INSTITUTE OPENING PLENARY SESSION
Tuesday, March 3, 8:30 - 9:15 A.M.

Getting the Most Out of Your Institute Experience: Some Personal Reflections
 
Featured Speaker:  Jerome S. Gans, MD, CGP, DLFAGPA

AGPA Institutes provide unique, experiential learning opportunities– both cognitive and emotional.  To help optimize these opportunities, Dr. Gans will draw from his extensive experience running Institutes, training groups and demonstration groups, inviting the audience to think about a number of questions that Institute participation raises to optimize their experiences. He will also offer five suggestions that will help you get the most out of your Institute experience. Dr. Gans’s remarks remind us that it is only through our interactions with other people that we have opportunity to more fully understand ourselves.

Jerome S. Gans, MD, CGP, DLFAGPA is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association and the American Psychiatric Association.  Now retired, he was for many years an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Part Time, at Harvard Medical School and maintained a Private Practice for 48 years.  He served AGPA in several capacities: member of the Board of Directors, Editor of The Group Circle,  member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Co-Chair of the Institute Committee and Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting, Book Review Editor of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Chair of the Nominating Committee, and Co-Chair of the Fellowship and Awards Committee. He was a yearly presenter at the Annual Meeting from 1986-2017 and the featured speaker at 20 Affiliate Society conferences. He has authored or co-authored 22 publications in the Journal over 28 years on a variety of topics. In 1999, he received the Alonso Award for an outstanding contribution to the psychodynamic group psychotherapy literature. In 2003, the MGH/McLean psychiatric residents honored him with the Philip Isenberg Teacher of the Year Award. In 2018 the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.  Dr. Gans has supervised psychotherapy at seven institutions in the greater Boston area and has supervised over 50 psychotherapists.  He ran training groups for psychiatric residents for 28 years.  In addition to group therapy, he has published on psychological aspects of physical rehabilitation, individual psychotherapy, and psychotherapy and literature.