[Note: Off and on, formally and informally, Bernadette Walter has served as the Executive Officer of the Society for Psychotherapy Research for most of the past 20 years. A couple weeks ago, during SPR's annual meeting in Krakow, Poland, we celebrated her for her long service, as she stepped down from this position for a well-deserved rest. Two friends and colleagues, Felicitas Rost and Shigeru Iwakabe, asked me to say a few words to her during the conference banquet, and the result was the following poem. -Robert Elliott]
Like me, you first came to SPR
Wide-eyed with wonder,
Like entering an enchanted forest,
And came out changed,
Part of something larger than yourself.
As the decades passed,
You grew up, in and with SPR,
Met people important to you,
Made life-long connections.
You’ve found yourself a home here,
In this forest of intersecting
Plants, paths and people,
Among the ever-branching lines of research:
Some of them are passing fads, like ferns
That rise up for a season and are gone;
Others are more like towering redwoods
That rise up out of sight and mind.
But I like to imagine that your favorite SPR trees
Are most like mighty oaks,
Generously branching, filling the forest
Providing shade and shelter,
Plentiful with leaves and acorns.
For twenty years or more, you’ve roamed
This forest like a tutelary spirit:
Watching, protecting, keeping track
Sometimes officially, sometimes unofficially,
But always there, careful and caring,
loving the forest
And its many different creatures:
Big and small,
Shy and delicate,
Careful and heedless,
Caring and self-absorbed;
You’ve loved us all.
Like a mother bear,
You’ve watched over us,
Recognizing and appreciating
The wise and foolish of us,
Fierce and determined to do what is right,
To deal fairly, to meet crises, losses,
Opportunities and possibilities.
And as you’ve done this,
You’ve grown wise, strong and brave,
And we’ve grown, too, under your watch,
Living out our potential to use
Our knowledge and skill
To make the wider world better,
To use our many gifts to help
Those suffering in mind and spirit.
But now after many seasons
It’s time for you to step back,
To open the way
For a new generation of guardian bears.
And you’ve left the forest in good shape:
The paths are there, the scary dark places
Have been thinned and opened to the light
As it slants down through the trees;
The risks and possibilities have been mapped.
You have made the forest ready
For whatever comes next;
For the new bears,
Who are carrying forward
Your courage, wisdom, and love.
And also for all of us forest animals
You’ve protected and watched over for so long.
We are grateful and carry you
In our hearts and minds.
-Krakow, June 2025
