We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alan Karbelnig, PhD, ABPP a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
My long-standing political and scholarly interest lies in unifying the various tribal conflicts within psychoanalysis. Towards that end, I’ve written a number of articles promoting this cohering model: Psychoanalytic psychotherapists, regardless of their theoretical preferences, share in these three modes of intervening: 1. They create a frame, or a crucible, for personal transformational processes to unfold; 2. They bring their presence, in the form of attention, respect, and empathy, to their patients within the transformational frame, and; 3. They engage patients in dialogue, conscious and unconscious, intended to access, uncover, and alter problematic unconscious schemata.
Alan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Alan Michael Karbelnig, and I am a psychoanalyst, writer, teacher, and forensic psychologist with a practice in Pasadena, California. A supervising and training psychoanalyst at the New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, I lectures nationally and internationally including in Hong Kong and Beijing, China; Ahmedabad and Delhi, India, and Tel Aviv, Israel. I write a weekly Substack newsletter titled, “Journeys to the Unconscious Mind.” Last September, I released my first book entitled, “Lover, Exorcist, Critic: Understanding Depth Psychotherapy.” Prior to this book’s publication, I had published 20 scholarly articles and five book chapters. As noted earlier, my work reveals an enduring political and scholarly interest in unifying psychoanalysts of divergent theoretical perspectives. Finally, I consider my 2004 founding of Rose City Center—a nonprofit clinic providing psychoanalytic psychotherapy for economically disadvantaged persons throughout California—my proudest professional accomplishment.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
It would be the events leading me to found Rose City Center as described in prior screen.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
I would like to share brief tales of two of the three patients I discuss in my book, “Lover, Exorcist, Critic…” Both of these involved what are called countertransference enactments. In one case, I gave $400 in cash to a desperate patient—this behavior representing the bottom of a problematic curve. I then recovered but the patient was furious at me for months as we worked our way back towards proper psychotherapeutic boundaries. It involves rather humbling admissions on my part (in terms of errors) while, at the same time, instructing listeners about what professional boundaries mean. I wish to also share the difference between boundary crossings (which create discomfort) and boundary violations (which create harm).
Contact Info:
- Website: alankarbelnig.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/unconsciousjourneys
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alan.karbelnig
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-karbelnig-131774259/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/PsychJourneys
- Youtube: @alankarbelnig3468
- Other: Here is a link to my weekly Substack newsletter: https://www.unconsciousjourneys.com
Image Credits
Alan Karbelnig