to 
her role as Treasurer, is Co-Chair of the Program Committee. Patricia Traynor serves as 
the other Co-Chair, in addition to her role as Membership Chair. Deborah Singer, LCSW 
continues as Recording Secretary, Norman Perkins, LCSW, as Chair of the Committee 
on Aging, Francine Futterman, LMSW, as Member-at-Large, and Judith Schaer, LCSW, 
as Mentorship/Networking Chair. Her first networking event was our successful “Spring 
Fling.” We also have a new student representative from Molloy College, Jovhan Egalite. 
My sincere thanks to all the Board members who work so hard for our Chapter.
Our first “Let’s Talk” series, headed by Judith Schaer, well attended, and more are 
being planned. We also held a 3-CEU program in March with Bernie Glintz, LCSW, pre­
senting “Working with the Adopted Client.” And “Spring Fling, “a gala event organized 
by Judith Schaer, was held at the Metropolitan Bistro in Sea Cliff. Some 35 members 
and guests enjoyed the beautiful surroundings, a sumptuous buffet, and entertain­
ment by keyboardist Michael DeMeo. The highlight was a presentation of plaques to 
honorees Prue Emery and Susan Kahn for their work on Nassau/Suffolk NewsNotes. 
We also announced that the Chapter, in cooperation with the Molloy School of Social 
Work, has established a scholarship in honor of Sheila Peck, LCSW. The winner will 
be announced in next spring.
Several new programs are being planned, so watch for the announcements on the 
listserv. Board meetings are open to all members and you are always welcome, as we 
would like your ideas and input. 
14  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
QUEENS CHAPTER
PRESIDENT LYNNE O’DONNELL, LCSW-R, ACSW
W
e have planned several seminars and parties through the 
end of the year. Listings can be found on the website and 
on Facebook. 
We finished the spring season of events with an Author’s 
Brunch in Rockaway featuring Richard Joelson, DSW, LCSW 
presenting ideas and insights from his award-winning book, 
HELP ME! It’s a must read for all members, with wonderful vi­
gnettes you will want to share with your clients. The audience 
was inspired by the talk and delighted with the brunch that 
followed. 
We began this year with a forum on How to Grow Your 
Private Practice, which included seasoned private practi­
tioners as well as new and long-term chapter members. Again, 
the feedback was excellent as attendees found their specific 
concerns addressed.
In October, our planned program was changed due to 
a “hiccup” at the last minute. Fortunately, Roberta Omin, 
LCSW of the Westchester Chapter volunteered to present her 
program, When the Therapist Becomes the Medical Patient 
and Susan Klett, Psy.D., Director of Professional Development 
for the ACE Foundation, worked with us to get the program 
quickly approved for additional credits. It was an example of 
the benefits of belonging to a Society that works long and hard 
to support its members and the profession. 
I’d also like to remind you of the benefit we enjoy in having 
the use of the beautiful conference room of the Queens Hospi­
tal Center for such events.
Our final seminar in 2017 will be Celebrating the Wounded 
Healer on December 3. It will be followed by a Holiday Cel­
ebration. Check the website for details. We do hope you will 
join us for both.
The 2018 line up of events will include seminars in Feb­
ruary, April and May and our annual Brunch in June. We en­
courage you to attend our board meetings and state offerings 
Queens Chapter Board Members at the spring Author’s Brunch 
in Rockaway: (l. to r.) Bianca Kattan, LCSW, Lynne O’Donnell, 
LCSW, Fran Lombardi,LCSW, Carol D’Andrea, LCSW, Rebecca 
Gruia, LMSW, and Lisa Laudante, LCSW, Ph.D.
as well. In addition, we would truly appreciate your feedback 
and will be sending you another survey soon. It will be easy 
and quick to fill out, and the information you provide will help 
us better address our member’s needs. 
Remember to check our website for updates. We hope to 
see you all soon!
ROCKLAND CHAPTER
PRESIDENT ORSOLYA D. CLIFFORD, LCSW-R
T
he Rockland Chapter is pleased to offer an exceptional ed­
ucational lineup for the 2017-2018 academic year. We have 
a great mix of CEU programs and free, non-CEU programs for 
our members. 
We kicked off the year with a lively, interactive 5-hour 
workshop led by Liz Carl, LCSW, titled, Your Client Has a Body 
Too, and a discussion of Core Energetics. Coming up in 2017 
are several book and clinical case discussions including, on 
October 22, The Wounded Healer by Sharon Farber, Ph.D. and, 
on November 19, Richard Joelson, DSW, LCSW will discuss his 
book Help Me! 
On April 8, 2018, Sandra Indig, LCSW, ATR-BC, along with 
Dr. Ina Rozentsvit, will present Indig’s book, Talking Col­
ors: Seeing Words/Hearing Images on April 8. We have also 
scheduled a presentation on January 14 by our local family 
shelter on working with victims of domestic violence and sex 
trafficking, and a Film and Lunch event on February 11. 
 We always welcome new members and look forward to 
kicking off a student mentorship group in spring 2018. 
STATEN ISLAND CHAPTER
PRESIDENT JANICE GROSS, LCSW
T
he Staten Island Chapter is pleased to report a growing 
membership. We are currently mixing our meetings, hold­
ing a Friday evening program with light dinner and Sunday 
morning program with brunch, hosted by the members. We 
are an experienced group of LCSWs with both agency and 
private practice experience across a variety of specialties. We 
offer mentorship opportunities with Dennis Guttsman, LCSW, 
Committee Chair. At CEU events, we welcome social workers 
and other mental health professionals at all levels.
Upcoming programs include Dinner and Meet the Au­
thor at La Fontana restaurant, featuring Sari Cooper, LCSW, 
an ASECT certified sex therapist. She will present Sexual 
Assessment of Couples in Therapy. On March 24, 2018, we are 
hosting Brian Quinn, Ph.D., on Depressed, Borderline or BiPo­
lar? for 6 CEUs at Staten Island University Hospital. For more 
information on chapter events please contact Janice Gross, 
LCSW at jgross1013@aol.com. 
Chapter Reports, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  15
H
illel Bodek made innumerable contributions to 
the formal organization of the clinical social 
work profession and the New York State Society 
for Clinical Social Work. It is our pleasure to honor the 
memory of our long-time friend and colleague, who passed 
away on March 25, 2017. 
Hillel was born in 1953 in Providence, Rhode Island to 
Reuben and Charlotte Bodek. When he was seven, his fam­
ily, which included his sister Robin, moved to Cedarhurst, 
Long Island. He met and married his beloved Seok Hoon 
late in life and they settled in Brooklyn Heights. 
Hillel graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. from 
Queens College (CUNY) in 1974. After earning his MSW 
at Adelphi University in 1979, he completed postgraduate 
training in multidisciplinary health care, which included 
clinical social work and palliative care.
In clinical practice, Hillel provided psychological test­
ing as well as psychotherapy. He treated a wide variety of 
patients, including those with chronic physical and termi­
nal illnesses, developmental disabilities, mental illness and 
neuropsychological impairments. 
As an expert witness for the state and federal court 
systems, he advocated for the needs of the criminally men­
tally ill, including those incarcerated on Rikers Island and 
in Bellevue Hospital’s Forensic Unit. His case management 
and legal evaluations were legendary—long and thorough, 
with strong recommendations. 
Hillel served the Society in many capacities for several 
decades: as President (2004–2005), and as Chair of many 
committees: Ethics and Professional Standards (1983), 
Forensic Clinical Social Work (1983), Palliative and End-
of-Life Care (2001) and Continuing Professional Education 
(2002). 
A seminal thinker, Hillel developed and taught compre­
hensive training programs in palliative care, emphasizing 
the needs and rights of the terminally ill for care by a 
diversity of health professionals, including social workers, 
nurses and chaplains. 
He also developed extensive clinical courses on death 
and dying, and forensics, with reviews of federal and 
state mental health laws and examples of forensic reports 
on patients in the criminal-psychiatry unit of Bellevue 
Hospital.
What was it like to spend time with Hillel? He was artic­
ulate, brilliant, charming, generous, hardworking, intense, 
loyal and incorruptible. Also, stubborn, exasperating and 
Hillel Bodek | 1953–2017
By Marsha Wineburgh and Helen Hinckley Krackow, Past Presidents of NYSSCSW
hardly ever wrong. When he was President, our meetings 
were four-to-five hours long. If you had any questions after 
his carefully elucidated report to the Board, he would not 
become frustrated. Instead, he would just start over from 
the beginning, adding even more details to educate you fur­
ther. This accounted for our long meetings, but we usually 
left thoroughly informed.
Hillel was a major contributor to key legislation, both 
on the state and national levels, regarding licensing, insur­
ance reimbursement and confidentiality.
He developed our version of the New York State laws 
for insurance reimbursement and licensing, with the most 
comprehensive scope of practice for clinical social work in 
the country. He also developed our original worker’s com­
pensation bill; we continue to work toward its passage. 
His frequent testimony before the New York State 
Supreme Court eventually led to a court decision that the 
LCSW scope of practice was equivalent to that of clinical 
psychology in the state. In addition, he took on the schools 
of social work for shaving class time to less than the 
federal requirements for academic credits (50 minutes per 
credit plus 2 hours of prep/week/credit). 
He also was a contributor to the amicus brief in Jaffee 
v. Redmond (1996), the United States Supreme Court case 
in which the Court created a psychotherapist-patient privi­
lege in the Federal Rules of Evidence. 
Hillel was recognized as a Distinguished Practitioner in 
Social Work by the National Academies of Practice (NAP) 
and he co-chaired the social work division of NAP. He was 
honored as a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, 
and designated as a Diplomate of the NYSSCSW.
Always accessible to our members, Hillel provided 
knowledgeable answers to their questions and thoughtful 
guidance for dilemmas they faced. You could reach him 
almost any time of the day or night to ask about ethics, 
forensics, subpoenas, testifying, referrals for neurological 
and psychological evaluations, wills, medications—just 
about anything. Did he sleep more than three hours a 
night? It’s hard to say.
Hillel earned the respect and friendship of people from 
many walks of life. An exceptional, irreplaceable human 
being, he was a true friend and tireless advocate for the 
confused and disenfranchised. As his wife Hoon noted, 
“Hillel’s strong sense of justice and passion for the less 
fortunate touched many lives. He gave of himself without 
expectation of anything in return.” He is greatly missed. 
IN MEMORIAM 
16  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
D
r. Richard Geist’s presentation underscored the 
significance of empathic attunement to our pa­
tients’ defensive structures, known “as a means 
of self-protection” rather than “as a means of resis­
tance.” He brilliantly demonstrated his use of self as an 
understanding and protective other within the analytic 
dyad to facilitate the softening of his patients’ defenses 
and to promote healing and growth. 
A faculty member of Harvard Medical School for 35 
years and founding member, faculty and supervising 
analyst of both MAPP and MIP, Dr. Geist provided a 
rich and stimulating learning experience on “redis­
covering the art of relationships” between the ana­
lytic pair. He illuminated and expanded upon Kohut’s 
patient centered, developmental theory of treatment 
throughout his presentation. He invited us into four 
compelling sessions, wherein he illustrated various 
ways his unique, unwavering, experience-near, protec­
tive attitude embodied his conscious and unconscious 
participation in his patient’s subjective emotional life. 
With Stacy, Terry, Jamie and Jason, Dr. Geist 
traced the development of deep structures that each 
patient had constructed for self-protection and psychic 
REVIEWS OF THE NYSSCSW AND ACE FOUNDATION’S 48TH ANNUAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE  /  APRIL 2017 
Rediscovering the Art of Relationships
From Self Protection to Relational Protectiveness:
The Modification of Defensive Structures
Presentation by Dr. Richard Geist; Reviewed by Susan A. Klett
survival. While emphasizing the patient’s courage in 
embarking upon the therapeutic process, he drew a 
parallel to the therapist’s courage in opening to the 
unknown, making room for the patient to take up resi­
dence in his emotional world, and by allowing space for 
what may emerge between them.
In the following two clinical examples, Dr. Geist 
highlighted a protective attitude and described how 
relational protectiveness is actualized when dealing 
with individual and characterological defenses:
 
•	 Stacy, a young anorexic patient came into his office 
the day after her parents called the police to bring her 
home after she ran ten miles, barefoot in shorts, during 
one of Boston’s severe blizzards. Dr. Geist’s exquisite 
receptivity to her bodily and facial expressions which 
displayed a sense of pleasure at her accomplishment 
mixed with palpable anxiety in anticipation of his reac­
tion informed his response: 
“Stacy,” he asked, “how did you find the courage to 
run ten miles in the frost and in 22 inches of snow?” 
Her face lit up as if she had won the marathon!
Three years later, she disclosed to him that this was 
the precise moment she knew that she could trust him. 
Dr. Geist shared with us that Stacy had healed and 
recovered, and today she is married with a family and 
doing well. 
•	 Jason was referred to Dr. Geist by his girlfriend, a 
psychology graduate student, after he read one of her 
papers on dissociation and recognized himself. When 
Jason asked Dr. Geist in a third consecutive session 
to summarize his treatment, Dr. Geist realized that by 
summarizing where they were in treatment, he initially 
failed to understand that he was rekindling an early 
CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
Dr. Geist demonstrated his use 
of self as an understanding and 
protective other within the analytic 
dyad to facilitate the softening 
of his patient’s defenses and to 
promote healing and growth.”
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  17
T
o begin with, a confession: I am a big fan of Polly 
Young-Eisendrath and have been for some time. 
To me, she is an intriguing woman, an idiosyn­
cratic original in our field. Within the psychoanalytic 
community she is known as the Buddhist Jungian ana­
lyst living, writing and practicing in rural Vermont (me 
imagining hers as a monk-like existence of meditation, 
tilling the soil, interspersed with professional sorties). 
My first encounter with the lady herself was as 
pleasurable as my fantasies had been. There was 
Polly, on stage at The Rubin Museum in New York 
with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick 
Shanley, author of Doubt, engaging in a playful verbal 
pas-de-deu. They came together as strangers. Shanley 
was invited to select an image from C. G. Jung’s Red 
Book that held personal resonance and Polly was to 
draw out his associative thoughts and feelings. What 
fun those two had, while we the audience delighted in 
these two extraordinary creatives happily playing in 
their verbal sandbox. 
TRUE LOVE WAYS: 
Psychoanalysis and Mindfulness
Presentation by Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D.; Reviewed by Louse DeCosta, Ph.D., LCSW
My second encounter with Polly was when she led 
a day-long seminar at The C. G. Jung Foundation with 
a small group of 21 participants. Polly encouraged us 
to engage with her and with one another in a serious 
intellectual romp, and it became evident to us all—
Polly loves to play!
Her NYSSCSW presentation (4/22/2017) was exten­
sive, informational and comprehensive. We missed a 
shorter, more playful version, but were rewarded with 
an extensive discussion of her original model of short-
term Dialogue Couples Therapy, and her thoughtful 
reflections on personal love: what it is and what it is 
not. For Polly, people are bound together in all sorts 
of ways that are not love: attachment bonds, desire, 
passion, security needs, power struggles, physical or 
financial or emotional dependence. She states, “there 
is nothing inherently wrong with being connected 
in these ways, but they will not produce the benefits 
of true love.” The practice of “true love” depends on 
a mutual, reciprocal, equalitarian relationship that 
becomes both mysterious and familiar throughout 
time. Love requires a spacious perspective in which 
both individuals have an intention to know themselves 
and the other. It is a journey, a pilgrimage, in a way 
analogous to a spiritual quest.
Ultimately, for me the special gift of Polly Young-
Eisendrath is her skillful, exquisite blend of Buddhist 
sensibility with depth psychology that she uniquely 
brings to the question of meaningful relationships.  
Louise DeCosta, Ph.D., LCSW is a practicing psychoanalyst currently 
affiliated with the Postgraduate Psychoanalytic Institute and a member 
of the C. G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology. For the past five 
years, she has been the Creative Director for three dramatic readings: 
The Freud/Jung Letters, The Freud/Ferenczi Letters, and The Women: 
Our Psychoanalytic Mothers, presented on over 30 occasions in the 
USA and internationally.
At the Spring 2017 Annual Education Conference, (l. to r.) 
Susan A. Klett, Psy.D., ACE Foundation Director of Professional 
Development, with presenters Richard A. Geist, Ed.D., Polly 
Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., and Nancy McWilliams, Ph.D., ABPP. 
The presentations of Drs. Geist and Young-Eisendrath are 
reviewed in this issue. Dr. McWilliam’s presentation will be 
reviewed in the next issue.
Photo: Shannon Boyle
18  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
T
his season has already brought us a rich harvest 
of wonderful opportunities to nourish our souls, 
spirits and minds. On October 1, we met at the 
Museum of Modern Art to see Frank Lloyd Wright 
@150 and explore his creative working process. This 
much-celebrated American architectural giant and 
“author” of the Guggenheim led us toward an under­
standing of how architecture, as he understood it, 
could connect with many of our clinical goals. 
The exhibit made clear that his philosophic outlook 
embraced not only the goal of creating and providing 
shelter, but also sought to integrate man, both inside 
and outside from his personal environment, to his 
surroundings, and ultimately to his community—
even connecting communities. We had planned to 
follow this experience with a visit to see the sculpture 
on Governor’s Island, but lunching together provided 
us with an opportunity to revisit our tour and plan 
for more visits.
Upcoming Museum Visits (Dates TBA)
•	 MoMA: Selected Works of Painting and Sculpture, 
1880–1940
•	 MoMA: Louise Bourgeois, An Unfolding Portrait
•	 Metropolitan Museum of Art: David Hockney and 
Michelangelo.
COMMITTEE FOR 
Creativity and Neuro-Psycho-Education In Clinical Practice
Committee Presentations (CEUs Offered)
•	 Nov. 1 & 2: Inna Rozentsvit, The Neurobiology of 
Problem Gambling/Gambling Addiction;
at The Problem Gambling Training Partnership, 1040 
Grand Concourse, Bronx, Lower Gallery.
Contact: NASW NYS Chapter, info@naswnys.org 
or 518-463-4741.
•	 Nov. 9 to 11: The International Forum for 
Psychoanalytic Education’s (IFPE) 28th Annual 
Interdisciplinary Conference, Fort Lauderdale, Fl., 
www.ifpe.org/2017-conference
NOTE: Several committee members will present 
at the IFPE conference on the topic of Time: Inna 
Rozentsvit, Victoria Grinman, Susan Kavaler-Adler, 
Ann Rose Simon and Sandra Indig.
•	 April 8, 2018: Rockland Chapter, Beholder’s Share 
through the Lens of Neuroscience, Art and 
Psychoanalysis. 
Sandra Indig, LCSW-R/LP, ATR-BC, State Committee Chair, 
psych4arts@hotmail.com
Inna Rozentsvit, M.D., Ph. D, MBA, MSciEd, NeuroPsychoEducation 
Chair
selfobject. He then asked Jason how he may be fail­
ing him? Dr. Geist’s astute empathic sensibility cap­
tured the meaning of a protective stance. Rather than 
experience Jason’s question as controlling or to return 
Jason’s question by questioning “why he was asking,” 
Dr. Geist allowed Jason to guide and shape the treat­
ment. When Jason felt understood and protected, Dr. 
Geist learned from Jason, how he needed another to 
organize him when he became fragmented, in a way his 
depressed mother, who committed suicide, failed him. 
Following her suicide Jason turned to books, there was 
no hope for another human-being to fulfill this need 
until it was restored with Dr. Geist. 
Through a panel discussion and audience partic­
ipation, Dr. Geist further elaborated on the clinical 
Defensive Structures, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16
phenomenon of the therapeutic couple’s struggle for a 
connective bond to secure the treatment process and 
the significance of working respectfully with defenses 
to facilitate development and healthy growth.  
Susan A. Klett, Psy.D, LCSW-R is director of professional development 
of the ACE Foundation of NYSSCSW; faculty and supervisor of the 
Training Institute for Mental Health couple program, and faculty of 
TIMH’s individual psychoanalytic training program; past president 
of the Postgraduate Psychoanalytic Society; former faculty of the 
Postgraduate Center for Mental Health; faculty of the Institute of 
Postgraduate Psychoanalytic Society; former co-director, faculty, 
supervising and training analyst of Washington Square Institute; and, 
author of Analysis of The Incest Trauma: Retrieval, Recovery, Renewal, 
with Dr. Arnold W. Rachmann (Karnac, 2015).
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  19
T
he inner world of the binge eater, bulimic and an­
orexic is filled with anxiety about numbers: calories, 
size, scales, diet portions and weight. Therapy for 
emotional eating can require hard work, grit and deter­
mination as patients explore the psychological roots of 
their eating disorders and work to make changes through 
behavioral and cognitive strategies. At times, medication 
may also be needed.
But sometimes humor can be the best medicine. Humor 
can act as an antidote to the perfectionism, rigidity, and 
depression so often experienced by emotional eaters. It can 
provide a more optimistic perspective as well as temporary 
relief, reprieve and release from our problems. The ther­
apist and client laughing together in the therapy session 
offers a shared moment of affection and bonding, a playful 
connection and a sense of partnership. The ability to laugh 
at ourselves and our quirks helps patients learn to play and 
emotional fluency flourishes. Where there is humor, there 
is hope.
Amber, struggling with severe bulimia, had long 
expressed a fascination with vampires. We discussed how 
she identified with the insatiability of the vampire and how, 
when she binged, her “fangs” came out. In one of her ses­
sions, Amber described the latest vampire romance novel 
she was reading. Caught up in the story, I asked Amber, “So 
what finally happened to this vampire couple?”
A mischievous smile crossed her face and Amber 
replied, “They lived capillary ever after!” We laughed 
uproariously. Amber had added a most playful note to 
a very tough struggle. This moment of shared laughter 
declared, “We’re in this together, we are a team and we’ll 
get through this bulimia together!”
Tyler was describing the impact of his father’s death 
on his developing anorexia. “And how did your Dad die?” I 
asked.
Tyler answered with a rueful half smile, “My father was 
an alcoholic. He died of neurosis of the liver!” In the midst 
of a sorrowful time, Tyler had found a shred of playfulness 
that lightened his grief and brought us together on our 
journey.
Molly, a binge eater, poked fun at herself sheepishly, 
“The most stable men in my life have always been Ben and 
Jerry!” I responded that one of my best girlfriends used to 
be Sara Lee. We joined together with an affectionate, laugh­
ing connection.
“You’re the same old boring therapist always trying 
to psychoanalyze me,” complained Laura, not wanting 
to speak further about a topic I was encouraging her to 
discuss. Knowing Laura for a long time, I replied, “And 
you’re the same old boring, resistant patient, always trying 
to make me feel like a pain-in-the-neck shrink.” We both 
laughed, letting off steam at how we were annoying each 
other, clearing the air and then going back to work.
Laughter is a form of “non-food nurturance,” a way of 
soothing oneself rather than bingeing, starving or throwing 
up. Norman Cousins declared, “Laughter is inner jogging.” 
Charlie Chaplin once said, “To truly laugh, you must be 
able to take your pain and play with it.”
“There is a great value in humor because it can to 
some degree 
positively alter 
our emotional 
states when we 
are faced with 
cruel reality. 
Humor is the 
emotionally 
healthy way of 
dealing with the problems and dilemmas of life, as opposed 
to unhealthy ways such as drug addiction and depression. 
The ability to use humor easily is a wonderful psychologi­
cal aid. Laughter is an appropriate way for the therapist to 
express his own humanity to the patient.”1
All the formal therapy techniques in the world are not 
sufficient to help someone relinquish the pain and the eating 
disorder. But when the person experiences the therapist as 
an emotional companion on the journey toward healing, 
then the process becomes vivid and alive. The root of the 
word “companion” derives from Latin and means “to break 
bread together” (com = with, pan = bread). To break bread 
is an act of sharing, of togetherness, of comfort, of being 
present in the moment—the recipe for a wonderful therapy!
Fortified with curiosity, empathy, resilience and humor, 
patients can continue their journey to declare peace with 
emotional eating. Our patients learn to sink their teeth into 
life, not into the relationship with food. 
1. Louis Birner, Ph.D. “Humor and the Joke in Psychoanalysis,” in Herb Strean, 
ed., The Use of Humor in Psychotherapy (Jason Aronson, 1994), 84, 87.
Mary Anne Cohen, LCSW is Director of The New York Center for Eating 
Disorders and author of French Toast for Breakfast: Declaring Peace with 
Emotional Eating, and Lasagna for Lunch: Declaring Peace with Emotional 
Eating. www.EmotionalEating.Org.
The Healing Power of Laughter in the 
Treatment of Eating Disorders
By Mary Anne Cohen, LCSW
At the height of laughter, 
the universe is flung into 
a kaleidoscope of new 
possibilities.
—Jean Houston, Ph.D.
20  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
I 
remember sobbing the first 
time I read How Is Mourning 
Possible by Martha Wolfenstein. 
I was a new mother at the time 
and, having lost my own mother 
at age 14, I became very emotional 
while reading Dr. Wolfenstein’s 
description of a grieving ten-year-
old named Walter. Walter’s mother 
had died of cancer and his grand­
mother took over his care. I won­
dered why Walter’s story was so 
much more poignant for me than 
the case, presented in the same 
paper, of a motherless teenage 
girl whom I logically should have 
identified with. But upon rereading 
Dr. Wolfenstein’s paper to write this 
review, and absorbing the intellec­
tually intriguing ideas presented 
in George Hagman’s elegantly 
edited book on mourning, I realize 
that Walter’s story struck a chord 
because it reconnected me with a 
long-suppressed sorrow for my own 
grandmother and recognition of a 
mutual bereavement held togeth­
er by my lost mother and her lost 
daughter.
So it is that New Models 
of Bereavement Theory and 
Treatment: New Mourning enables 
BOOK	
Books Written by NYSSCSW Members
REVIEW 	
Reviewed by Debra Kuppersmith, LCSW
New Models of 
Bereavement Theory 
and Treatment: 
New Mourning 
Edited by George Hagman
(Routledge 2016) 
the reader to see that our response 
to the death of a loved one encom­
passes much more than resolution 
of the libidinal loss and decathect­
ing the person to whom we were 
attached. Mourning is complicated 
and exponential because it creates 
“new” relationships with those 
around us. As Hagman states, the 
bereaved person’s experience is 
shaped by individual, familial, sit­
uational, and social factors. There 
are expectations, both conscious 
and unconscious, of the surviving 
parent, relatives, friends, extended 
family, and community. There is a 
restructuring of fantasies about the 
future. These experiences have no 
predictable psychic structure: they 
are interpersonal and intersubjec­
tive, can involve a range of affects 
from sadness to joy, and perhaps 
most compelling—to those who 
have had a fixed view of the mourn­
er’s psychic response to loss—
rather than giving up the dead, 
many people, through mourning, 
strengthen the relationship with the 
deceased.
Part of what makes this book 
accessible is that it presents ideas 
from a social work perspective: 
it has a bio/psycho/social lens. 
Although Freud’s seminal 1917 
paper, “Mourning and Melancholia,” 
and its emphasis on the need to 
decathect the lost object, informs 
the work of Hagman and his col­
leagues, they draw upon many other 
interpersonal and intrapsychic expe­
riences to formulate paths through 
the process of mourning. For exam­
ple, Hagman contends that, beyond 
decathecting the lost object and 
object tie, a mourner can achieve a 
permanent internal restructuring of 
the lost relationship—what he calls 
“recathexis”—that can lead to a 
life-affirming restoration of the self 
within a familial, social and environ­
mental context.
To say that it was a joy to read 
a book about mourning may seem 
incongruous, but I was enthralled 
and encouraged by its integration 
of culture, family systems, and reli­
gion into a framework for achieving 
healthy acceptance of loss in a clin­
ical setting. The book begins with 
an introduction by Dr. Robert A. 
Neimeyer, a researcher and clinical 
practitioner, outlining contempo­
rary grief theory, including practi­
cal ways of processing grief, such 
as journaling, which can facilitate 
“reconnecting to the life narrative 
of the deceased loved one.” There 
are then 12 papers by prominent 
analytic writers, researchers and 
clinicians in the field of bereave­
ment, including six by the editor 
himself, all published within the 
last 25 years. They include Joyce 
I was enthralled and 
encouraged by [the 
book’s] integration 
of culture, family 
systems, and religion 
into a framework for 
achieving a healthy 
acceptance of loss in a 
clinical setting.”
CONTINUED NEXT PAGE
The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org  •  21
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CLASSIFIED 
ADS 
Slochower, who writes about the 
efficacy of religious rituals in her 
paper, “The Holding Function of 
Shiva” and Otto Kernberg, who 
writes, in “Some Observations 
About the Mourning Process,” 
about the ongoing and even perma­
nent structural changes that result 
from mourning. 
The book relies heavily on 
self-psychology and the self/object 
milieu and, particularly in “Object 
Loss and Self Object Loss” by 
Estelle and Morton Shane, and “The 
Role of the Other in Mourning” by 
Hagman, emphasizes the impor­
tance of the idealizing self/object 
transference. The latter paper 
addresses concepts such as aborted 
mourning due to the isolation of 
affect in families, and the impor­
tance of a responsive and affectively 
attuned environment in enabling 
repressed affect to emerge. 
All the articles in this collec­
tion are well organized and easy 
to read. Hagman’s own articles 
begin with an outline of the topics 
to be addressed, which he then 
explicates by means of case stud­
ies presented with empathy and 
insight. Most of the other articles 
Book Review, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20
similarly benefit from a synthesis 
of theoretical premises and case 
histories that bring the theories to 
life. In their thoughtful delineation 
and exploration of the concepts of 
bereavement, grief and mourning, 
the articles in this collection offer 
clinicians both an aid to navigat­
ing the complex literature of loss 
and, perhaps more importantly, an 
understanding that mourning is not 
just as an ordeal through which all 
of us must pass, but a process that 
can ultimately lead to psychological 
growth.  
George Hagman, LCSW is a clinical social 
worker and psychoanalyst in private practice 
in New York and Stamford, Connecticut. He is 
the author of The Artist’s Mind: Psychoanalytic 
Perspectives on Art. Modern Artists and 
Modern Art, and Creative Analysis: Art, 
Creativity and Clinical Process, as well as the 
editor of New Models of Bereavement Theory 
and Treatment: New Mourning.
Debra Kuppersmith, LCSW is a psychoanalyst, 
clinical social worker and educator. She is the 
co-editor of the AAPCSW monograph, on the 
editorial board of The Psychoanalytic Review, 
and a training and supervising psychoanalyst 
at NPAP. She has a private practice in New 
York City and Dobbs Ferry. 
Affordable Care Act, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
We do not know if certain important provisions of the ACA would 
remain after it was repealed, including: 
• The provision that young people can be covered by their parents’ 
insurance until age 26. Under the ACA, mental health treatment has 
increased by 5.3 % among people ages 18 to 25, and mental health 
uninsured visits have decreased by 12.4%, while private insurance 
visits have increased 12.9%.
• The provision that insurance plans cannot charge more or deny cov­
erage for pre-existing conditions. 
Despite their failure to date, Republicans remain committed to the 
repeal of the ACA. This means we need to stay alert and continue to 
oppose destructive changes in Medicaid federal funding for the most vul­
nerable populations. 
22  •  The Clinician, Fall 2017  |  www.nysscsw.org
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
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THE	
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BRUCE	
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  HILLOWE,	
  J.D.,	
  Ph.D.	
  
	
  
	
  
A	
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  PRACTICE	
  EMPHASIZING	
  
MENTAL	
  HEALTHCARE	
  LAW,	
  HEALTHCARE	
  LAW	
  
AND	
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  CIVIL	
  PRACTICE	
  
	
  
An	
  attorney	
  with	
  30	
  years	
  of	
  experience,	
  Bruce	
  
formerly	
  practiced	
  as	
  a	
  psychologist.	
  	
  He	
  
represents	
  mental	
  health	
  practitioners,	
  
institutes	
  and	
  agencies	
  for	
  all	
  their	
  legal	
  needs.	
  
TELEPHONE	
  CONSULTATIONS	
  AVAILABLE:	
  	
  	
  
(516)	
  877-­‐2016	
  &	
  (800)	
  286-­‐0369	
  
1122	
  Franklin	
  Avenue,	
  Suite	
  402	
  
Garden	
  City,	
  New	
  York	
  11530	
  
	
  
	
  
For	
  more	
  information	
  visit	
  our	
  website	
  at	
  
www.brucehillowe.com	
  
	
  
	
  
	
  
NEW YORK
STATE
SOCIETY
FOR
CLINICAL
SOCIAL
WORK,
INC.
New York Society for
Clinical Social Work, Inc.
243 Fifth Avenue, Suite 324
New York, NY 10016
Clinical Social Work Association
Membership in CSWA is an investment in your professional 
growth and development.  Remember, CSWA is the only 
national organization that advocates for your interests! 
VISIT OUR WEBSITE AND BECOME A MEMBER TODAY!!
www.clinicalsocialworkassociation.org
PO Box 10 | Garrisonville, Virginia  22463 | 855-279-2669
CSWA has been on the front lines to ensure your ability to provide quality clinical care in the foreseeable future.  We are 
currently actively involved in promoting clinical social work mental health services in the Essential Health Plan and protecting 
within your individual states.
 
CSWA is an independent membership organization which means that social workers need to join as individuals, even if you 
are member of a state society. Without membership in organizations at state and national levels, your interests are not being 
protected.  The CSWA needs your support to continue with the important work being done nationally -- advocating for the 
clinical social work profession.
 
• 
Legislative advocacy for adequate reimbursement for licensed clinical social workers.
• 
• 
State society advocacy and consulting.
• 
Up-to-date clinical information that informs your practice.
• 
Free consultative service for legal and ethical questions.
• 
Discounted comprehensive professional liability insurance.