Join us for a panel discussion and event:
Friday, May 15, 2026
7:00 – 9:00 PM
33 W 60th Street
New York, NY
(Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy)
Talking about Sex in Groups
Judith White, LCSW, CGP, CST
Juliane Maxwald, MA, LP, CST
Ed Elder, MDiv, LMHC, LMFT
Sexuality and group process are shaped by similar factors: pleasure, risk, safety, difference and repair. Yet when it comes to talking about sex in groups, these dynamics are often avoided, muted, or mishandled. The more comfort group therapists have with their sexual selves, the more comfort we will have with inviting and listening to sexual stories of group members.
What happens when we begin to work with sexuality directly?
This year’s EGPS Spring Event will include both experiential and didactic elements, allowing participants to encounter and reflect on the emotional and relational responses that emerge when sexual themes are brought into a group context, including discomfort, excitement, resistance, curiosity, and silence. We will explore how cultural factors, especially those of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion, affect our sexuality. We will discuss how these factors have shaped our sexuality as group therapists and how this affects our clinical work.
Judith White, LCSW, CGP, CST, Juliane Maxwald, MA, LP, CST and Ed Elder, MDiv, LMHC, LMFT will explore how erotic charge and group vitality are organized along the same psychological axis: aliveness requires risk, risk requires safety, and safety deepens through repair. The panel will offer clinical frameworks and practical considerations to help group therapists engage sexual material with greater confidence, sensitivity, and depth.
Join us for an event that will help deepen your work with groups by offering a nuanced, relational approach to engaging sexuality as a vital dimension of the therapeutic field.
