Chuck Stewart, Ph.D.
We are fast coming to the end of the year; and what a year it has been for LAGPA. We have held many educational workshops throughout the year that were highly professional and offered Continuing Education credits by APA. Oh, yes, APA. This year we had to complete the full application as our second year renewal. Again, it was 800 pages in length. I’m glad to report that our application was approved this time for five years. Hooray. What a coup. No other LGBT professional group can make that claim. Having APA certification is something the board decided a few years ago was important to our members. Understand, we don’t make a profit having this ability but it serves our members and is important.
You may have noticed that there was no annual psychotherapy conference in 2011. LAGPA has been negotiating with Antioch University Los Angeles a more permanent arrangement for the Conference. We are glad to announce that our 2012 Conference will be held at Antioch sometime in September. We are finalizing the details now including keynote speaker. If you can think of someone you would like as keynote speaker, now would be the time to give your input. Just contact me with your idea.
We are right now planning the educational workshops for the spring and summer. Many exciting ideas are being scheduled. Keep your eyes peeled for these announcements.
On a very personal note, my right hip was replaced the first week of October. My left hip is scheduled for replacement in December.
Many of you are unaware but I was a professional classical ballet dancer for about 25 years. One of the hidden secrets of the ballet world is that we destroy hips—not feet, or ankles, or knees, but hips. Some dancer started a few years ago a website entitled dancerhips.com. They have two goals: to expose the hidden secret about how ballet and ice skating destroys hips, and that after you try alternative medicine, there is no way around total hip replacement. The first page lists many of the stars that have had their hips replaced. I’m surprised how many of them I know. I also like how pragmatic they are about the topic. Many of the ballerinas I worked with so many years ago are having their hips replaced.
I’ve been in terrible pain for almost a year and have had to use a walker. I was unaware of how down I was getting from the pain. My dear friend Fred Wilkey mentioned that depression can originate from relentless pain (otherwise called “stress induced depression”). Most nights I was in tears from the pain as pain medication has very little affect on me. The surgery has eliminated the pain the in right hip. I can’t wait until I have the left hip done in December.
I have thought of hosting a LAGPA event at my apartment to show the movie “Black Swan” on my 8’ home theater screen and then open up the conversation to my experiences in the ballet world. Maybe this will be of interest to some of you. Anyway, this won’t happen until the spring once I’ve recovered. It could be a nice potluck event like in the old days. Keep your eyes peeled for announcements for the movie night at Chuck’s.
Of course, our Winter Social is just around the corner. Look for the coming Evite.
Chuck Stewart, Ph.D.
Executive Director • |
