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  • July 03, 2025 9:49 AM | Kelli Cable (Administrator)

    With great honor and enthusiasm, I address you for the first time as President of the Denver Psychoanalytic Society. I am a child and adult analyst and licensed psychologist who is on the faculty of the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis. Less well known is my national and international work.

    Since 2022, I have been a member of the Child Adolescent Committee and adjunct child faculty at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute. I have taught and supervised, both virtually and in person, at psychoanalytic training programs in Chengdu and Yichang, China. Just this year, in 2025, I co-taught with Anita Schmukler, DO a course for the Society titled “Ethical Practice in Psychoanalysis and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Thinking about our concepts of ethical practice from a variety of perspectives.” Integrating two of my long-standing interests, I chair the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA) Study Group on Meditation and Psychoanalysis. I plan to teach more about the use of meditation and relaxation techniques as adjuncts to psychodynamic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis.

    I became more involved with the Society through my work on the Schools Committee. During the pandemic, Tony Miles, PhD, our former DPS Secretary, introduced me to administrators at two private schools. This led to a rewarding experience in 2021 where I had the opportunity to speak to their teachers and staff on topics such as "Connecting, Communicating and Coping during this Pandemic," and "Back-to-School Concerns" during the Second Year of Covid-19.

    As I step into the role of President, I see an opportunity to revitalize our Society. In recent months, I had the pleasure of connecting with a dozen or so active members about their interests and ideas. I plan to ask the Board and Coordinating Committee members to continue this kind of personal outreach, so that all voices are heard and considered.

    We already have a robust calendar of lectures, conferences, and courses, including our very popular film series. Building on this strong foundation, I propose the following key areas for growth and innovation:

    1. Growing Membership and Leadership: To foster new membership and develop leadership across our organization and within key committees, including Diversity, Fundraising, and the Schools Committee.
    2. Streamlining Educational Programming: To coordinate educational programming, the Society BOD has recommended combining the Continuing Education, Salon and Lecture and Conference Committees. This proposal for a Programming Committee will appear on our upcoming ballot for your vote.
    3. Enhancing In-Person Networking: To follow up on the feedback from our 2024 member survey, we will be offering additional in-person networking opportunities two to three times a year to foster stronger connections among our members.
    4. Expanding Our Digital Presence: To develop LinkedIn announcements and networking, both for DPS members and other interested psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists throughout the country.
    5. Outreaching to the Community at large through Extension Courses: To explore how our members can provide extension courses to the wider Metropolitan community, offering programs tailored for parents, teachers, lawyers, physicians, and other professionals. I warmly invite any members interested in joining a task force to explore this exciting initiative to contact me.
    6. Exploring AI's Influence on Our Field: To learn more about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on mental health. In this vein, Valerie Frankfeldt, PhD, a member of the APsA task force on Artificial Intelligence, will present a lecture on November 12, 2026, titled “Beyond the Algorithm to Emotional Communication: Why AI Lacks the Heart of Psychoanalysis.”

    Please contact members of the board, committee chairs or me about your interest in any of the above proposals, committees, task forces, teaching or learning in continuing education programs, networking and referrals. Ask yourselves both what the Society can do for you and what you can do for the Society.

    I am hopeful about the future of the Denver Psychoanalytic Society and the collective impact we can have to further strengthen our vibrant community. The success of my hopes and plans for the next two years as President of the Society depends on you.

    Shoshana Shapiro Adler
    President, Denver Psychoanalytic Society



  • June 23, 2025 11:06 AM | Kelli Cable (Administrator)

    Dr. Charatan was recently elected to the position of President-Elect of Division 39: Society for Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology (SPPP) of the American Psychological Association. She will take over the Presidency on January 1, 2026.

    Over the years, Dr. Charatan has been a very involved member of the Denver Psychoanalytic Society. When she was on the Program Committee and eventually chairing it, she recruited excellent speakers with a variety of topics including the interplay of psychoanalysis with societal and diversity issues.

    We wish her the best in her position with Division 39: SPPP!

  • May 20, 2025 10:22 AM | Kelli Cable (Administrator)

    Psychoanalytic Social Work
    Tuition Support Award

    For Recent MSW Graduates or
    Early Career Social Workers

    What is the Psychoanalytic Social Work Tuition Support Award?

    The APsA Graduate Education in Social Work Committee was re-established in 2021 to collaborate on various projects to promote awareness about the relevance of psychoanalytic education among social work students and licensed social workers in the community. Currently, this committee is able to offer two awards of $750 each to a licensed social worker, who is less than five years post-master's and is applying for tuition support based on financial need.

    Sponsor:

    The American Psychoanalytic Association, Graduate Education in Social Work Committee

    Eligibility Criteria:

    For this award, a recent MSW graduate and/or early career social worker is defined as a licensed social worker in the United States, who has a Master's of Social Work degree, with less than five years post-master's experience. The tuition support award is for a continuing education program and/or post-master's institute training program that is provided by an APsA-approved institute or APsA affiliate society. The duration of the education program must be a minimum of ten weeks. Applicants do not need to have prior academic experience or knowledge about psychodynamic theory in order to qualify for this award.

    Please note: This award is based on financial need and is only for tuition. The award is paid directly to the training institute or continuing education program once the award recipient has confirmed program registration and cost of tuition. Preference will be given to applicants who are not receiving additional tuition support for the program named on this application.

    Tuition Support Fund Application Materials:

    • A one-page or two-page letter or essay stating your full legal name, professional and educational background, credentials, financial need, and reasons for participating in a continuing education program related to learning applied psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy and/or psychoanalysis (introductory level programs are eligible as well)
    •  Current Curriculum Vitae (CV) and at least one professional or academic recommendation letter
    • Tuition Invoice for the APsA continuing education program or approved institute program
    • Submission Deadline Extended to May 30, 2025 (from May 16th)

    Click here to Submit Your Application in PDF Format to APsA's National Office

    For questions, contact: Desiree Santos, LCSW-R, Committee Chair
    Tel: (646) 574-7376 or email: membership@apsa.org
    apsa.org/fellowships-awards/social-work-tuition-support


  • December 20, 2024 2:54 PM | Kelli Cable (Administrator)


    The Society is taking nominations for the Geoffrey B. Heron Diversity in Psychoanalysis Award. To nominate a member, please submit a paragraph or two explanation for your nomination by May 15, 2025.

    This award, established in 2017, is presented to a member of the Denver Psychoanalytic Society who most exemplifies Geoff's commitment to the inclusion of all persons, no matter their race, ethnicity, and religion, and regardless of their economic, immigration, gender, or sexual orientation status. 

    It was Geoff's humanistic and egalitarian conviction that the extraordinary benefits of psychoanalytic therapy and psychoanalytic education should be available to any and all individuals.

    More information about these awards can be found on our website. All papers and nominations may be submitted to office@denverpsychoanalytic.org.

  • December 19, 2024 2:39 PM | Kelli Cable (Administrator)

    To apply for the Herbert S. Gaskill Award, current Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis candidates, PTP students, University of Colorado psychiatry residents, child fellows, and medical students may submit a paper developing ideas and exploring in-depth clinical work from a psychoanalytic or psychodynamic perspective, theory, and technique.

    The requested length is 15 to 20 double-spaced pages, including references. Reference and in-text citation style should follow the American Psychological Association, APA, style for citation. The award includes a certificate and a cash prize of $500 to be given at Society Annual Business Meeting.  Please submit papers to the Society office email: office@denverpsychoanalytic.org by April 15, 2025. Applicants need not be members of the Denver Psychoanalytic Society.

    For more information or any additional questions about the paper's format or content, please contact Dr. Shana Adler, the Chair of the Awards Committee.


  • October 11, 2024 8:28 AM | Kelli Cable (Administrator)

    Member involvement is crucial to the Society's success! Currently, the Society has several committees looking for new members (see below). The time commitment is minimal and provides opportunity to connect with others while shaping the Society's programming or serving the community. For more information about how to get connected, please email office@denverpsychoanalytic.org.

    Continuing Education Committee -- collaborates with potential instructors to arrange both in-person and virtual classes. Classes vary in topic and length. 

    Diversity in Psychoanalysis Committee -- recently helped organize a small group to discuss the Holmes Commission Report and participated as discussants for the film series. In the past, this committee has organized book discussion groups for a variety of titles like Homegoing, Heavy: An American Memoir, and Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. Additional programs may be developed. 

    School Consultation Committee -- provides pro bono volunteer community service in/for local schools in two different ways. 1) Education: Courses and Discussion Groups on emotional growth and development for school directors, teachers, or parents. 2) Consultation: Meeting with school directors, teachers, or parents to help children develop their full potential. 

  • July 24, 2024 1:28 PM | Kelli Cable (Administrator)

    Dr. George Hartlaub passed away on July 1, 2024. Dr. Hartlaub was a past Society member and completed analytic training at the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis.

     In Memoriam: George H. Hartlaub, M.D., 1930-2024

    Colorado has lost a beloved teacher and clinician in the field of psychiatry and allied mental health practices. George Hartlaub, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, died peacefully at the age of 93 on July 1. He had completed nearly 60 years of devoted service as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at CU Anschutz School of Medicine where he won recognition as an outstanding teacher/clinician with special interests in group therapy and human development.         

    George was born in 1930 in Chicago, the eighth of ten children. Following high school, he entered the St. Louis Province of the Marianist Society where he engaged in strict Catholic religious training, vows and practice.  He left the Marianist Brothers equipped with wide-ranging spiritual talents combined with an enduring skepticism regarding dogmatism of all kinds.

     He graduated from the University of Dayton, majoring in mathematics, in 1951 and received his M.D. degree from the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in 1955. After completing his residency training in psychiatry at Colorado State Hospital in Pueblo, he entered private practice in Denver and completed his analytic training at the Denver Institute for Psycho-analysis.

    A perpetually curious innovator, George frequently questioned the limited perspectives of classical psycho-analysis and became one of the founding faculty members of an alternative analytic institute in Denver which accepted master’s level practitioners from social work, family therapy, nursing and psychology. This institute and its students questioned the validity and usefulness of the analyst as a “blank screen” and emphasized the importance of a new, more empathic, real relationship as most salient in the healing process.

    Along with Drs. Mark Rhine and Gary Martin, George coauthored a article entitled “Recontacts with the Analyst following Termination: A Survey of 71 Cases.” George continued to delight in hearing about the life journeys of his former patients. For him, “termination” was a rather negative descriptor applied to ending such an intimate and personal relationship. Better to say “graduation,” with the implication that occasional brief reunions were welcome.

    In the context of increasing incidents and media coverage of therapeutic boundary violations, George and his second wife, Dr. Joan Shapiro, became founding members of a monthly men’s and women’s consultation group which focused on gender issues in psychotherapy. Their collaboration and the evocative discussions in this group led to the publication of a relevant, timely and subtly humorous book, Men: A Translation for Women, written by Dr. Shapiro and published in 1992.

    Fascinated by neural network theory and the complexities of memory, George collaborated with Drs. James Grigsby and Dr. David Stevens at the University of Denver in researching the distinctions between procedural and declarative memory processes and their manifestations in psychodynamic psychotherapy. These findings were published by Grigsby and Stevens in The Neuro-Dynamics of Personality in 2001.

    George was active in the Men’s Leadership Alliance, which used the practices, rituals and prayers of Indigenous Americans and the writings of Rilke, Hanh, Keene, Bly and others to better understand the nature of contemporary manhood and the mentoring of elders. Their activities and annual retreats in the Rocky Mountains gave birth to numerous leaders of the men’s movement and deepened relationships between fathers and sons.

    While raising his family and mentoring residents and colleagues he took graduate courses in DU’s Korbel Institute for International Relations where he developed a life-long interest in foreign affairs.  George read prodigiously and loved to travel, play guitar, drum, sing pop tunes, hike, snowshoe and ski well into his 80s in and around his second home in Salida, CO accompanied by his family members, co-workers and close friends.

    Several years ago, George retired from psychiatric practice but, persistent in his desire to teach and help others, he became certified as a personal life coach and maintained an active practice into his late 80s.     

    George was a deeply spiritual person, teacher and an inspiring elder for all who knew him. He often quoted the saying: Ubi caritas et amor, ibi Deus est. (Where there is charity and love, God is there.)  For many, including this writer, being with George was a touching experience of loving kindness.

    George and several other mental health professionals founded a monthly men’s group which has lasted for over 35 years, which for many has become like a second family. Members of group recently described him as warm, affectionate, always eager to learn, a superbly empathic listener and an enduring model for facing mortality with gratitude, dignity and compassion for others.

    He is survived by his daughter Maureen and sons Mark and Steve from his first marriage, by his second wife, Dr. Joan Shapiro, and their daughter Laura. At the time of his passing, he left over 60 grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces, nephews and their children.

    May his memory be a blessing. 

    Respectfully submitted,
    John S. Graves, M.D. APA Life Fellow
    July 18, 2024


  • July 10, 2023 11:29 AM | Kelli Cable (Administrator)

    Cynthia Rose, MD passed away on the morning of June 21, 2023 at the age of 87.

    Dr. Rose is an alumna of Tufts University and Boston University Medical school, and performed her medical internship at the San Francisco Medical Center and her fellowship and adult and child psychiatric residencies at the University or Colorado in Denver. Upon moving to Colorado Springs in 1969, she served as the Medical Director of the Pikes Peak Mental Health Center. Her education continued with board certification in psychiatry and psychoanalytic training. She remained active professionally until the time of her death.

    Positions of distinction include her leadership as the first woman president of the Colorado Psychiatric Society, western region president of the American Psychiatric Society, and President of the Denver Psychoanalytic Society.

    Click here for the full obituary and information about the CO memorial service on July 30th. 

  • June 29, 2023 9:08 AM | Kelli Cable (Administrator)

    Brian was selected as the 2024 recipient of the Ernst and Gertrude Ticho Memorial Award and Lecture.

    The Ernst and Gertrude Ticho Memorial Award and Lecture recognizes and fosters the work of a promising early- to mid-career psychoanalyst who has made contributions to the field through teaching, writing, research, and applied and/or clinical work.

    Brian is the first clinical social worker - or masters-level psychoanalyst - to receive this award. He will be presenting a paper entitled "Porosity and Preoccupation: Queer Thoughts on Psychoanalytic Care” at APsA's 2024 National Meeting in New York City in February 2024.

    The award committee found his personal statement riveting because of his dedication to practicing psychoanalysis clinically and promoting and using psychoanalytic knowledge beyond the consulting room, specifically in his effective work with homeless populations.

    His illustrative publications include:

    • Ngo-Smith, B.R. (2018). This couch has bed bugs: On the psychoanalysis of homelessness and the homelessness of psychoanalysis. Clinical Social Work Journal, Vol 46(1), pp. 26-33.
    • Smith, B.R. (2008). The examined life: Personal therapy and the social worker's ethical obligations to self. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertation and Theses. (UMI No. 1453791)

    The Ticho Lecture was inaugurated in June 2006 with the generous support of the Ernst and Gertrude Ticho Charitable Foundation. View past Ticho Memorial Lecture Winners.

    Brian Ngo-Smith, LCSW, BCD-P, FABP is a psychoanalyst and clinical social worker in Denver, CO. He received his MSW from the University of Iowa and has worked in the mental health field for 20 years, first in residential and hospital settings and later in community mental health before moving into private practice in 2018. Brian completed post-grad training at the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis in 2022, where he is now on faculty, and he also teaches at the Sue Fairbanks Academy through the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. Brian is the current President of the American Association for Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work (AAPCSW).

    Brian will be presenting his award-winning paper as part of the 2023-2024 Society lecture series. Click here for more information or to register (when available).


  • April 25, 2023 1:10 PM | Denise Wagner (Administrator)


    Richard Clyde Simons

    AUGUST 21, 1933 – APRIL 24, 2023

    Obituary of Richard Clyde Simons

    IN THE CARE OF

    Olinger Hampden Mortuary, Cremation & Cemetery

    RICHARD CLYDE SIMONS, MD; “DICK”

    Richard was born on August 21, 1933 in South Bend, Indiana and died on April 24, 2023 at the age of 89. He inherited his sense of humor and his work ethic from his father, Clyde Simons (a farmer, a pilot, and a pharmacist) and his love of tennis, theatre, and music from his mother, Rose Moore (oldest child of immigrant parents from Hungary). Both parents were committed to education. Richard attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana and excelled in tennis, theatre, academics, and leadership. After three years at Notre Dame, he was accepted to Northwestern Medical School in Chicago, and later received his psychiatric training at the Menninger School of Psychiatry in Topeka, Kansas. He wisely married his teenage sweetheart, Barbara Elaine Buettell, in June 1961, and off they went for two years in the Army Medical Corps at Valley Forge Psychiatric Hospital (near Philadelphia) and then Fort Devans Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic (near Boston). Their first daughter (Lisa) was born in Boston. Psychoanalytic training and two more children (Michael and Kimberly) occupied them during their twelve years in Brooklyn. Happy times, wonderful friends, and hard work followed. Moving to Denver in 1976 was the next step it their journey. Barbara subsequently became a renowned and beloved piano teacher in Colorado.

    Richard received Life Achievement Awards from the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the Colorado Psychiatric Society, and the Menninger School of Psychiatry. At the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, he was Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry, pioneering behavioral health education for all medical students. There were other awards as well, but he was most proud of his wife, their three children, and their two grandchildren, Hunter and Sydney Mayhew. Richard hoped to be fondly remembered by all of them (he is!). Regarding his scientific publications, there were three that he felt were most special: the 3rd edition of a textbook for medical students: “Understanding Human Behavior in Health and Illness” in 1985 and two papers for his psychoanalytic colleagues: “The Life and Art of Gustav Vigeland” in 1984 and “The Lawsuit Revisited” in 2003. He is predeceased by his wife Barbara, who died in November 2020, and is survived by his children Lisa Simons (Bill) of Greenville, TX, Michael Simons (Rossy) of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, Kimberly Patterson (Mark) of Nederland, CO and grandchildren Hunter and Sydney Mayhew . In lieu of flowers, please donate to Tru Hospice of Boulder Colorado.

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