LARGE GROUP Identities, ruptures, and repairs, and dspp
Date: Wednesday, October 18: 7:30pm-9pm
Credits: 1.5 CE
Speaker: Melissa Wallace, M.D. & Melissa Black, Ph.D.
Meeting is both on Zoom & in-person at:
The Center for Integrative Counseling & Psychology
4305 MacArthur Ave.
Dallas, TX 75209
As we begin to repair the ruptures precipitated by the pandemic, DSPP plans to convene a Large Group. The Large Group provides a safe place for concerns to be expressed that otherwise might not emerge in the more structured programs of DSPP. This allows our organization to better meet the needs of the membership. What has been working for us? What might need to be changed? This year's program plans to focus on rupture and repair. Ruptures in the psychoanalytic world have been frequent and traumatic; repairs have been harder to come by. The containment that Large Groups offer can provide an opportunity to explore the ruptures and repairs in the organizational life of DSPP as well as any other issues that would benefit from examination and dialogue. Melissa Wallace, MD and Melissa Black, PhD will convene a Large Group to provide a space to explore these issues.
Learning Objectives:
1. The primary task of this Large Group will be to provide a safe place to give voice to the thoughts, feelings, and associations of the membership in service of communal dialogue.
2. Identify and name 3 ways in which ruptures related to the pandemic have impacted clinical work.
3. Vogel (2016) describes 5 levels of membership with increasing member experience and depth of service as “visitor, novice, member, senior member, and principal elder.” Within DSPP how do these subgroups relate to one another?
4. Describe functional and dysfunctional subgrouping and ways in which dysfunctional subgrouping creates ruptures and ways in which these can be repaired.
5. A basic learning objective of this large group will be to increase our understanding of societal, systemic, and subgroup dynamics related to Large Group identities, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, social class, religion, sexual orientation, and identity, age, ability, and professional status.
References:
Deutsch, R. A. (2014). Traumatic ruptures: Abandonment and betrayal in the analytic relationship. New York and London: Routledge.
Dluhy, M., et al. (2019). The large group experience: Affiliation in a learning community. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 69, 287-307.
Grundy, D. (2020). Large group: A brief historical and personal account. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 70, 117-138.
Pena, C. (2023). From crowd psychology to the dynamics of large groups: Historical, theoretical, and practical considerations. London and New York: Routledge.
Vogl, C. (2016). The Art of community: Seven principles for belonging. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
PResenter bios
Melissa Wallace, MD graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Physiology and Developmental Biology, followed by Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. During medical school she volunteered in community outreach programs and was inducted into the Golden Humanism Honor Society. She continued her training with a psychiatric residency at UT Southwestern in Dallas. While there, she taught a course on psychiatry and pop culture to the UTSW medical students, chaired the literature and psychiatry committee and received the John F. Hickman award for outstanding resident. After completing residency in 2019, she joined the Group Analytic Practice of Dallas as an associate member and became a partner in 2023. She currently conducts T-groups for the psychiatry residents at UTSW and co-convenes the all resident large group. She primarily treats adults with anxiety and depression through a combination of medication management, individual therapy, and group therapy.
Melissa Black, PhD is a member of the Group Analytic Practice of Dallas and is a past president of DSPP. She holds an Adjunct Professor role in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas where she is a two-time award winner of the Outstanding Clinical Teaching Award by the Psychiatry Residents Organization. She currently facilitates two psychiatry resident T-groups and co-facilitates an all resident large group several times throughout the year. She has been trained in Reflective Citizens Koinonia group work in Belgrade, Serbia and has hosted large groups in many different settings. She and Melissa Wallace, MD co-conducted a workshop this August with GAPDallas colleagues for the Group Analytic Society International Symposium in Belgrade: When Divided Worlds Meet: Confluences of Identity, Culture, Continuity and Change entitled "Martin Luther King: Talking about Race."
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