Pam Jespersen, M.A., received her Masters degree from the University of Northern Colorado in 1972. She has worked for the past 35 years in mental health centers and maintains a private practice in Omaha, NE. Psychoanalysis became an interest which has subsequently turned into a passion in the past eight years. Her particular interest lies in the work of Jacques Lacan, a French analyst, who established a school, The World Association for Psychoanalysis to train and promote analytic practice. Lacan’s work appears in Seminars he presented from 1953-1980 and includes articles through out his life. Pam has published in The International Lacanian Review and The Lacanian Compass. Presentations include the Clinical Study Days 1 in New York; CSD 2 in Miami; and the CSD 3 in Omaha; two presentations for the New Lacanian School for Psychoanalysis in Athens, Greece and in Ghent, Belgium. In the summer of 2008 she will present a paper for the Paris English Seminar held in Paris, France. Lacanian psychoanalysis remains what she references as: “The only analytic practice that demonstrates the subjectivity of the patient and the creative use of the symptom.” The Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis has provoked her interest and is an excellent opportunity for clinicians of all theoretical persuasions to come together to learn from one another.
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Mary Coady-Leeper, Ph.D. has practiced psychology for 20 years. She received her doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and completed her internship at the Norfolk Regional Center, and the Northeast Nebraska Comprehensive Mental Health System. She was a staff psychologist for two years at St. Joseph Center for Mental Health and has spent the remaining years in private practice, currently with Kairos Psychological, P.C. Dr. Coady-Leeper has had extensive supervision and training in Object Relations and Jungian psychology. As well, she has trained in Family Systems Therapy and Feminist Relational Therapy. She spends most of her therapy hours with adults, though she sees adolescents and children. She does both couples and family work in addition to individual psychotherapy. She is a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Creighton University School of Medicine. She is active in her community and served on the Ralston Board of Education for eight years.
Robert G. Kraft, Ph.D., is trained in psychology and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. He received his doctorate at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln and interned at the Sepulveda VA Medical Center in Sepulveda, CA. He completed a two year training in Object Relations at the Washington School of Psychiatry in Washington, D.C. He is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Creighton University School of Medicine and a member of the Nebraska Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association. He has served on and acted as chair of the Nebraska Psychological Association Ethics Committee. He is a founding member of Kairos Psychological, P.C., where he is in private practice. He has developed software for use in the mental health field.
Karen Sharer-Mohatt, Psy.D., interned at Roger's Memorial Hospital in Wisconsin and received her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology. Currently she is in full-time private practice in Lincoln, NE. Having developed an interest in Object Relations theory and practice, she will complete the two-year International Insitute of Object Relations Training Program in Bethesda, MD in October 2007. She has held positions in the past as a School Psychologist, Director of Special Education, and Clinical Supervisor in predominantly rural communities in the Southwest and Upper Midwest. She has also served on various committees, advisory boards and has spoken locally, nationally, and internationally on various topics related to mental health. She is a member of the NE Psychological Assn, American Psychological Assn, the National Association for Rural Mental Health, and the International Psychotherapy Institute. She has special interests in psychoanalytic psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and treatment of depression, anxiety, and trauma.
Florence Shelso, MSW, began practicing nineteen years ago as a mental health Therapist at the Mercy Center, a Community Mental Health Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She worked there for six years. In 1995 she began private Practice in Omaha, Nebraska. The last ten years have been with Kairos Psychological, P. C. She received her BA from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and her MSW from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she has served as an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work. She has received supervision in Object Relations therapy, training in Contextual Family Therapy, and Nondual Healing. She is a member of the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Psychotherapists, and the Sage-ing Guild.
Thomas Svolos, M.D., is a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist in Omaha, Nebraska, where he maintains a private practice. He is a Member of the New Lacanian School and the World Association of Psychoanalysis. He is Adjunct Associate Professor; Vice-Chair for Education; and, Director, Division of Psychoanalysis of the Creighton University Department of Psychiatry. He obtained his MD from University of California, San Francisco, and a BA in History, summa cum laude, from Duke University. He has numerous publications on psychoanalysis and related matters, and his work has been translated into French, Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish.
Marcia A. Wragge, M.S., received an MSW from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and has been a psychotherapist in private practice since 1997. She's a member of the National Association of Social Workers and has done case presentations for the Center for Psychotherapy & Psychoanalysis. She sees adolescents, women, men, and couples for psychotherapy. She also received a masters degree in speech/language pathology from UNO and has been licensed & certified as a speech/language pathologist (SLP) for the past 20+ years. She is a member of the American & Nebraska Speech Language & Hearing Associations, & ASHA's Fluency Special Interest Division. She has done research regarding adolescent language disorders among incarcerated males at the Youth Development Center, Kearney, NE; has a published article on the supervision of paraprofessionals in speech pathology settings; and has presented workshops on counseling issues in speech pathology settings. She combines her two professions by seeing people with fluency disorders for psychotherapy, doing advocacy work in the schools to ensure students receive appropriate services, and specializing in working with adolescents for psychotherapy.
James Rodenbiker, M.S.W., Administrator of the Creighton Department of Psychiatry, serves ex officio.
Daniel Wilson, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of the Creighton Department of Psychiatry and Professor of Psychiatry and Anthropology at Creighton University, serves ex officio.
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Advisory Board
Salman Akhtar, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College, Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and Training and Supervising Analyst at the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute. He is author of Broken Structures: Severe Personality Disorders and Their Treatment (1992) and Quest for Answers: A Primer for Understanding and Treating Severe Personality Disorders (1995), as well as five volumes of poetry. His more than 130 scientific publications also include thirteen edited or co-edited books, and extensive journal editing credits. Dr. Akhtar is the recipient of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association's Award (1995) and the Margaret Mahler Literature Prize (1996), and was named the1998 Clinician of the Year by IPTAR, New York.
Norman Clemens, M.D., is a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist in Cleveland, Ohio. He serves as a Training and Supervising psychoanalyst at the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Institute and is on the Board of Professional Standards of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He is on the Faculty at the Case Western Reserve Department of Psychiatry and is currently the Area 4 Representative to the American Psychiatric Association Board of Trustees.
Bruce Fink, Ph.D., is a practicing psychoanalyst and Professor of Psychology at Duquesne University. He obtained his PhD in Psychoanalysis from the University of Paris and his clinical training at l'Ecole de la Cause freudienne, also in Paris. He is the author of two books, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis (Harvard Press, 1997) and The Lacanian Subject: Between Knowledge and Jouissance (Princeton Press, 1995). He has also edited two collections of essays and written numerous other essays. He has translated several books of Lacan: Seminar XX: On Feminine Sexuality: The Limits of Love and Knowledge (Norton, 1998) and the revised Ecrits: A Selection (Norton, 2002). He is currently preparing a translation of the complete Ecrits and Seminar VIII, On the Transference.
Dany Nobus, Ph.D., is Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Psychoanalysis at Brunel University (London), where he directs the MA Programme in Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Society. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a Visiting Senior Lecturer at Creighton University Medical School. He is the author of Jacques Lacan and the Freudian Practice of Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 2000) and Knowing Nothing, Staying Stupid: Elements for a Psychoanalytic Epistemology (with Malcolm Quinn) (Routledge, 2005), alongside numerous papers on the history, theory and practice of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. He is also the editor of Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (The Other Press, 1999) and (with Lisa Downing) Perversion: Psychoanalytic Perspectives/Perspectives on Psychoanalysis (Karnac, 2005), and Editor-in-Chief of Journal for Lacanian Studies (JLS).
Blaine Shaffer, M.D., is Chief Clinical Officer for the Division of Behavioral Health Services, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. He is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Creighton University Medical Center, and an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He also serves as an Affiliate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Public Policy Center. His areas of interest include Administrative, Public and Community, and Cultural Psychiatry.
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