Editor's Note
Hello MAGPS Community!
So many snowy days lately, and what better to do than hunker down indoors with the MAGPS Spring Newsletter?! We've got some great pieces in this issue including interviews with the four amazing presenters for our upcoming conference on process groups; an update from the Anti-Racism Task Force; all the info for the next Cinema Series event; and reflections from various perspectives on the Fall Conference with Dr. Aziza Belcher Platt. Read on!
Just a reminder: If you are viewing the newsletter from your email, please make sure to click on the "view entire message" link at the bottom so that you don't miss out on anything. You will also find all of the previous newsletters in the archive on our website.
I hope you enjoy this issue of the newsletter and, as always, please send feedback and future submissions to me at [email protected]!
Warmly,
Rebecca Abell, Newsletter Editor
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Upcoming Events
at a Glance
Read on for more details!
Cinema Series Netflix Watch Party
March 6, 2021
MAGPS Spring Conference
March 20-21, 2021
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President's Column:
Introducing the 2021-2023 MAGPS Board
Cristina M. Secarea, MD
I think we all agree that 2020 was a tough year, not only for our community and our country, but for the entire world. I was happy, like everyone else, to leave it behind while understanding that there is so much more work, change, and healing to do. Although we are not quite out of the woods, I have hope for positive changes and better leadership.
Speaking of changes and new beginnings, this is the year that our organization is changing leadership with a new board starting shortly after the Spring Conference. MAGPS board members serve for a two-year period and at the end of their term they may choose to run for a new term. This year, the Nominations Committee, chaired by our Past-President, Lorraine Wodiska, has been very deliberate in selecting the incoming board members. Their focus was a diverse racial representation on the board. One would think that’s an easy task for an organization located in the multicultural DC area. Unfortunately, for many years, MAGPS has been a predominantly White organization with a predominantly White leadership. Although the organization has been talking for many years about diversity and inclusion and has tried to bring Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) into the organization and onto the board, these efforts have not been enough to create a diverse, anti-racist organization..
During the past year, The Anti-Racism Task Force (ARTF), under the leadership of Shemika Brooks, Alison Howard, Liz Marsh and Chris Ray, has been instrumental in addressing structural racism in our organization. From monthly caucus groups and round table discussions offered to members, to internal conversations during board meetings, the ARTF has been guiding us towards the ultimate goal of becoming an anti-racist organization. In April 2021, the ARTF will become a permanent committee chaired by Alison Howard and be open to all interested members.
The new board under Karen Eberwein’s leadership will continue anti-racism work and implement the necessary changes to move our organization forward and set an example in the mental health field and group psychotherapy community. Karen has been a MAGPS board member since 2011 and has served on the board in various roles. She knows the organization well and is attuned to our members’ needs. More recently, Karen co-chaired our 2020 Fall Conference and she is one of the presenters for the upcoming 2021 Spring Conference What’s PROCESS Got to Do with It? An Exploration of Leadership in Therapy and Training Groups.
During her 2021-2023 term, Karen will be joined by Liz Marsh as President-Elect, Cristina Secarea as Past-President, Jackie Darby as Secretary, Raquel Willerman as Treasurer, Sonia Kahn as Membership Chair, and Shemika Brooks, Victoria Lee, Chris Ray and Chris Straley as Members At-Large. In addition to the 10 voting members, MAGPS board has ex-officio or non-voting members that include the chairs of different committees, Cinema Series chair, the webmaster, the newsletter chair and three young professional representatives. All of these positions are directly appointed by the President and will be announced in April 2021, at the beginning of Karen’s term.
If you are interested in being part of the change and making your voice heard, please sign up for one of the committees; attend our conferences, anti-racism caucus groups, and round table discussions; and don’t forget to renew your membership!
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Anti-Racism Task Force Update
On January 9th, the ARTF hosted Mr. Marvin Evans for its second Round Table. Mr. Evans, a clinician from Chicago and a member of AGPA, presented a paper called "Thoughts and Reflections: Anti-Blackness in the Social Unconscious of White America,” which was followed by a robust discussion. The event was well attended by people from across the country, and the feedback was positive, making it clear that events such as these, with the focus specifically on racial awareness, are both needed and desired.
The ARTF has been hosting White and BIPOC Caucus groups on a monthly basis (with a break to accommodate AGPA’s February conference and MAGPS’ Spring Conference in March; they will resume in April). Initially, these groups were formed to help MAGPS gauge its racial literacy and help us address organizational racism. The focus of the groups will be changing as the Task Force transitions into the Anti-Racism Committee in April. We are preparing to host monthly Racial Affinity Groups that will be peer-led and structured around a specific topic or question. We hope to host other anti-racism and racial literacy trainings, as well as quarterly Round Tables throughout the year. We will be forwarding more information about the Committee’s goals in the coming months and would love to hear from you if you have ideas or would like to join us. If you are interested in joining the committee, which is open to all members of MAGPS, or have suggestions, please email Alison Howard at [email protected].
As the Task Force begins to wind down, we would like to express our gratitude to the entire MAGPS Board and to the membership for joining us as we work to dismantle organizational racism through the personal commitment our membership has shown by attending the caucus groups and Round Table Discussions, responding to surveys, and sharing in the process with us. We look forward to ongoing engagement with you.
In Solidarity,
Alison Howard, Shemika Brooks, Christopher Ray and Liz Marsh
ARTF Chairs
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Interview with Spring Conference Presenters,
Karen Eberwein, PsyD., CGP,
Victoria Lee, PhD., CGP,
Farooq Mohyuddin, MD, CGP, FAPA, FAGPA, and
Lorraine Wodiska, PhD., CGP, ABPP, FAGPA
with Lenore Pomerance, LICSW, CGP
Lenore: What an intriguing title… Please give some background on how this was conceived; you’ve tried it before at AGPA, correct?
Karen: Sure. I can start us off. So, for me, the idea of creating a workshop on how to lead process group experiences (PGEs) in a training setting, such as an MAGPS Conference, evolved out of my desire to have a formal, organized didactic class that provided me with some how-tos. The doctoral program I attended at Loyola University in Baltimore followed a scientist-practioner model, so, for me, it felt imperative that a training on PGEs should parallel how I learned to become a group therapist; emphasizing best practices (to the extent possible), research on efficacy and supervision, and finally, providing practical considerations. This might not be the most popular thing to say, but to assume that experience doing psychotherapy (process) groups translated to competency to lead PGEs at conferences (which was my perception at the time) seemed short-sighted to me. As therapists, we attend continuing education events, consult, and participate in supervision, all in an effort to take such good care of our clients -- why would we not at least attempt to do the same for our colleagues? As I dug into the literature, I realized there was more information available that I had not recognized; however, I still thought and continue to think, we could, and should offer more.
Farooq, Lorraine, Victoria and I first began conceiving of an offering of some type in 2015, and we have continued to share, create, and process with one another during our meetings, refining our model of PGE training. Each time an experience has been offered, we have changed something, learning from past iterations, as well as introducing new content in an effort to adapt ourselves to the unique needs of the attendees. In Spring 2016, we presented a Pre-Conference training for MAGPS and subsequently presented it together at the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) annual meeting in 2018. During these presentations, ALL participants were provided didactics and participated in and led a process group session as a part of the training. I also have offered the workshop myself at AGPA in 2019 and 2020 (following a similar model) but asked for volunteers to lead a three-session demonstration/PGE (with designated “leaders” and “participants”), enlisting the remaining non participants in attendance to function as “supervisors” and “observers” to provide feedback to the leaders.
For the Spring Conference, we will offer didactics on the nuts and bolts of PGEs. We will also invite you to think critically about process, your identity, your choices, and how your actions may be different given the task of a group (training groups are different than psychotherapy groups). Also we are hoping enough individuals register so that we may offer a BIPOC-participant process group.
Lenore: Please explain the revolutionary new format completely different from anything we've ever done at MAGPS!!
Farooq: Well it’s revolutionary because, as far as I know, there is nothing like this available in the country. I think there have been training models where participants or a conference attendee may lead, A.K. Rice, for example. However, in addition to having attendees lead, we have more in store for everyone.
We are excited because MAGPS has not offered a training day like this since the Pre-Conference Institute that Karen mentioned. Since then, we have evolved the idea, offered it at AGPA, and continued to improve the training. We will be teaching you and our colleagues about process group leadership, including the similarities and differences of working with the process during training group experiences versus psychotherapy groups. You called it “revolutionary,” and I also want to acknowledge that it is asking a lot of MAGPS members. Unlike offering this training for a Pre-Conference Institute or at AGPA, for this conference there may be an element of forced-choice to contend with. What I mean is, we are offering something different and, if one attends MAGPS conferences as a matter of tradition, seeking a certain, usual experience, there will not be the opportunity to get that this weekend. We are changing long-standing traditions, inviting members to lead, follow, and get feedback, and those who do not wish to lead will participate in the process groups. And changing the roles (member to leader, leader back to member) within each process group experience will be challenging. What we have observed is that participants who are willing to be open to a new experience, take risks, and have fun with it, learn and get the most out of it. We are trusting you, the membership, the group, to tolerate our shifting model.
Lenore: So, participants get to lead. What are guest faculty doing there? What's their role? Are they silent observers? Do they consult when asked?
Lorraine: Yes, participants will be leading the small groups! The Faculty Observers are offering live supervision to these leaders but essentially, they are silent during the groups unless asked to intervene. At the end of each process group, these observers will direct the feedback to the small group leader and together respond to questions that might occur at that time.
Farooq, Karen, Victoria and I have been working on this conference for a few years now and each of us has suggested multiple ideas and concepts for this conference. While I am uncertain where this idea originated, this format has been road tested at a MAGPS Pre-Conference and at AGPA workshops. However, this process has a special history for me in particular.
One of my professional experiences was teaching Basics of Group at Johns Hopkins University for many years. After the first year, students asked me to create an advanced course in Group and I wanted it to be as experimental as possible. I held the course in the winter break for an intensive week: 9 am to 5 pm each day. In the mornings, we reviewed concepts and I led them in a process group, offering instruction and answering questions at the end of each session.
In the afternoons, we drove to a women’s homeless shelter and over four afternoons, class members led three different but related process groups for the women. During these groups, I sat on the inside of the circle as a silent observer and offered live supervision when requested. Typically, there were 40 women in the group, two leaders, and a topic for focus, each time moving from less vulnerable to more vulnerable subjects. The other students (who were not leading that group) were on the outside of the circle, also observing, getting to know the women and their issues and, of course, getting to see the norms of the group and how their leadership could be most effective. The group members barely noticed me and hardly seemed to care that the leaders were changing every 50 minutes. Instead, the women commented on their experience. The course was reviewed from the perspective of the students, the women and the shelter staff. Each reported that it was powerful. The students worked day and night, getting ready for the group they would lead. The homeless women were grateful for the respectful and compassionate attention that was central to the group experience and the shelter management was surprised at the results for the women who left with a more positive sense of self and increased hope for relationships and employment. I would hear from some of those women for years after their “Hopkins Group.”
I taught this particular course for about four years and while the population of the center would be completely different each January, word spread during the months and every single woman in the shelter had heard of this “annual event” and felt special that they were there to be a part of the experience.
Just to finish this story, at the last session we handed out gifts. One at a time, each woman sat in a special chair and group members would choose from a large jar of valentine hearts and give her a verbal gift with her heart. Sometimes, the class members would offer a heart gift as well. At the very end, I read Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go, which happens to be fabulously relevant to one who is homeless. As an extra reminder of the time we spent together, we gave each woman her own hardcover book with the signature of each advanced class member.
So this model was born for me from this experience and I believe our modified version of it will serve us well at MAGPS. It is a new concept for us and offers safety that may encourage a level of vulnerability for those who would like to take the opportunity to experiment with leading our peers. That is our hope.
Lenore: So, overall, what are your expectations for this conference?
Victoria: Well, I hope people really enjoy the conference and learn a lot from this experience! As others mentioned, this is a unique training opportunity. I was fortunate enough to learn how to lead process groups at Howard University Counseling Services, but not many of us have that opportunity. I think some attendees may miss the small group experience they typically have at MAGPS and it could be an adjustment. But the experience will be engaging and different. We will provide a lot of didactic materials and have some plenaries that are also unique. For example, we will have a process demonstration group with faculty observers as the members and will have a case vignette discussion demonstrating the use of our identities to navigate dynamics around diversity.
Overall, my expectation is that attendees become more skilled in leading process groups and come to understand the difference between therapy groups and process groups for training. I hope this conference will generate more interest in this area and become an inspiration for future conferences and training programs. I hope I also walk away from this conference learning more about myself as a process group leader and get some new ideas about how to improve training in this area.
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Are you interested in interviewing one of our future speakers?
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Three MAGPS members, Lenore Pomerance, Gloria Myers Beller, and Lorraine Wodiska all published articles in the Winter issue of Voices: the Art and Science of Psychotherapy, the journal of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, Vol. 56, No. 3, 2020. The title of the issue is "Psychotherapy Amidst Pandemic." To subscribe to the journal or obtain a copy of that issue, click here.
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Remembering the MAGPS 2020 Fall Conference
Christopher Straley, MSW, CST, CGP
MAGPS held its 2020 Fall Conference on November 7th and 8th. Our organization was excited and grateful to welcome Dr. Aziza A. B. Platt, as she presented Let’s Face the Fact(or)s: Navigating Race in Group through Re-examining the Therapeutic Factors. In many ways this was a conference of firsts for MAGPS. This would be the organization’s first conference during the pandemic, our first virtual conference, and our first conference planned with the participation of our recently formed Anti-Racism Task Force. This would also be our first conference to organize small groups around racial composition, offering White, Blended, and BIPOC groups. These firsts were all the more relevant, as we were waiting to hear the outcome of a historic US Presidential Election, which was actually announced during our small group experience!
Dr. Aziza A. B. Platt is a psychologist who provides culturally responsive individual, family, and group psychotherapy. She specializes in racial-cultural issues, trauma, and grief. She was inspired to get into mental health to contribute to efforts to make therapy more acceptable, accessible, and affordable - particularly for marginalized communities. Social justice and liberation are an indelible part of her work. She aims to eliminate barriers, structural and otherwise, to seeking and receiving quality and culturally competent mental health care, especially for underrepresented and under-served communities. As a practitioner, she strives to help the field and practitioners become increasingly more culturally aware and responsive.
We had an attendance of 71 participants, including new and returning members, and 14 scholarship recipients from the Saint Elizabeths training program and several universities, including University of Maryland, Howard University, West Virginia University, and George Washington University.
Our process groups were led by a distinguished team of small group leaders including Nadia Greenspan, LCPC, NCC, CGP, our guest leader from Evanston, Illinois; Victoria Lee, PhD, CGP; Jessica Chan, LICSW, CGP, MBA and David Flohr, PhD, CGP; Myrna Frank, PhD, CGP; Lorraine Wodiska, PhD, CGP, ABPP, FAGPA; Sean LeSane, LICSW; Reginald Nettles, PhD, CGP; and Joe Schmidt, M.Div, PsyD.
In the first two plenaries, with Dr. Platt’s guidance, we explored together the issue of structural systematic white supremacy and its impacts on BIPOC people, White people, other marginalized members, on us as group leaders, and on our groups. Dr. Platt encouraged us to revisit Yalom’s therapeutic factors including empathic responding, assisting members with a corrective experience of the primary societal group, and the installation of hope.
Additional issues explored included Racial-Cultural Events (RCE), such as microaggressions, how systematic racism may lead White members of the group, including leaders, to minimize, marginalize, sanitize, and/or over generalize RCE that BIPOC members often experience. Her demonstration of how to handle these events was, for me, very helpful as a White group leader.
In the final plenary, in Dr. Platt’s demo group, she modeled for the conference participants, through a series of steps, how a leader can assist the group to work through an RCE and facilitate a corrective experience with the marginalized member. In the demonstration, Dr. Platt non-judgmentally observed a microaggression had occurred in the group. She went on to disrupt the RCE, asking the group to slow down, and to tightly focus the group interaction on the RCE only. The group examined the painful impact of the RCE on the receiver and on the rest of the group. She explored with the offender the intent of the message versus the impact. She went on to facilitate an empathic response from the offender to the member of color. Through this thoughtful, slow, and painful process the installation of hope can occur - that offending members can tolerate their shame and will not be alienated; and that BIPOC members are seen and valued. It was a powerful and challenging conference for many, and possibly offered its own installation of hope for our membership.
*Conference artwork by Seth Higginbotham
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Anonymous Feedback from Scholarship Recipients:
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We Did It! (My Reflection on the MAGPS 2020 Fall Conference)
Sarah Brandel, Ph.D., CGP
We acted as an anti-racist organization! For the first time in our 60-year history MAGPS invited an African-American psychologist (Dr. Aziza Belcher Platt), to lead a conference on race in groups, Let’s Face the Fact(OR)s: Navigating Race in Groups through Re-examining Therapeutic Factors. Conference co-chairs provided opportunities for participants to sign up for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), Blended, and White small groups. BIPOC members of MAGPS facilitated five of the eight small groups and facilitated two of three plenary sessions. We did it--all on Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the midst of the determination of the results of the 2020 presidential election. Bravo!
We also demonstrated during this same conference that MAGPS in many ways remains a very White centered organization. Navigating race in groups proved challenging for sure. I observed that White conference participants readily exercised their authority and privileges. What is my “evidence?”
1. During the plenary sessions, White men and women frequently interrupted Dr. Belcher Platt’s presentation to offer their personal experiences, their questions, or their praise for/positive evaluation of her didactic material. She remarked more than once that she regretted not covering the ideas and examples she wanted to present. For White members it seemed to be difficult to “de-center” themselves and listen at length to BIPOC speakers—whether in the plenary, fishbowl or small groups.
2. White women and men took up parental and mentoring roles to younger BIPOC conference attendees in the fishbowl and small groups—often deflecting attention from the task of navigating race. It is a demographic fact that White members of MAGPS conferences tend to be older and to have many years of experience as group therapists. Often many BIPOC participants are students, residents and first-time attendees. The difference in age and experience, not surprisingly, elicit power and transference dynamics. They also can perpetuate the exercise of racist, White power.
3. White participants also slipped comfortably into using the fishbowl and perhaps most small groups for their own therapeutic needs—again resulting in considerable time and energy turned away from the theme of the conference. Using small groups for personal therapy, to be sure, is not new to our organization. In fact, it is our longstanding tradition despite conference guidelines indicating we could do something else. Arguably for many of us, when the subject is race, it is easier to retreat into therapy mode. Writers on White fragility note that when Whites become “overwhelmed” and/or tearful, they are claiming a privilege of the dominant group and not engaged in racial justice work.
So, how is MAGPS to adapt its conference traditions and demographic realities to promote personal growth and structural change? A few thoughts looking ahead:
· The Anti-Racism Task Force (ARTF) introduced caucus groups for BIPOC and Whites in their work and then at the 2020 Fall Conference. That shook things up. The ARTF also made an important distinction between “brave” and “safe” spaces. We will learn from these changes and try others.
· Younger BIPOC and White members are taking up leadership roles in the organization in 2021-2022. This generational change is significant. What will the older, mostly White members do? Historically they have died or drifted off—literally and figuratively. Perhaps this is necessary if not sufficient?
· We will have to think with others about the opportunities and limits of psychotherapy and group psychotherapy to redress structural inequalities in the United States. It seems irresponsibly naïve to hold that our most psychologically attuned dialogues will be sufficient to bring about racial equality. So, what is our contribution as group therapists? If we can be clear about what we do best, we might change MAGPS into a more anti-racist organization.
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Excerpt from Paper on "Groups that Harm and Groups that Heal"
Caleb B. Baukman
One group that I was recently a member of that was incredibly healing was the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) process group that took place during the Mid-Atlantic Group Psychotherapy Society (MAGPS) Fall Conference. This group was focused on processing the experience of the fall conference which was focused on navigating race within groups as a group facilitator/therapist. This BIPOC group was incredibly intentional about safety and openness. Individuals were encouraged to speak freely and transparently which led to a space where I could speak in a way that would not have been possible in other settings. Being in a group that was formed solely on my identity as a Black person that was full of other BIPOC helped me feel incredibly connected to everyone in the group from the very beginning. I understood that we were all different with different experiences but also that we share very similar experiences based on our identities. This in itself created a safe environment because I knew that if I was hurt by someone in the group it was likely not going to be based on my identity. Safety was also established in this group by how the facilitator interacted with the members of the group. The person guiding the group often is a role model for other members of the group in how it is acceptable to act in the group. The facilitator did a great job of admitting and being open about when they made a mistake in language or when they may done something that was not the most helpful, then apologized sincerely. This helped me feel like it is okay to be vulnerable but also that it is okay to admit when I am wrong. It also helped me understand that no one in the group wants to hurt anyone else in the group, which again creates a safe environment. Within this group, I was also appreciated for my individuality. Members of the group made sure that I was not forgotten and also heard and they expressed gratitude in hearing my experience, just as I did for others. This helped me feel connected to the group and helped me feel appreciated which allowed me to also feel like I belonged in the group. In turn, I was also deeply interested in the experience of other members of the group and how they differed from mine. I learned about my own experience of racism within this group but also the experience of other people of color that have experienced racism in different ways than myself. Another healing aspect of this group was the lack of pushing or expectation that everyone would share within the group. Towards the beginning there were individuals that spoke more than others but nobody was ever called on to speak unless it was a specific question about their experience. This was helpful for me because I knew that I was not being judged if I decided not to speak which also made me feel connected to the group and good about myself as an individual. I also consciously decided not to speak at certain times because I wanted to make room for others to speak and to really hear what others had to say. This shows a real interest in other members of the group that showed up within how the group operated. After leaving this group I was so incredibly grateful for the experience and I left feeling energized, hopeful, and excited for my future in group work.
Groups that heal are first and foremost safe. This safety does not mean that no one will ever get hurt but it means that safety is a priority and the group will work to make sure that individual members are healed and supported way more than they are hurt. Groups that heal are intentional about celebrating and acknowledging individual differences as well as the collective shared experience. Groups that heal create space for individuals to learn about themselves while they are learning about others. Groups that heal are inclusionary and they invite people in to step out of their comfort zone rather than forcing someone out of their comfort zone. Groups that heal can make individuals feel loved in a way that is only possible within the group, and that shows the true power of groups.
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Thank you for taking the time to read our bi-yearly newsletter.
Please let us know what you think by emailing Rebecca Abell, PsyD, CGP at [email protected].
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