About Me
About Me – Credo
I am, first and foremost, a clinician. Everything else I do as teaching, writing, research, supervision – grows out of clinical work and returns to it. My primary commitment is to the lived encounter between people, to what happens when one person genuinely meets another and allows themselves to be affected. More of that, I need it.
Years of clinical practice have taught me that therapy does not end at the door of the consulting room. The people I work with do not disappear when the session ends. Their self-states, conflicts, hopes, defenses, and moments of courage become part of my internal world. I carry them with me -not as burdens, but as living presences that shape who I am, how I listen, and how I relate. In this sense, my patients’ selves are woven into my own, and they always will be. This is not something I seek to eliminate; it is something I regard as an ethical and human fact of clinical life.
My interpersonal stance is rooted in psychoanalytic–intersubjective thinking, where subjectivity is always formed in relationship. I believe that who I am is revealed not in abstraction, but in how I respond to others: how I listen, how I speak, how I tolerate difference, frustration, dependence, and vulnerability. The same relational patterns that appear in therapy also appear in my professional collaborations, teaching relationships, and personal life.
In my work and in my life, I have learned that interpersonal growth begins when we stop hiding behind roles, insight, or competence, and allow ourselves to be seen as we are in the moment. Thinking and understanding are essential, but they are not enough. What changes us is emotional presence: the courage to speak instead of assume, to remain engaged instead of withdrawing, and to stay in contact even when uncertainty or discomfort arises.
I see interpersonal responsibility not as a burden, but as an ethical assignment. Each relationship gives us another chance to interrupt old sequences and create new ones—to respond rather than repeat, to repair rather than retreat. This is not about self-improvement or moral achievement. It is about choosing aliveness over safety.
My hope is that those who read this will dare to make their best interpersonal effort: to show up a little more fully, to risk being affected, and to recognize that neither suffering nor salvation happens alone. Both unfold between people, over time, through presence, failure, and repair.
As the founder of SIPPI, my aim is to bridge theory and lived interpersonal practice—not by rejecting psychoanalytic thinking, but by restoring its original ethical center. I understand psychoanalysis, first and foremost, as a relational practice. Theory and conceptualization matter, but they must remain secondary to the encounter between people. When theory begins to organize relationships instead of serving them, something essential is lost. My commitment is to favor presence over explanation, engagement over interpretation, and responsibility over conceptual safety. SIPPI is grounded in the belief that interpersonal change does not emerge from better ideas about relationships, but from the courage to remain in them—attentive, affected, and accountable.
I understand interpersonal change as slow, cumulative work. Insight matters, but behavior matters more. I expect myself to fail, to repeat patterns, and to feel resistance. What matters is my willingness to notice, to repair, and to re-enter relationship. This is the same expectation I hold in my clinical work, and I hold it for myself here.
My hope is that those who read this will dare to make their best interpersonal effort: to show up a little more fully, to risk being affected, and to recognize that neither suffering nor salvation happens alone. Both unfold between people, over time, through presence, failure, and repair.
As the founder of SIPPI, my aim is to bridge theory and lived interpersonal practice—not by rejecting psychoanalytic thinking, but by restoring its original ethical center. I understand psychoanalysis, first and foremost, as a relational practice. Theory and conceptualization matter, but they must remain secondary to the encounter between people. When theory begins to organize relationships instead of serving them, something essential is lost. My commitment is to favor presence over explanation, engagement over interpretation, and responsibility over conceptual safety. SIPPI is grounded in the belief that interpersonal change does not emerge from better ideas about relationships, but from the courage to remain in them—attentive, affected, and accountable.
I understand interpersonal change as slow, cumulative work. Insight matters, but behavior matters more. I expect myself to fail, to repeat patterns, and to feel resistance. What matters is my willingness to notice, to repair, and to re-enter relationship. This is the same expectation I hold in my clinical work, and I hold it for myself here.
Kopel Eliezer