Speakers

Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD, Presenter is a clinical psychologist and the Director of Community-Based Education at the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute and Research Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University. Her research and scholarship focus on immigration, trauma, race, and culturally-informed psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She is also in Independent Practice, and works primarily with survivors of trauma from diverse sociocultural backgrounds. Dr. Tummala-Narra is an Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and the Asian American Journal of Psychology. She is the author of Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy (2016) and the editor of Trauma and Racial Minority Immigrants: Turmoil, Uncertainty, and Resistance (2021), both published by the American Psychological Association Books. Dr. Tummala-Narra recently joined BPSI's Board of Trustees.

Desta Lissanu, MD, Panelist is a second year student in BPSI’s Advanced Training Program in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (ATP) and a first year member of the Community Psychoanalysis Concentration (CPC). She is a recent graduate of the MGH/McLean psychiatry residency program. Her interests include increasing access to psychotherapy, community psychiatry, and psychotic disorders. She currently works as an attending psychiatrist on the inpatient unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Lana Elhalabi, MD, Panelist is a full-time psychiatrist in private practice in Providence RI and a full-time mom to three beloved humans and one canine. Lana grew up in Beirut where she underwent her premedical and medical school training before moving to the US for a post-doctorate fellowship at UCSF then residency training at UTSW. Lana has been a member of BPSI since 2015 when she joined the one year Fellowship and subsequently the ATP. She is currently a third year Psychoanalytic Candidate at BPSI. 

Elisa Cheng, MD, Moderator

is a fifth year Psychoanalytic Candidate at BPSI, where she is currently Chair of the Candidate and Affiliate Scholar Council and serves on the Ethics Education Committee and Joint Curriculum Committee. She is a clinical supervisor at Cambridge Health Alliance for the adult psychiatry residency training program, and has a private practice in Cambridge, MA. 

Schedule

7:00 Welcome and Introductions; 7:15 Lecture; 8:00 Panel Discussion; 8:30 Open Discussion  

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this program participants will be able to: 

1. Identify how sociocultural context and trauma influence personality and relational life. 
2. Describe how racial stereotypes and racism can be embedded in conceptualizations of personality. 
3. Identify the interaction between context and personality in the therapeutic relationship. 
4. Describe a culturally informed and decolonizing psychoanalytic approach to conceptualization and technique. 

This program is made possible by the generous support of BPSI members and friends. Your gift to BPSI supports psychoanalytic and psychotherapy education and

ensures the future of our field.

To make a gift, please visit www.bpsi.org.

Grievance Policy

Please address any questions or concerns about your experience at this or any program or event you have attended at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute to the Program Chair(s), via the Senior Administrator/ Continuing Education Administrator, BPSI, 141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459; [email protected]; 617.266.0953.

The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Inc.,

141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459, does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin or handicap in the admissions to or administration of its educational programs, scholarship programs or employment.