ICSW Spring 2021 Conference

Working Psychodynamically with Communities of Color: Experiences and Lessons

Saturday April 17th, 2021

9:00am – 4:00pm Central Time

Via ZOOM

With

Patricia Gherovici, PhD | Cynthia Chalker, MMS | Ryan Parker, LCSW

Early Bird Registration through February 28: $75

Registration after February 28: $90 (student/agency/group rates available)

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy is rooted in psychoanalytic theory and embraces the client-centered values of clinical social work. However, it has historically remained disconnected from the experiences of communities of color, leading to a long standing chasm and mistrust in psychoanalytically informed treatment. In recent years, layers of race, ethnicity, culture, power, and privilege have been greater areas of focus as important aspects of evolving psychodynamic theory, practice, and sensibility.

SPEAKERS

Patricia Gherovici, PhD, is a licensed psychoanalyst and analytic supervisor practicing in Philadelphia and New York. She is co-founder and director of the Philadelphia Lacan Group and Associate Faculty, Psychoanalytic Studies Minor, University of Pennsylvania (PSYS), Honorary Member at IPTAR, the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research in New York City,  and Founding Member of Das Unbehagen. She is an award-winning author, publishing six books including The Puerto Rican Syndrome, Transgender Psychoanalysis: A Lacanian Perspective on Sexual Difference, and, most recently, co-edited Psychoanalysis in the Barrios: Race, Class, and the Unconscious. 

Cynthia Chalker, MSS, is a licensed social worker and psychoanalyst who lives and practices in New York City. Her clinical and research interests center around the intersection of race, culture, identity and psychoanalysis. She participates on panels, plenaries and keynote speakers at conferences in the United States and internationally. She is a faculty member at the Harlem Family Institute and a guest lecturer at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies and The William Alanson White Institute, as well as a guest contributor to the journals Psychoanalytic Dialogues and Psychoanalytic Inquiry.

Ryan Parker, LCSW, is a clinical social worker in private/public practice in Austin, TX, where she works with people of all ages in individual, couples, and child-parent therapy. Ryan loves doing consultation work with organizations and agencies around issues of whiteness, race, and anti-racism. She is a psychoanalytic candidate at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies in Houston, TX, and co-chairs a mentoring program for clinicians that she started at Austin Psychoanalytic. Her article “Slavery in the White Psyche” was published in Psychoanalytic Social Work in 2019.

We are pleased and excited to offer the opportunity to engage in a dialogue about the need for recognition and humility. Three scholar clinicians will share their experiences of these issues and of their work with clients and communities of color, highlighting the importance of understanding more deeply, listening more openly, and engaging more fully with these communities. Our hope is that, through an open dialogue, we can find ways to make psychodynamic psychotherapy more relevant and accessible to all.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The day will include individual presentations from each speaker and small group breakout discussions, in order to reflect and develop questions. One speaker will discuss the construct of the white psyche in relation to slavery, and the other two will discuss their clinical experience including considerations of transference, countertransference, and non-defensive engagement when working with difference. We will wrap up our day with a plenary session with our speakers for small group questions and reflections

CONTINUING EDUCATION

6 CEUs for Social Workers (LSW/ LCSW), Counselors (LPC/LCPC), and Psychologists. CEUs qualify for cultural competency hours.

ICSW is an approved Continued Education sponsor by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation

QUESTIONS?

If you have questions about the conference or how to register, please contact Elree Smith at esmith@icsw.edu or (773) 943-6506