The Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy (NSGP), the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis (MIP), and the Psychodynamic Couples and Family Institute of New England (PCFINE) present
Class Matters: Exploring the Impact of Class on our Therapeutic Practice
- Broaden your understanding of class and classism and their impact on your therapeutic practice
- Place class experience within a historical and social context and help bridge cross-class divides
- Identify how your practice is influenced by your own class background
Date: Sunday, October 27, 2019
Time: 3:00 p.m.—5:30 p.m.
Location: First Church, 11 Garden Street, Harvard Square
Fee: $50 before October 16th, $60 thereafter
Knowingly or not, issues of class can influence psychotherapy and therapeutic relationships. Where we practice and whom we treat, for example, as well as decisions about health insurance and fees often reflect the influence of class. Discomfort about social class may emerge when working with those from different economic backgrounds—whether from more privileged or less privileged.
Join us for an experiential approach to learning about class
Through lectures, interactive activities, personal reflection, and small group sharing we will develop a more nuanced and informed position about issues of class, classism, and social inequality.
Trainers Annie Hamilton and Joanie Parker are members of Class Action, a nationally recognized social change organization committed to raising consciousness about class and developing ways to address classism.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the program, participants
- will be able to identify the historic, political, and socio-economic forces that promote classism and to recognize the impact of social class on the therapeutic relationship
- will be able to apply greater attunement to their clients’ individual and interpersonal struggles with class-based conflicts when they emerge in a variety of clinical settings from individual psychotherapy to group therapy and couples’ therapy
- will be better able to assess and recognize their own personal bias about social class and to identify the relevant resources to addressing implicit and explicit class bias in their clinical work
- will be more attuned to the impact of classism and other intersecting forms of power present in the therapeutic relationship as well as in the clinical material that clients present.
Suggested Readings
Berzoff, Joan ,Flanagan, L.M., and Hertz, P., editors. (2016). Inside Out and Outside In: Psychodynamic Clinical Theory in Contemporary Multicultural Contexts. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Gherovici, Patricia and Christian, C., editors. (2018) Psychoanalysis in the Barrio, Race, Class, and the Unconscious. New York: Routledge
Rubin, Lillian B. (1994). Families on the Fault Line: America’s Working Class Speaks about the Family, the Economy, Race, and Ethnicity. New York: HarperCollins
Tummala-Nara, Pratyusha (2016). Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competency. Washington, D.C. American Psychological Association.
Continuing Education Credits
Attendees are eligible for 2.5 continuing education credits
Psychologists: The Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis (MIP) is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. MIP maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Please note: Per APA requirements, psychologists must attend 100% of a course in order to be eligible for continuing education credit.
Social Workers: An application for social work continuing education credits has been submitted. Please contact Liz Martin at reachMIP@gmail.com for the status of social work CE accreditation. Please note: Per NASW requirements, social workers must attend 80% of a course in order to be eligible for continuing education credit.
LMHC: When an LMHC attends a CE event that has not been approved for CE, an individual may seek approval retroactively by meeting the criteria for approval outlined in the MMCEP LMHC Consumer Guidelines and the CMR 262 Regulations for LMHCs. With Retroactive Approval, the CEs can be applied to the CE requirement to renew a license. Visit http://www.mamhca.org/mmcep/lmhc-ce-guidelines/ for information.
