SPECIFIC INTEREST SECTIONS (SIS)
These groups offer intensive learning about specific theories and approaches in group treatment. Registrants can pursue current interests in greater depth or learn ways of integrating new approaches and methods into their private practice, clinic or agency work. Most of the Specific Interest Sections have extensive experiential components. Registration maximum (up to 18 registrants) has been set by each instructor.
The Specific Interest Sections will be held Tuesday-Wednesday, March 1-2 from 11:30 AM - 7:00 PM Eastern. There will be a 1.5-hour lunch break from 2:30 - 4:00 PM Eastern.
For more information on the presenter, please click on the presenter name to view their CGP profile.
Section II
Acceptance, Attunement, and Emotional Receptivity: Welcoming the Whole Self in Group
Instructor:
Jeffrey S. Hudson, MEd, LPC, CGP, FAGPA, Group Psychotherapist, Private Practice, Austin, Texas
This Institute will examine the development of emotional receptivity in group members and leaders. One focus will be the importance of the leader's self-acceptance and facility with their own emotions. We will also explore ways of encouraging intimacy and engagement in groups; this includes working with member reluctance to experience and freely express a wide range of feelings in group.
(80% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Describe the difference between objective and subjective countertransference.
2. Define countertransference resistance and recognize its role in group leadership.
3. List common sources of countertransference resistance.
4. Identify leader values which encourage acceptance of their groups.
5. Discuss the role of self-acceptance in effective group leadership.
6. Identify interventions to facilitate emotional communication.
1. Black, A.E. (2017). On Attacking and Being Attacked in Group Psychotherapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 67(3), 291-313.
2. Geltner, P. (2012). Emotional Communication: Countertransference Analysis and the Use of Feeling in Psychoanalytic Technique. New York: Routledge.
3. Hudson, J.S., E.J. Cooper, M.B. Kranzberg & L. Motherwell (2017). Current and Future Challenges in Group Therapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 67(1), 219-239.
4. Levine, R. (2017). A Modern Psychoanalytic Perspective on Group Therapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 67 (1), 109-120.
5. Zeisel, E.M. (2012). The Leader’s Use of Self: A Modern Analytic Approach to Working in the Intrapsychic and Interpersonal Realm. Modern Psychoanalysis, 37(2), 43-58.
Section III
Racialized Trauma in Black, Indigenous, and Therapists of Color
Instructors:
Kavita Avula, PsyD, CGP, Therapist Beyond Borders, Organization, Seattle, Washington
Marcus Hummings, PsyD, CGP, Howard University, University Counseling Service, Washington DC
This Institute is for Black, indigenous and other therapists of color and will explore the impact of race-based trauma on the therapist and the group experience. The session will offer participants the unique opportunity to dialogue in a safe space with other therapists of color to unpack the experience of marginalization. The group will empower members of target groups to work effectively against systems of oppression in what aspires to be a healing experience with BIPOC co-leaders.
(90% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Explain the process for establishing enough safety to address race-based trauma.
2. Utilize the terms Agent and Target to move beyond words like "minority" that can in and of themselves be marginalizing.
3. Prepare group members to recognize person of color on person of color bias.
4. Apply Leticia Nieto’s Target Skill Model of Survival, Confusion, Empowerment, Strategy, and Recentering.
5. Analyze whether repair of microaggressions is effective or ineffective.
6. Teach how to focus on impact rather than intent when unpacking bias.
1. Comas-Díaz, L. (2016). Racial trauma recovery: A race-informed therapeutic approach to racial wounds. In A. N. Alvarez, C. T. H. Liang, & H. A. Neville (Eds.), The cost of racism for people of color: Contextualizing experiences of discrimination. Cultural, racial, and ethnic psychology book series (pp. 249 –272). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14852-012
2. Menakem, R. (2017). My grandmother's hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Las Vegas, NV: Central Recovery Press.
3. Nadal, K. L., Griffin, K. E., Wong, Y., Hamit, S., & Rasmus, M. (2014). The impact of racial microaggressions on mental health: Counseling implications for clients of color. Journal of Counseling and Development, 92, 57– 66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2014.00130.x
4. Nieto, L. (2010). Beyond inclusion, beyond empowerment. A developmental strategy to liberate everyone. Olympia, WA: Cuetzpalin Publishing.
5. Oluo, I. (2018). So you want to talk about race? New York, NY: Seal Press.
Section IV
Becoming Who We Are in Groups: A Jungian Approach to Group Psychotherapy
Instructor:
Justin B. Hecht, PhD, CGP, FAGPA, Clinical Faculty, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California
This Institute will approach group from a Jungian perspective. The leader will use a symbolic approach to facilitate appreciation of the dynamic unconscious and the influence of archetypes in our stories. We’ll attend to paradox, transference, individuation, and the problem of the opposites. A didactic presentation will conclude the workshop.
(80% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Apply a Jungian orientation to group psychotherapy interventions.
2. Identify archetypal material in personal stories.
3. Describe the characteristics of complexes.
4. Utilize a Jungian approach to the transference to facilitate individuation.
5. Characterize Jung’s Approach to the unconscious.
6. Define individuation, and encourage it in groups.
1. Greene, T. (1982) Group Therapy and Analysis. in M. Stein (ed.), Jungian Analysis (pp 219-231). London: Open Court Publishing
2. Hecht, Justin B. (2011) Becoming who we are in groups. GROUP, in press, June 2011 edition.
3. Whitmont, Edward C. (1964) Group therapy and analytical psychology. Journal of Analytical Psychology
4. Willeford, William (1967) Group psychotherapy and symbol formation. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 12, 137-160
5. Zinkin, Louis (1989) The group’s search for wholeness: a Jungian perspective. Group, 13, 252-264.
Section V
Existential Factors in Group Psychotherapy: Learning to Thrive During a Pandemic
Instructors:
Maryetta K. Andrews-Sachs, MA, LICSW, CGP, FAGPA, Private Practice, Washington, DC
Farooq Mohyuddin, MD, CGP, FAGPA, Department of Behavioral Health, Saint Elizabeths Hospital, Alexandria, Virginia
Existential issues weave throughout all of our work in group therapy. This Institute is focused on the vital role that having choices, finding purpose, feeling connected, and confronting our losses plays in human lives. In order to be fully alive, we must move past our defenses, risk vulnerability, and confront "the givens of existence." In this institute, we will combine didactic and experiential experiences to explore these issues together.
(80% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Identify the strong reactions generated in the group by the exploration of current losses due to the pandemic and social unrest in the country.
1. Discuss the tasks of the life cycle of the group as members explore issues around isolation and connection.
3. Apply the didactic material to the groups they lead.
4. Analyze the impact of the "existential givens" of responsibility and freedom within the group and outside the group.
5. Define existential psychotherapy.
6. Recognize the resistance to exploring these "existential givens" and the subtle ways that it impacts our lives.
7. State the impact of transference and countertransference on the exploration of these existential concerns.
1. Frankl, Victor E. (1963). Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy, New York: Pocket Books.
2. Schneider, Kirk J. (2017). The Spirituality of Awe: Challenges to the Robotic Revolution. Buffalo, NY: Waterfront Press.
3. van Deurzen, E. van & Adams, M. (2016). Skills in Existential Counseling and Psychotherapy, 2nd Edition. London, England: Sage.
4. Wright, F (2015) Personal Reflections on Hugh Mullan: Existential Group Therapist, The One and the Many - Relational Approaches to Group Psychotherapy, Editors: R. Grossmark and F. Wright, 2nd Edition. Abingdon, England: Routledge.
5. Vitemb, Shayne Ann (2018) Talkin' ‘Bout My Generation: Existentialism, Aging, and Newly Emerging Issues in Group Therapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 62, 23-42.
6. Yalom, I.D. (2017) Becoming Myself: A Psychiatrist's Memoir. New York, NY: Hachette.
7. Yalom, I.D. (1980) Existential Psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.
Section VI
Cultivating the Internal Secure Base in Group Psychotherapy
Instructor:
Aaron E. Black, PhD, CGP, FAGPA, Private Practice, Rochester, New York
Secure attachment bonds in childhood promote adaptive internal working models of relationships and robust mentalizing capacities. This Institute explores a clinical approach that supports the development of secure attachment by resolving intrapsychic, interpersonal, and group barriers to emotional engagement and immediacy. We will also examine how theory-guided modifications to psychodynamic technique can enhance the developmental sensitivity of group interventions. The dynamics of attachment will be studied as both intrapsychic and interpersonal processes. Essential concepts will be demonstrated experientially and didactically.
(80% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Define the concept of the secure base in attachment theory, as both an external and internal entity.
2. Describe the mechanisms by which the secure base facilitates emotional self-regulation.
3. Distinguish between secure vs. insecure self-states.
4. Provide an example of how resistance facilitates emotional self-regulation in group therapy.
5. Describe how racial/ethnic/cultural differences influence the development or impairment of epistemic trust and vigilance in group therapy.
6. Define three interventions meant to resolve resistance to secure attachment.
1. Black, A.E. (2019) Treating insecure attachment in group therapy: Attachment theory meets modern psychoanalytic technique. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 69(3), 259-286
2. Chang-Caffaro, S. and Caffaro, J. (2018). Differences that Make a Difference: Diversity and the Process Group Leader. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 68: 483-497.
3. Flores, P. J. (2017). Attachment theory and group psychotherapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 67(Sup 1), S50-S59.
4. Fonagy, P., Campbell, C., & Bateman, A. (2017). Mentalizing, attachment, and epistemic trust in group therapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 67(2), 176-201.
5. Levine, R. (2011). Progressing while regressing in relationships. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 61(4), 621-643.
Section VII
Managing Love and Hate in a World of Social Crisis
Instructor:
Ronnie L. Levine, PhD, ABPP, CGP, FAGPA, Center for Group Studies, Private Practice, New York, New York
During this time of social crises, therapists are living through and working with overwhelming feelings that are difficult to contain. Love, hate, fear, self-destructive relapses, and relational difficulties are among the experiences that need to be managed in group life. This Institute is designed to help group therapists to work more effectively with these experiences, within themselves, as they provide transformational experiences for their group members.
(90% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Identify the leader's fears that interfere with addressing loving and angry feelings in group.
2. Identify individual and group manifestations of love and hate.
3. Formulate interventions that address emotional needs of group members.
4. Develop the technique of joining as an emotional intervention in group for individuals, subgroups and groups.
5. Develop the techniques of bridging to promote ego support, feedback, subgroup and group cohesion.
6. Identify the group member's fear of expressing feelings.
7. Examine the interpersonal adaptations to fear and desire that are being expressed in the group.
8. Develop emotional interventions that take in to account the individual and groups' capacity to tolerate.
1. McColl, G. (2016). The art of bridging revised. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 66(3), p. 443-454.
2. MacColl, G. (2014). The group therapy contract revisited. Group, 38(2), 103–113.
3. Zeisel, E. (2016). Plenary Address to the 2015 AGPA Institute: Undaunting Courage and The AGPA Institute. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 66(4), p. 624-631.
4. Billow, R. (2016). Reality Testing and Testing Reality in Group Treatment: Part II: Testing Reality. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 66(4), 551-570.
5. Levine, R. (2017). A Modern Psychoanalytic Perspective of Group Psychotherapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 67(1). S109-S120.
Section IX
Understanding Each Other: Forging Relationships in an Evolving and Diverse World
Instructor:
Jeanne L. Bunker, LCSW, CGP, FAGPA, Private Practice, Austin, Texas
We are facing intense health, cultural, economic and political storms and opportunity for transformation. Instability, fear and strife prevalent in our society form an environment stimulating regression, awakening old trauma while fomenting tumultuous situations in everyday life. Within this volatile context, we will work with connection, conflict and trauma, opening ourselves to a deeper experience of our feelings, learning to tolerate intense affect, developing greater somatic awareness, and building skill utilizing our aggression for relationships, creativity and healing.
(90% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Define aggression.
2. Identify destructive aggression.
3. Identify healthy aggression.
4. Define observing ego.
5. Define progressive emotional communication.
6. Use observing ego to inform intentional, progressive emotional communication.
7. Define intersectionality.
8. Identify personal bias that impedes progressive, emotional communication.
9. Define regression.
10. Define countertransference.
11. Define transference.
12. Utilize somatic awareness for affect regulation.
1. Adichie, C. N. (2015). We should all be feminists. Anchor Books.
2. Brown, B. (2017). Braving the wilderness: The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone. Random House.
3. Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. One World.
4. Gilligan, C. & Snider, N. (2018). Why does patriarchy persist? Polity Press.
5. Levine, R. (2018). A group analyst’s perspective on the Trump-Clinton election and aftermath. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 69:2, 192-220.
6. Perez, C. C. (2019). Invisible women: Data bias in a world designed for men. New York NY. Abrams Press.
7. Traister, R. (2018). Good and mad: The revolutionary power of women’s anger. Simon & Schuster.
8. Wilkerson, I. (2020). Caste: The origins of our discontents. Random House.
Section XI
Living Out Loud: Attuning the Leader's Voice
Instructor:
Marie T. Sergent, PhD, CGP, Private Practice Center for Group Studies, Rochester, New York
An attuned therapeutic voice allows the group leader to respond spontaneously and therapeutically to members’ emotional communications, whether comfortable or uncomfortable, verbal or nonverbal, and to offer corrective, maturational interventions. A leader’s personal history offers strengths but can also interfere with therapeutic attunement. This Institute explores methods for increasing attunement by resolving group leader obstacles to potent emotional communication.
(90% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Define emotional communication and its significance in group psychotherapy.
2. Name the relationship between emotional receptivity, attunement, and the group leader’s voice.
3. Define the role of immediacy in illuminating participants’ histories and resistances.
4. Describe the difference between induced and subjective countertransference.
5. Describe how countertransference feelings are used to resolve resistances.
6. Identify three signs indicative of group leader resistance.
1. Cozolino, L., Schore, A. N., & Siegel, D. J.(2017). Introduction. In S. W. Porges, The pocket guide to the polyvagal theory. New York: W. W. Norton.
2. Gitterman, P. (2019). Social identities, power, and privilege: The importance of difference in establishing early group cohesion. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 69: 99-125.
3. Levine, R. (2017). A modern analytic perspective of group therapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 67S(1), 109S-120S.
4. Schmidt, C. (2018). Anatomy of racial micro-aggressions. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 68:4, 585-607.
5. Schore, A. N. (1994). Affect regulation and the origin of the self: The neurobiology of emotional development. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis.
Section XIII
Love Thwarted/Love bites: Enactments of the Sadistic-Masochistic Configurations within the Group
Instructors:
Gil Spielberg, PhD, ABPP, CGP, FAGPA, Training and Supervising Analyst, Institute of Iontemporary Psychoanalysis, Santa Monica, California
Judith Schaer, LCSW, CGP, FAGPA, Experiential Faculty EGPS One Year Group Training, Zoom, New York, New York
The paradox of opposites and the idea of role suction set the stage for sadistic and masochistic self-states to merge and be magnetically attracted to one another within the interpersonal matrix of the group. The group experience provides an opportunity to observe, reexperience and repair these organizational configurations.
(80% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Explain from historical perspective understandings of the sadistic-masochistic configuration.
2. Describe the current theoretical understanding from a relational perspective.
3. Explain the theory of enactment as a mode of communication
4. explain the therapist involvement in both successful and unsuccessful enactments.
5. Describe the contributions of the group atmosphere to the establishment bi-directional inductions.
1. Epstein, L. (1999). The analyst's “bad-analyst feelings” a counterpart to the process of resolving implosive defenses. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 35(2), 311-325.
2. Kirman, J, (1995). Working with anger in groups: A modern analytic approach. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 45(3), 303-329.
3. Grossman, W.I. (1986). Notes on masochism: A discussion of the history and development of a Psychoanalytic Concept. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 55 (3), 379-413.
4. Counselman, E. (2008) Why Study Groups? International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 58(2) 265-272.
5. Buchelle, B. (1997). The development of an analytic perspective in the group leader: Some basic thoughts. Group, 21 (4) 303-311.
Section XV
Rupture and Repair in Relational Group Psychotherapy
Presented in cooperation with the Sacramento Center for Psychotherapy
Instructors:
Haim Weinberg, PhD, CGP, FAGPA, Sacramento Center for Psychotherapy, Private Practice, Sacramento, California
Martha Gilmore, PhD, CGP, LFAGPA, Sacramento Center for Psychotherapy, Davis & Sacramento, California
Rupture and repair are important processes in relational approaches. Applying the approach to groups emphasizes enactment instead of interpretation. Through the experiential group process, we will use relational approaches to address participants’ here-and-now experience. We will focus on enactments and experiences of rupture and repair. Group leaders need to be aware of ruptures in the therapeutic alliance, especially those caused by the leader. Through this experience, the participants will improve their skills as group therapists.
(90% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Appraise their own and others' subjective experience.
2. Focus on intersubjective issues in group therapy.
3. Use relational/intersubjectively-informed interventions in groups.
4. Work with enactments and reparations in group therapy.
5. Accept and utilize their limitations as group therapists.
6. Work with different emerging self-states in the group
7. Describe the meaning of rupture and repair.
8. Identify microaggression in groups.
1. Eubanks, C., Warren J. T., & Muran, J. C. (2021) Identifying Ruptures and Repairs in Alliance-Focused Training Group Supervision. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 71:2, 275-309, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.2020.1805618
2. Gantt, S. (2021) Systems-Centered Theory (SCT) into Group Therapy: Beyond Surviving Ruptures to Repairing and Thriving. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 71:2, 224-252, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.2020.1772073
3. Marmarosh, C. (2021) Ruptures and Repairs in Group Psychotherapy: From Theory to Practice. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 71:2, 205-223, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.2020.1855893
4. Rutan, J. Scott (2021) Rupture and Repair: Using Leader Errors in Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 71:2, 310-331, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.2020.1808471
5. Segalla, R. (2021) Self Psychological Approaches to Ruptures and Repairs in Group Psychotherapy. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 71:2, 253-274, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.2020.1805616
Section XVI
Social Identities, Power and Privilege: How Difference is Essential for Group Cohesion
Instructor:
Paul Gitterman, LICSW, MSC, CGP, Psychotherapist, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
This experiential group will explore how difference in social locations and experiences of power and privilege provide foundations for group cohesion. In exploring difference, the group establishes protective norms and can therefore effectively negotiate mis-attunements and micro-aggressions.
(90% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Describe how difference is experienced from an early developmental perspective and how it can impact future representations of difference.
2. Describe how the group serves as an attachment function.
3. Explain how members of privileged and marginalized identities may experience their attachment to the group differently.
4. Explain how different experiences of the dominant culture may impact group members’ trust and transferential experiences in group.
5. Describe how to welcome difference as a way of building group cohesion.
6. Explain why the leader’s knowledge of their social identities is so important in group work.
7. Describe how ego supportive interventions are useful in addressing microaggressions in groups.
8. Explain how groups naturally want to join around homogeneity and fear difference.
9. Describe how disclosure of emotional vulnerability lessens the potential of replicating oppressive dynamics.
10. Describe how groups with strong cohesion can be curious about difference.
1. Gitterman, P. (2019). Social Identities, Power, and Privilege: The Importance of Difference in Establishing Early Group Cohesion. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 69:1, 99-125, DOI: 10.1080/00207284.2018.1484665
2. Leary, K. (2012). Race as an adaptive challenge: Working with diversity in the clinical consulting room. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 29(3), 279-291.
3. Smith, L. C. & Shin, R. Q. (2008). Social Privilege, Social Justice, and Group Counseling: An Inquiry. The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 33(4), 351-366.
4. Shah, S. A. & Kosi, R. (2011). Diversity in Groups: Culture, Ethnicity and Race. In J. Kleinberg (Ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Group Psychotherapy. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 667-680, doi: 10.1002/9781119950882.ch33
5. Zeisel, E. (2011). Meeting Maturational Needs in Modern Group Analysis: A Schema for Personality Integration and Interpersonal Effectiveness. In J. Kleinberg (Ed.), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Group Psychotherapy. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, doi: 10.1002/9781119950882.ch11
Section XVII
Spontaneous Moments in Group: Pathways to Deep Connection and Neuorbiological Change
Instructor:
Elizabeth A. Olson, PsyD, LCSW, CGP, Psychologist, Social Worker, Collective for Psychological Wellness, Boulder, Colorado
Spontaneous moments in group enliven transferential relationships between group members as well as with the leader. Spontaneous interactions allow for direct communications with unconscious patterns in a way that activates deep connection and the potential for lasting neurobiological change. We will move beyond static interventions into meaningful, free flowing interactions that offer the past to come alive in the present. These surprising and unexpected here and now interactions create opportunities for deeper understanding and constructive disruption of habitual, relational patterns.
(90% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Describe the benefits of cultivating transferential relationships.
2. Apply a non-judgmental, exploratory process to group psychotherapy.
3. Explain the ways a leader can encourage more free associating in group process.
4. Define interventions that contribute to neurobiological changes through group interactions.
5. Utilize emotional inductions as a guide for interventions.
6. Identify patterns emerging between group members.
7. Study old feelings that are connected with the here and now interactions.
8. Name potential unconscious patterns that emerge in group interactions.
9. Promote progressive communications between group members.
10. Utilize new relational approaches with each other to encourage neurobiological change.
11. Identify automatic reactions within oneself and in other group members.
12. Study the benefits of experiencing memories, using working memory brain capacity, to recontextualize the past with the present.
1. Ginot, E. (2017). The enacted unconscious: A neuropsychological model of unconscious processes. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1406, (1), 71-76.
2. Margolis, B. D. (1986). Joining, mirroring, psychological reflection: Terminology, definitions, theoretical considerations. Modern Psychoanalysis, 11(1&2), 19-35.
3. Ormont, L, & Furgeri, L. B. (2016). The Technique of Group Treatment: The Collected Papers of Louis R. Ormont, Ph.D. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform
4. Schore, A. (2019). The development of the unconscious mind. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.
5. Schore, A. (2019). Right brain psychotherapy. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.
Section XVIII
Neuroscience to the Rescue: Deepening Online Group Experiences using Polyvagal Theory
Instructor:
Lorraine B. Wodiska, PhD, ABPP, CGP, FAGPA, Psychologist, Private Practice, Arlington, Virginia
This year, most of us have conducted therapy groups online and likely will continue to do so post-pandemic for some of our groups. There is a layered challenge working with nonverbal communication when conducting groups virtually. This Institute will focus on the concepts of Polyvagal Theory as a way to consider engaging the group members when working in online and deepening the process in virtual and face-to-face group venues.
(80% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Offer a general definition of nonverbal communication.
2. List four types of body language seen in an online and face-to-face groups.
3. Name what is missing in nonverbal communication when conducting online groups.
4. Explain the basic concepts of Polyvagal Theory.
5. Describe how to use Polyvagal Theory in online and face-to-face groups.
6. Identify nonverbal signals from group members.
1. Badenoch, B. (2008). Being a Brain-wise Therapist: A Practical Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
2. Dana, D. (2018). The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
3. Mehrabian, A. (1972, 2017). Nonverbal Communication. New York: Routledge.
4. Navarro, J. (2007). What Every Body is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People. Harper Collins e-books.
5. Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
6. Weinberg, H. and Rolnick, A., (Eds.) (2020). Theory and Practice of Online Therapy: Internet-delivered Interventions for Individuals, Groups, Families, and Organizations. New York: Routledge.
Section XIX
Finding Our Center of Health: Coupling Modern Analysis with Relational Life
Instructor:
Ginger M. Sullivan, MA, LPC, CGP, FAGPA, Licensed Professional Counselor, Private Practice, Washington, DC
In this Institute, we will explore the odd-yet-winsome blend of modern analysis and Relational Life Therapy (RLT), a form of couple’s therapy which espouses full-respect living, with a heavy emphasis on truth telling. RLT sets the frame and tells the story. Modern analysis rewrites the story. We will identify our relational style and how it detracts from psychological maturation and satisfying connection. Essential concepts will be demonstrated experientially and didactically.
(85% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Apply RLT (Relational Life Therapy) principles as a supplemental and beneficial frame to modern analytic work in group.
2. Cite the two self-skills necessary for full-respect living.
3. Describe the four relational patterns as derivatives from the center of health.
4. Contrast the use of leverage with the support of adaptive defense.
5. Apply active engagement in furthering maturational development.
6. List the five-stage process of relational maturity as detected in a modern analytic group.
7. Differentiate and utilize the wounded child, the adaptive child and the functioning adult as identified in the group process.
1. Billow, R.M. (2017). Relational Group Psychotherapy: An Overview: Part I: Foundational Principles and Practices. Group Analysis, 50 (1), 6-22.
2. Black, A.E. (2019). Treating Insecure Attachment in Group Therapy: Attachment Theory Meets Modern Psychoanalytic Technique. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy.
3. Evans, M. (1996). The subjective countertransference experience for the beginning modern group therapist. Modern Group, 1, pp. 46-60.
4. Holmes, L. (2009). The technique of partial identification. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 59:2.
5. Ormont, L. (1994). Developing emotional insulation. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 44 (3), 361-375.
6. Real, T. (November/December 2012). Joining Through the Truth. Psychotherapy Networker, (pp. 36-43).
7. Real, T. (2007). The New Rules of Marriage. New York, NY: Random House, Inc.
Section XXII
Psychodrama: The Magic of Growth and Change
Instructors:
Sue Barnum, MA, LPCC, TEP, CGP-R, Private Practice, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Shelley J. Firestone, MD, CP, PAT, CGP, FAGPA, Chicago Psychotherapy and Psychiatry: Transformation Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Through psychodrama warm-ups, two process groups demonstrating psychodrama techniques, and a complete psychodrama, the participants will train in specific psychodrama techniques, invaluable for individual, family, couple, group psychotherapy, and psychotherapy on zoom, and for anyone working on self-improvement. We will present history, theory and technique of psychodrama--perhaps the most powerful, effective, and transformational methodology in our therapeutic repertoire--while offering an experience of the magic of growth and change, along with training and expertise in basic psychodrama techniques.
(90% experiential learning)
The attendee will be able to:
1. Describe basic psychodrama practice.
2. Distinguish between the use of the therapy session for a report of events vs. creating experiences in the “here and now” of the session.
3. Appreciate the power and effectiveness of psychodrama action concepts and techniques, and explain Interviewing, Soliloquy, Doubling, Role Taking and Role Reversal.
4. Use one selective psychodrama technique as a therapeutic intervention in individual, couple, family or group psychotherapy to facilitate access to emotions.
5. Use one selective psychodrama technique as a therapeutic intervention in individual, couple, family or group psychotherapy to facilitate conflict resolution.
6. Use one sociometric or psychodrama technique for building connection and cohesion in families, couples and groups.
1. Blatner, A. (2000). Foundations of Psychodrama: History, Theory and Practice, 4th Ed. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
2. Dayton, T. (2014). Emotional and developmental repair through psychodrama. The Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy, 62(1), 9-27.
3. Wysong, W.H. (2017). The Psychodrama Companion, Vol 1 & 2. Colorado Springs, CO: William H. Wysong.
4. Hug, E. (2007). "A Neuroscience perspective on psychodrama." Advancing Theories in Psychodrama. London: Brunner/Routledge.
5. Lotze, E. & Barnum, S. (2013). The therapist's creativity handbook: Introducing action and play into process groups. Self-published.