INSTITUTE OPENING PLENARY SESSION
Tuesday, March 1, 2022, 10:30 AM -11:15 AM Eastern

The Odyssey of a Group Therapist: Discovering Oneself in the Presence of Others
 
Featured Speaker:  Lisa Mahon, PhD, CGP, FAGPA

What brings us to the Institute experience? Even though groups in their many different ‎forms, such as families, work, and societal organizations, are constantly influencing our ‎lives, it is only in the AGPA Connect Institute that a group therapist can have the unique ‎opportunity of being a member of an experiential training group with some of the most ‎talented group leaders in the world. This plenary will focus on how our past group ‎connections influence the journey to becoming a group therapist. The institute group will ‎provide the opportunity to discover how we co-create our experiences with each other, ‎while enhancing our understanding of our role in the group process. Dr. Mahon will ‎share the lessons she has learned from her training group experiences and will offer ‎recommendations on how to make the most of your Institute.‎

Lisa Mahon, PhD, CGP, FAGPA is a clinical psychologist who has more than 40 years of clinical group experience. She is in private practice in Atlanta, GA. Her current groups, which she co-leads with her husband, Philip Flores, PhD, have been running continuously for over 30 years. Within AGPA, she has served in numerous roles including chair of the Group Foundation for Advancing Mental Health, Institute Committee Co-Chair, AGPA Secretary, and member of the AGPA and the Group Foundation Board of Directors. She has taught group psychotherapy and facilitated experiential training groups, as well as providing clinical supervision and consultation. Dr. Mahon has been active in her local affiliate group society serving as president, treasurer, and BOD member. She has conducted groups and provided training within inpatient hospitals and outpatient community mental health.

Learning Objectives:
The attendee will be able to:
1. Summarize the key benefits of the experiential learning in the Institute groups and what can be gained by being an institute member.
2. Discuss the importance of trusting the rupture-repair process in the Institute experience.
3. Describe how institute members co-create their interpersonal worlds within the here and now of the institute group.

References:
1. Bromberg, P.  (2011). Awakening the dreamer: Clinical journey, NY: Routledge.
2. Cone-Uemura, K., & E. S. Bentley (2018).  Multicultural/Diversity Issues in Groups.  In M. D. Ribeiro, J. Gross, & M. M. Turner (Eds.) The college counselor’s guide to group Psychotherapy, (pp. 48-64). New York:  Routledge Press.
3. Flores, P., & Porges, S. (2017). Group psychotherapy as a neural exercise: Bridging polyvagal theory and attachment theory. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 27(2), 202–222.
4. Mahon, L. & Leszcz, M.  (2017) The interpersonal model of group psychotherapy, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 67:sup1, S121-S130, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.2016.1218286
5. Yalom, I.D. & Leszcz, M. (2020). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy, (6th Ed.). NY: Basic Books.