Dr. Kurt Fabian, Psya.D.

Contact Information

Personal Statement

When I started my Master’s degree in Pennsylvania, it was recommended that students enroll in therapy while working towards the counseling degree. At the time, I did not have a therapist, so I went to the administrative office where there were business cards of local therapists. Randomly, I chose the one for a modern psychoanalyst. At the time, I knew very little about psychoanalysis. This experience was the start of my journey toward emotional change and eventually the inspiration to become a psychoanalyst myself.

I moved to Boston in 2012 and enrolled in the doctoral program at The Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis while continuing to work under my LMHC and LPC in a community mental health clinic. In 2015, I transitioned to private practice in downtown Boston. I also supervised Master’s level students and worked as a Fellow at BGSP. Since earning my doctoral degree, I have become a faculty member and look forward to teaching, supervising, and continuing my private practice.

Dr. Sadeq Rahimi, Ph.D.

Contact Information

Personal Statement

Sadeq Rahimi was born in Iran and left the country for Canada as a political refugee in 1988. In Canada he received a BA Hon. in Cognitive Social Psychology at the University of Saskatchewan, followed by an MSC and a PhD in Social and Transcultural Psychiatry from McGill University. He then served 4 years as postdoctoral fellow in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and in Middle Eastern Studies at the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Dr. Rahimi also received training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Montreal and Boston, and worked for over 15 years as a psychotherapist in hospital and private settings in Canada and the United States. In 2014 he received his tenure as a professor in Medical Anthropology and Psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan, and moved to serve as a visiting professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2015 to 2017, where he continues to serve as a Research Associate. Dr. Rahimi’s research and publication interests have covered different aspects of culture, mental health and subjectivity, including collective self-esteem and perception of racism, schizophrenia and culture, trauma, radicalization, political subjectivity, and artificial intelligence. Dr. Rahimi’s most recent book, Meaning, Madness and Political Subjectivity (Routledge, 2016), explores the subjective experience of schizophrenia as embedded and shaped by culture, politics, and history; and his upcoming book, The Hauntology of Everyday Life (Palgrave) examines patterns and mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of affect through language and culture. He recently co-edited with Byron J. Good a special issue of Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology dedicated to clinical, ethnographic, and theoretical examinations of haunting and hauntology.

Dr. Barry Waterson, M.A., Psya.D., Cert.Psya., Licensed Psychologist

Contact Information

Personal Statement

My interest, training and teaching in Modern Psychoanalysis have continued throughout a career in Vermont Mental Health Centers, schools and private community practice in rural Vermont. Work with children and families with severe mental health difficulties has been enriched with training and techniques to address personality disorders as manifested by parents and as mirrored in the emotional development of their children.

This interest in children and parents led to my doctoral research in disorganized attachment and ways that Modern Psychoanalytic Technique could be understood and developed as an intervention with severely disturbed children. In the course of that research I have been pleased to be able to collaborate with psychoanalytic colleagues both in and out of Modern Psychoanalysis. What I have found is that the earlier rifts in theory and technique now appear to be converging again, and that much of Modern Psychoanalytic technique is supported by theories of mentalization and attachment in current psychoanalytic and neuropsychoanalytic research.

I enjoy teaching and training students from a variety of cultures and backgrounds and look forward to a renaissance of psychodynamic interventions aimed at prevention and intervention with severe mental and emotional disorders.

Dr. Thomas Twyman, MSSW, Cert.Psya.

Co-Director, Clinical Studies

Contact Information

Personal Statement

Psychoanalysis, maligned from a variety of perspectives for the last several decades, now finds itself once again, on the cutting edge of the exploration of what makes us humans so human. To be involved in such exploration is indeed a rewarding and fulfilling endeavor.

Dr. William Sharp, Psya.D.

Contact Information

Personal Statement

William Sharp was a high school social studies teacher who became interested in why some students learn and some did not. This interest in the individual’s mind brought him to the study of psychoanalysis. He currently has a private practice in Brookline village for adult, children, and groups.

In addition to teaching at BGSP, he teaches at Northeastern University and Wheelock College where he encourages psychoanalytic research and thinking. Dr Sharp consults with schools and teachers in the Boston area helping them reach children that are often hard to reach due to emotional blocks to learning.

His interests also include writing and movie discussions. He has led talks at BGSP on how film reflects human drives in such movies as: Lars and The Real Girl, Brokeback Mountain, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Warm Bodies. You can learn more about his presentations by following him on Twitter @DrWilliamSharp

Dr. Stephen Price, Ph.D., Cert. Psya.

Contact Information

Personal Statement

I was in the original classes in 1976 at BGSP (then Boston Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies) and have been a practicing psychoanalyst since 1978. What attracted me to the center was my interest in how people manage the aggressive drive. This has allowed me to work with populations that were thought previously to be “not suitable for treatment,” – the poor and the mentally retarded. Using modern analytic techniques with these people has been especially rewarding.

Dr. Vincent Panetta, Ph.D., Cert.Psya.

Contact Information

Personal Statement

I became fascinated with psychoanalysis when I was a college student. I had a professor who was an analyst; he had been trained by Anna Freud. Not only did I take all the courses he taught, but I would go to the library on my own to read the works of Freud. It was my good fortune to stumble upon BGSP (then BCMPS) in 1979, the year I graduated from college. I knew then that I wanted to start my training as an analyst, and I did.

Since then, I have used my psychoanalytic training to work both in private practice and with challenging clients in community mental health.

At BGSP, I enjoy working as a teacher, supervisor, and training analyst.  I came to this country from Italy when I was 13, and I especially appreciate the challenges facing international students.

Ms. Faye Newsome, M.A., Cert.Psya., NYS Licensed Psychoanalyst, Co-Director of Clinical Studies, Liaison

Contact Information

Personal Statement

In the past year I have developed the course “How the Mind Unfolds,” which integrates neuroscience, observational studies and various psychoanalytic theories in order to lead students to address the controversies about the concepts of projection, projective identification and imitation. The question addressed by the class is how the neonate progresses from sensation through to the birth of the other. Developing this course has led to further work in the clinical area of how the concept of envy can be applied to the modern analytic concept of the narcissistic defense.
I have concentrated on clinical issues in my psychoanalytic career, focusing on teaching students to tolerate and learn about themselves and others through their work with patients in mental hospitals, day facilities, addiction programs, and in their work with patients in the Treatment Service which forms the foundation for their private practice.
Teaching the techniques of exploration, journey, mirroring and reflecting (types of modern analytical interventions) is an intense experience for students who have new thoughts and feelings about themselves as they use theories of techniques to work with the resistances of their patients.

Dr. John Madonna, Ed.D., Cert.Psya.

Contact Information

Personal Statement

I came to psychoanalysis twenty-five years ago as a part of an ongoing quest to know more about the deeper forces that compel human behavior. The evolution from education and clinical psychology was a natural one, and very exciting. In private practice since 1981, I have worked extensively with people from all walks of life who have been engaged variously in struggles for psychic freedom and emotional well-being. A particular and long-standing interest has been working with those who serve: clinicians, police, clergy, and religious who in their efforts on behalf of others run perilous risks.