Group Therapy Goes to The Movies: A Double Feature Brought to You by Dr. Joe Shay!

Using video clips from popular movies and TV shows, Joe will illustrate and explore central concepts in group therapy. Ideally, these will be readily useful for all group therapists.

Description

Group therapists begin with a simple idea: people exist in groups, can feel broken in groups, and can also heal in groups. For many individuals, to become a member of a therapy group can be frightening because it can reactivate early group experiences that may have been problematic. To protect against such anxiety, group members engage in intrapsychic and interpersonal defenses which are beneficial for the group therapist to recognize and respond to with skillful interventions. For the first of our two presentations during the weekend, using video clips from popular movies and TV shows including Inside Out, Seinfeld, Big Bang Theory, and The Sopranos, as well as videos of research from Milgram to Zimbardo to the Still Face experiment, we will focus on common group processes, the legacy of childhood experiences that impact these processes, and core technical principles to create a space where people can both act out their issues but also come to greater self-understanding.

Group therapists, as well as members, however, can also struggle with anxieties. Many therapists wrestle with feeling unknowledgeable or unskilled or even unhinged when treating difficult patients in group therapy. One common complication is the appearance of the defense of projective identification which can create tension, if not chaos, in groups. In our second presentation, again using a host of video clips from popular movies and TV shows including Good Will Hunting, The Simpsons, Modern Family, Breakfast Club, and In Treatment, we will take an in-depth look at some of the struggles faced by therapists in such difficult clinical situations, and what to do about it.

Learning Objectives:

1.  Identify common group processes,
2.  Describe the legacy of childhood experiences,
   
3.  List common complications in working with groups,
   
4.  State core technical principles for intervening in groups,
   
5.  Define projective identification,
   
6.  Compare the different definitions of projective identification,
   
7.  Identify ways to intervene more successfully when projective identification is present,
   
8.  Differentiate common countertransference reactions in the presence of projective identification. 

Joseph Shay, Ph.D.

Joseph Shay, PhD, is a psychologist in private practice in Cambridge. He is on the staff of the joint McLean /Massachusetts General Hospital training program, and has an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. He is on the faculty of the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy and PCFINE. He has co-edited Odysseys in Psychotherapy and Complex Dilemmas in Group Therapy and has co-authored Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy (4th and 5th editions) and has published widely in the fields of couple therapy and group therapy and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy. He has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, and was twice awarded the Psychotherapy Supervision Award from the MGH/McLean residents in Adult Psychiatry.

Continuing Education Credit

This workshop has been approved by the APA for 12.0 Hours Continuing Education credits. A Certificate of Completion is available for a CE fee of $30.

This event has not yet been approved for NBCC-accredited hours. We have applied for accreditation. If approved, this statement will be changed to indicate the approval and the NBCC logo will appear above. However, you can submit up to 15 hours per 2-year renewal cycle of general contact hours such as APA -approved hours, which these are.

Each day starts at 9 AM to and ends at 5:30 PM

On the first day, test your Zoom link about 8:30 AM; we have help starting 8:30 AM if you have Zoom problems.

You can download the schedule here:

Final Schedule - 2024 CGPS Spring Workshop Group Therapy Goes to the Movies Double Feature April 20-21, 2024.pdf

Here also is the same schedule:

What to Expect at Our Workshops:

Experiential Small Groups Explained

What to Expect at a Workshop

Scholarships Available!

We do not want financial circumstances to prevent you from participating, so we offer a limited number registrations at the Accessible Registration rate of $50. This does not include membership in CGPS. It does not include Continuing Education Certificate, which is available for $30 more.

If even this rate is unaffordable, please email your exceptional circumstances and what you feel you can afford to president.cgps@gmail.com.

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