ALLISON PARELMAN, PhD
Practicing clinical psychology in Santa Monica for decades, I have meanwhile trained mental health professionals in diverse Los Angeles community, research, and academic settings. Deeply committed to professional education and training in ethical decision-making and therapeutic boundary issues, I have served with organizations impacting professional awareness and public policy. I gratefully received the 2015 Distinguished Service Award from CPA’s Division II. Teaching and published research include gender roles, emotional intimacy, and women in higher education; practice specialties include family systems, trauma/abuse, and grief/loss.
I often reflect on how practicing psychology informs my artistic endeavors, primarily in photography. Both involve multiple dimensions, engaging challenges, and richly satisfying opportunities–expected and unexpected. I appreciate ties formed between photographer and subject, and subsequent collaborative ties with the viewer. Images readily elicit feelings, memories, thoughts, responses, and ideas which meaningfully connect us with one another, ourselves, and our world.
Camera perpetually in hand, I mostly turn an artist’s eye to photographing nature and jazz musicians. Several photographs have been selected for juried art exhibitions–since 2012 for Mirrors of the Mind 1-8, and in 2017 two photographs for BLOOM! at Descanso Gardens’ Sturt Haaga Gallery. In 2022 my photograph won a Second Place ribbon at the L.A. County Fair.
Gracie
(Ink Drawing on Paper, 3.5” High x 3.5” Wide)
I often reflect on the many ways that decades of practicing psychology inform my artistic endeavors in photography. I appreciate ties formed between photographer and subject, and subsequent collaborative ties with the viewer. Images readily elicit feelings, memories, thoughts, responses, and ideas which connect us with one another, ourselves, and our world.
Recently, even as I pursue photography, I am also interested in reconnecting to creative expression through drawing. In years past I sometimes sketched what I saw around me, and this long-ago drawing of our cat, Gracie, was the result of a spontaneous, artistic moment. I was sitting beside Gracie as we relaxed on the sofa. Inspired by her stillness, and using materials literally at hand - a ballpoint pen and one sheet from a small notepad, I began to sketch. I was surprised and pleased to see Gracie’s image take form within a few minutes.
Happily, I felt I captured a bit of my subject’s personality, much as I aim to do in photographs. I recognized Gracie - our sweet, mischievous, charming, grey cat, alert even in repose. This drawing survived on our refrigerator and later in an album, evoking strong memories of Gracie, her antics, and the joy she brought throughout her long life.
Research confirms what people have experienced so profoundly in the pandemic - that animals as family members can have a meaningful, therapeutic impact. Especially in the midst of isolation and difficulties, they provide loving companionship, comfort, comic relief, devoted support, and more. The pandemic has also demonstrated once again the importance of creativity as it connects us to one another, and to ourselves. After all these years a simple drawing provides a lasting glimpse of Gracie…while hopefully reminding us of the diverse powers of art and imagination within ourselves which can bridge time and space.