Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society

WG4RE September Discussion Group: Impact of ACEs and Racial Trauma on the People We Serve and Our Practice
2025-09-16 20:30 - 21:45 (America/New_York) | Zoom
Work Group for Racial Equity September Discussion Group: Impact of ACEs and Racial Trauma on the People We Serve and Our Practice
We will discuss the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Racial Trauma on our practice, our clients, and on ourselves as practitioners, and explore ways to enhance our approaches and interventions in alignment with anti-racist principles.
Hosts: April Harvin and Chris Dolin
Resources
Video

How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime | Nadine Burke Harris | TED

Articles

Intersection of Racism and PTSD. Monica Williams
Racial Trauma
Stress and the Mental Health of Populations of Color: Advancing Our Understanding of Race-related Stressors

No fee to attend. All are welcome.

Proposals Due: Expanding the Social Justice Frame in Group Work and Group Psychotherapy GROUP Journal Special Issue
2025-10-15
Expanding the Social Justice Frame in Group Work and Group Psychotherapy: This special issue of GROUP invites group psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, group work activists, and scholars from around the world to contribute literature that centers social justice within therapeutic groups and organizations. “Therapeutic” refers to group work that addresses interpersonal and systemic harm with the intention of fostering a healing experience.
See the Call for Proposals by selecting the “Click here” button. Prospective authors may submit abstracts of up to 500 words to Christine Schmidt, Guest Editor, by October 15, 2025.

WG4RE October Discussion Group: New Worlds Rising: Focusing on the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
2025-10-21 20:30 - 21:45 | Zoom
Work Group for Racial Equity October Discussion Group:
New Worlds Rising: Focusing on the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Host: Virginia Seewaldt, PhD

In honor of Indigenous People’s Day, the Work Group for Racial Equity is celebrating the Indigenous People of the Americas. We invite you to prepare for the discussion group by watching the “New Worlds Rising” episode of the PBS documentary Series: Native America. You can watch it here, New Worlds Rising (you may have to create an account, but it is free to view on the website or through the PBS app). This episode documents the preservation of Native American life, history, and culture through acts of resistance, small and large. An interview with Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, Amy Goodman Interview with Leonard Peltier.

Although the aim of white supremacy is to engage in the erasure of Indigenous people using tactics such as referring to them in the past tense in history books and ignoring their contributions, in the very existence in the present, we can refuse to participate in the erasure of Indigenous people by actively staying informed and engaged with Indigenous history and what is occurring in present-day Indigenous communities.

Additional Resources

This is an article about the attempt to erase indigenous history: Erasing Indigenous History Then and Now
What Native Land Am I On?
Beyond Land Acknowledgements

No fee to attend. All are welcome.

Community Group Gathering for EGPS Members
2025-10-27 18:15 - 19:30 | Zoom
For all EGPS Members:
Please join us for our first Community Group Gathering of the current membership year.
Monday, October 27, 6:15-7:30pm on Zoom
This is an opportunity for all members to have a conversation about EGPS, by engaging members and leaders together.

How are we doing as a membership-centered group organization?
What could be improved?
How could you help this happen?

We welcome comments, suggestions, and questions. Please feel free to post these to the EGPS members listserv, because your ideas may spark others’ contributions and engagement. You may also contact EGPS President, Joe Hovey, directly at joehovey@gmail.com.
We hope these gatherings will stimulate your ideas for making EGPS a more vibrant group community.
Not yet a member? Join us!

Deadline: Early Registration Rates for the EGPS Annual Conference
2025-11-03
Join us for the EGPS Annual Conference, November 13-15, online and in NYC! The final day to receive the early registration rate — a roughly 20% discount — is Monday, November 3.

Deadline - EGPS Annual Conference Registration
2025-11-12 12:00
Join us for the EGPS Annual Conference, November 13-15, online and in NYC!
The registration deadline is Wednesday, November 12 at noon Eastern.

EGPS Annual Conference - Navigating Differences: Authenticity, Self Expression and Restorative Practices in Groups (Plenary)
2025-11-13 18:30 - 21:30 | Zoom
Navigating Differences:
Authenticity, Self Expression and Restorative Practices in Groups

In today’s climate of cultural and social division, differences within groups can spark disconnection, tension, and misunderstanding. Yet, when approached with openness and reflection, these challenges can become powerful gateways to healing, connection, and growth.
Group work offers a vital space to transform conflict into curiosity and division into dialogue. As group leaders, we are called to hold complexity: encouraging authentic expression while honoring safety and boundaries. Through restorative practices and compassionate accountability, we create containers where members can explore hard truths, deepen relationships, and remain grounded in integrity and care.
Join us for the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society 2025 Annual Conference where together we will deepen our understanding of how group process supports movement through fear, repair of relational ruptures, and greater tolerance for difference. We will explore how cultivating empathy, active listening, and emotional honesty creates space for people to feel seen, heard, and understood, building a framework for both personal insight and collective transformation.

Registration has ended: If you’ve registered already, check your email inbox for confirmation emails and instructions from jan@egps.org with subject lines starting “EGPS Conference IN-PERSON DAY” and/or “EGPS Conference ONLINE DAY” for relevant instructions.

A Decolonial Approach to Psychoanalytically Informed Developmental Theory, Case Formulation and Treatment
Daniel Jose Gaztambide, PsyD
Most approaches to relational therapy depend on some theory of development to inform how clinicians think about the patient’s difficulties, guiding case formulation and treatment. This focus, however, sometimes chafes with recent thinking on the role of sociocultural and political factors in psychotherapy. This presentation will bridge this gap through a theory and research-grounded review of the decolonial psychoanalytic perspective, offering pragmatic tools for thinking about the relational/developmental and social/political as a matter of course.

EGPS Annual Conference - Navigating Differences: Authenticity, Self Expression and Restorative Practices in Groups (Live Online Day)
2025-11-14 08:30 - 18:45 | Zoom
Navigating Differences:
Authenticity, Self Expression and Restorative Practices in Groups

In today’s climate of cultural and social division, differences within groups can spark disconnection, tension, and misunderstanding. Yet, when approached with openness and reflection, these challenges can become powerful gateways to healing, connection, and growth.
Group work offers a vital space to transform conflict into curiosity and division into dialogue. As group leaders, we are called to hold complexity: encouraging authentic expression while honoring safety and boundaries. Through restorative practices and compassionate accountability, we create containers where members can explore hard truths, deepen relationships, and remain grounded in integrity and care.
Join us for the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society 2025 Annual Conference where together we will deepen our understanding of how group process supports movement through fear, repair of relational ruptures, and greater tolerance for difference. We will explore how cultivating empathy, active listening, and emotional honesty creates space for people to feel seen, heard, and understood, building a framework for both personal insight and collective transformation.

Registration has ended: If you’ve registered already, check your email inbox for confirmation emails and instructions from jan@egps.org with subject lines starting “EGPS Conference IN-PERSON DAY” and/or “EGPS Conference ONLINE DAY” for relevant instructions.

EGPS Annual Conference - Navigating Differences: Authenticity, Self Expression and Restorative Practices in Groups (In-Person Day)
2025-11-15 08:15 - 19:30 | The Riverside Church, 91 Claremont Avenue, New York City, NY, 10027, United States

WG4RE November Discussion Group: Ezra Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates dialogue around the murder of Charlie Kirk: The Ubiquity of Whiteness
2025-11-18 20:30 - 21:45 | Zoom
Work Group for Racial Equity November Discussion Group:
Ezra Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates dialogue around the murder of Charlie Kirk: The Ubiquity of Whiteness

Host: Chris Dolin

In the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk, Bernie Sanders said that Charlie Kirk was “a very smart and effective communicator and organizer and someone unafraid to get out into the world and engage the public.” Gavin Newsom on Kirk “I admired his passion and commitment to debate.” And Ezra Klein praised Charlie Kirk for “doing politics the right way” in a New York Times op-ed. If you’ve ever heard sound bytes from Charlie Kirk, you may wonder if any of them had actually ever heard him speak.

Ta-Nehisi Coates responded in a Vanity Fair piece -doing something no one else did, that is, actually quoting Charlie Kirk, and then Klein invited Coates to discuss their disagreement on Klein’s podcast.

Let’s talk about it….

What’s it like to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ piece immediately following Ezra Klein’s piece? What sorts of feelings come up in your body as you read each? If you re-read each?

There are a lot of layers here, and in the podcast episode, they end up discussing more than just Klein’s NYT editorial piece. As you listen to each of them, think about how their lived experiences (or lack thereof) shape the lens through which they see and analyze and feel the world. What stands out to you about what each of them are saying and trying to communicate to each other and to us?

What aspects of whiteness/white supremacy culture do you notice?

These are listed in chronological order:

Ezra Klein Opinion Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way
Ta-Nehisi Coates Response in Vanity Fair – Charlie Kirk Redeemed: a Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause
Video: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ezra Klein Hash Out Their Charlie Kirk Disagreement

No fee to attend. All are welcome.

Seminar Series: Radical Paradox and the Particularities of Identity - Adam Shechter
2025-11-22 11:00 - 13:00 | Member’s Home, 535 Dean St, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
Location: In-person at a member’s home at 535 Dean St, Brooklyn, NY
Description: Come and talk about the complexities of identity that don’t immediately add up, but can be sensitively explored through a socially-conscious psychoanalytic paradigm. The contemporary political climate pushes for oversimplifications, but is that who we really are, as therapists and people? In a sense yes, when the polarizing eye places its projection and enactment upon its subject. Yet our patients need us to contain them in their particular, often seemingly contradictory range of social identities—all the while holding the analytic line of their drives, defenses, fantasies—and at the same time, empathizing and supporting them with the challenges of their realities. And don’t we as therapists and humans need the same? Not an easy task, but one that many of us have chosen to sign up for. Bring your intellect, heart, personal stories, and clinical experiences/questions to a workshop that will make room to hold, explore and process these radical paradoxes together.

Presenter Bio: Adam Shechter is a psychoanalytic therapist who works with individuals, couples and groups. Since he was a young child the multiplicity of identity has been on his mind. Before becoming a therapist Adam pursued various creativity; writing, musicality, and visual art forms. Poetry ultimately won out though found more nourishing soils in becoming a therapist and focusing on the verbal relation of understanding others. His writing has been published in psychoanalytic and literary journals including European Journal for Psychoanalysis, GROUP, Free Associations, Psychoanalytic Perspectives, The Minnesota Review and others. Adam has presented his work at various analytic conferences including EGPS, IFPE, APCS and IPHA. He also co-moderates an online study group on the work of Michael Eigen.
If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Seminar Series Co-Chairs, Nardia Brooks and Jacqueline Ambrosini.

Seminar Series: Besiege Your Siege with Madness: Collective Liberation and the Psychoanalysis of World-Making - Dr. Reem Abu Hweij
2025-12-07 11:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
Location: Virtually on Zoom
Description: Amid genocide and protracted colonial trauma, what psychic processes enable a people not only to survive but to imagine anew? Drawing from her essay “Besiege Your Siege with Madness” (forthcoming in Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society), Dr. Reem Abu Hweij examines the Palestinian collective psyche as a site of world-making and spiritual revolt. She introduces the concept of liberation madness—a psycho-spiritual rupture through which the oppressed transcend the colonizer’s “Dominant Reason” and reclaim meaning, love, and collective purpose.
Through a dialogue between decolonial psychoanalysis, liberation theology, and clinical observation, the seminar explores how trauma, when shared and survived, becomes a crucible for moral clarity and communal becoming. Participants are invited to reflect on the therapeutic, political, and existential implications of collective transcendence in times of annihilation.
Presenter Bio: Dr. Reem Abu Hweij is a clinical psychologist and academic based in Jerusalem. She runs a private practice and teaches at AlQuds University and Dar Al-Kalima University. Her work integrates psychoanalysis, Islamic psychology, and decolonial thought, focusing on trauma, liberation, and collective meaning-making. Dr. Abu Hweij’s recent essays include “The Colonizer Within: Exploring Facets of Internalized Oppression in Palestine” and “Besiege Your Siege with Madness: Transcendence and Liberation.” She regularly consults with humanitarian agencies and conducts supervision programs for psychosocial teams in Palestine.
If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Seminar Series Co-Chairs, Nardia Brooks and Jacqueline Ambrosini.

Seminar Series Event: Oona Metz presents "Unhitched," with Caty Borum
2026-01-14 18:30 - 20:00 | P&T Knitwear Books & Podcasts, 180 Orchard Street New York, NY 10002, New York, NY, 10002, United States
Come join us for a special evening we are co-sponsoring with P&T Knitwear book store where Oona Metz will discuss her new book, Unhitched, and learn how to navigate the emotional side of divorce and emerge stronger, more confident, and ready to thrive with this essential guide for women.
Oona will be in conversation with Caty Borum. Along with a discussion and audience Q&A, Oona will also sign copies of her book.
Click on the link below for tickets and further information
PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS HERE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Oona Metz, LICSW, is a Boston based psychotherapist and Certified Group Psychotherapist who specializes in treating women navigating divorce. She is a Fellow of The American Group Psychotherapy Association and an active member of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society and the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy. She leads three weekly Divorce Support Groups and trains mental health clinicians to lead them as well. Oona has written for outlets including Psychotherapy Networker, Psychology Today,Cognoscenti and the Los Angeles Review. Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women is her first book.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Caty Borum is Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI) and Professor at American University’s School of Communication. She is an award-winning media producer, engaged scholar, podcast executive producer, nonprofit leader, and author or co-author of four books about entertainment culture, human rights, and social change.

WG4RE January Discussion Group: The Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in 2026
2026-01-20 20:30 - 21:45 | Zoom
Work Group for Racial Equity January Discussion Group: The Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. in 2026

As we will have just observed the holiday of Martin Luther King’s birth, it’s a good time to reflect on his legacy through the lens of recent events that have inspired fear, disgust, and desperation among many of us. Please join us for the Work Group for Racial Equity’s January Discussion Group in which we hope to co-create a healing space for conversation.
We’re attaching MLK’s speech accepting the award to which Donald Trump professes to aspire – or, more precisely, seems to think is his entitlement. And a brief reflection on what Dr. King might be focusing on were he to be here with us today.
Video: Martin Luther King Noble Peace Prize Acceptance Speech
Article: What would Dr. King say? A reflection on Black America today

No fee to attend. All are welcome.

Community Group Gathering for EGPS Members
2026-01-29 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
For all EGPS Members:
Please join us for our second Community Group Gathering of the current membership year.
Thursday, January 29, 7:00-8:15pm on Zoom
This is an opportunity for all members to have a conversation about EGPS, by engaging members and leaders together.

How are we doing as a membership-centered group organization?
What could be improved?
How could you help this happen?

We welcome comments, suggestions, and questions. Please feel free to post these to the EGPS members listserv, because your ideas may spark others’ contributions and engagement. You may also contact EGPS President, Joe Hovey, directly at joehovey@gmail.com.
We hope these gatherings will stimulate your ideas for making EGPS a more vibrant group community.
Not yet a member? Join us!

Seminar Series: Intergenerational and Historical Trauma - Irit Felsen, Ph.D.
2026-02-01 11:00 - 13:00 | A member’s studio space, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Location: In-person at a member’s studio space in Dumbo, Brooklyn
Description: This presentation will focus on transmission of intergenerational, collective historical trauma.
The professions of mental health have not readily accepted the validity of the concept of historical trauma, which has finally been acknowledged in recent years. The main findings from empirical research and clinical literature about survivors of the Holocaust and their families will be presented. This body of clinical and empirical literature over the life span of Holocaust survivors and their children, who are now entering their own old age, opened the gates to studies in other trauma-exposed populations. The multigenerational transmission of historical trauma has by now been observed in descendants of survivors in multiple groups in the USA and across the globe, including the descendants of Black slaves and indigenous peoples in the Americas, in Australia and New Zealand, descendants of Japanese interned in the USA during WWII, and descendants of groups exposed to more recent wars. Historical and intergenerational trauma shape psychological vulnerabilities, resilience, and responses to current challenges in the life of offspring of trauma survivors This presentation will describe the mechanisms by which transmission takes place and its relevance in responses to current day reminders of the trauma.
Potential risks for loss of empathy inherent in the confrontation of trauma therapists with stories of brutality and sadism presented by their patients will be also discussed, as well as specific countertransference responses that might occur in the encounter between therapist and client who are embedded in diverse cultural identities.

Presenter Bio: Irit Felsen, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist born in Israel and living in NY. Dr. Felsen’s practice is in NJ, where she works with both individuals and couples. She specializes in the treatment of trauma, traumatic loss, intergenerational transmission of trauma, and bi-cultural families. Her clinical work has focused on Holocaust Survivors and their descendants, and her research on intergenerational transmission has been published in peer-reviewed journals and multiple book chapters. She was an Assistant Professor at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, for 14 years and is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. She is Chair of the Trauma Work Group at the NGO Committee on Mental Health in Consultative Relationship to the United Nations, and she was Chair of the Vibrant Older Adults Work Group within the Covid-19 APA Interdisciplinary Task Force.
If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Seminar Series Co-Chairs, Nardia Brooks and Jacqueline Ambrosini.

WG4RE February Discussion Group: Most of the Monsters Survived the Rising Sun: "Sinners" and the Impact of Historical, Cultural, and Generational Trauma on African Americans, Then and Now
2026-02-17 20:30 - 21:45 | Zoom
Work Group for Racial Equity February Discussion Group: Most of the Monsters Survived the Rising Sun: “Sinners” and the Impact of Historical, Cultural, and Generational Trauma on African Americans, Then and Now
While many horror films function as allegories, Sinners operates as both a vampire narrative and a socio-cultural documentary. Most horror movies have the monsters die or appear to die before the end credits roll. Sinners deviates from this because not all of the “monsters” die or disappear with the dawn. Even without its supernatural elements, the story remains horrific because the monsters of white supremacy, sharecropping, lynching, and systemic economic oppression, remain undefeated. Using director Ryan Coogler’s artistry and vision as a framework, our discussion will examine themes of historical, cultural, and intergenerational trauma; structural racism, cultural appropriation; survival; resistance; and resilience. We will also consider how these dynamics are alive today in contemporary clinical practice and in current events.
Resource
Sinners (2025), directed by Ryan Coogler.
Available via subscription streaming on platforms such as Max, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, YouTube, and Sling TV. Also available for rental or purchase through Fandango at Home, Apple TV, and Google Play. For the most current viewing options, search the film title on Google’s “where to watch” results page, or click here.

No fee to attend. All are welcome.

Group Journal Fireside Chat (Postponed)
2026-02-22 12:00 - 13:30 | Zoom
A conversation with GROUP author Stavros Charalambides, Director of the Institute of Relational and Group Psychotherapy, Athens, Greece
Free ZOOM event
Hosted by the GROUP Journal Committee
EVENT POSTPONED
Focusing on his article in GROUP:
Cassandra at the Gates: Institutional Literacy, Group Dynamics, and the Social Unconscious in Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Article Abstract:
This address explores the often overlooked dimension of institutional literacy in relational psychoanalysis, situating it within the broader context of group dynamics and the social unconscious. Beginning with mythic and historical illustrations—from the fratricidal tragedy of Eteocles and Polynices to contemporary geopolitical crises—it argues that psychoanalytic institutions, like analytic dyads, are subject to unconscious repetitions of trauma, rivalry, and disavowal. The central claim is that the inability to recognize institutional dynamics—succession anxieties, ideological rigidity, and legacy conflicts—renders psychoanalytic communities vulnerable to fragmentation and ethical incoherence. Drawing from the concept of the “institutional unconscious,” the lecture critiques the prevailing intersubjective paradigm for its neglect of the analytic field’s collective and political dimensions. While relational psychoanalysis has expanded the analytic third, it still tends to privilege the dyad and undertheorize the systemic transmissions of trauma within institutions. Instead, the speaker calls for a theoretical and structural shift that includes large-group phenomena—sibling transferences, group-as-a-whole dynamics, and the psychic life of institutions—as essential to psychoanalytic training and practice. By invoking myths such as those of Pentheus and Dionysus, the talk illustrates how institutional rigidity and disavowed affect can result in catastrophe rather than transformation. Institutional literacy, then, is not merely an intellectual exercise but a clinical and ethical imperative. Only by metabolizing difference and engaging with unconscious structures at the institutional level can psychoanalysis truly offer a space for healing and innovation—both for its practitioners and for the communities they serve.
This is a free event open to all EGPS members and non-members. The event has been postponed; new date TBD.

Community Group Gathering for EGPS Members
2026-03-24 20:15 - 21:30 | Zoom
For all EGPS Members:
Please join us for a Community Group Gathering.
Tuesday, March 24, from 8:15-9:30pm on Zoom
This is an opportunity for all members to have a conversation about EGPS, by engaging members and leaders together.

How are we doing as a membership-centered group organization?
What could be improved?
How could you help this happen?

We welcome comments, suggestions, and questions. Please feel free to post these to the EGPS members listserv, because your ideas may spark others’ contributions and engagement. You may also contact EGPS President, Joe Hovey, directly at joehovey@gmail.com.
We hope these gatherings will stimulate your ideas for making EGPS a more vibrant group community.

Not yet a member? Join us!

Community Group Gathering for EGPS Members
2026-03-26 10:00 - 11:15 | Zoom
For all EGPS Members:
Please join us for our third Community Group Gathering of the current membership year.
Thursday, March 26, from 10:00-11:15am on Zoom
This is an opportunity for all members to have a conversation about EGPS, by engaging members and leaders together.

How are we doing as a membership-centered group organization?
What could be improved?
How could you help this happen?

We welcome comments, suggestions, and questions. Please feel free to post these to the EGPS members listserv, because your ideas may spark others’ contributions and engagement. You may also contact EGPS President, Joe Hovey, directly at joehovey@gmail.com.
We hope these gatherings will stimulate your ideas for making EGPS a more vibrant group community.

Not yet a member? Join us!

Seminar Series: Special Considerations Working With Divorce Grief in Group Therapy - Oona Metz
2026-04-26 11:00 - 13:30 | A member’s studio space, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Location: In-person at a member’s studio space in Dumbo, Brooklyn
Description: Divorce is a legal and financial process but it is a powerful and poignant emotional transition as well. This dynamic workshop with Oona Metz, LICSW, CGP will include lecture, discussion and experiential learning. We will review how to understand and treat divorce related grief, common therapist pitfalls working with divorcing clients, and an overview of a combined support/therapy model of divorce groups. Open to all mental health providers regardless of marital or divorce status.

Presenter Bio: Oona Metz, LICSW, CGP is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker, a Certified Group Psychotherapist and a Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association. She has 30 years of clinical experience and specializes in treating women navigating divorce. Oona is the author of Unhitched: The Essential Divorce Guide for Women. Unhitched has been featured on The CBS Morning Show, in Time Magazine and on NPR’s Morning Edition. Her writing has appeared in outlets including The Psychotherapy Networker, Psychology Today, Social Work Voice and the Los Angeles Review. Oona leads three weekly Divorce Support Groups for Women and is the founder of the Beacon Group Fellowship, a program which trains mental health professionals across the country to lead divorce groups. She is passionate about reducing the shame and stigma surrounding divorce.
If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Seminar Series Co-Chairs, Nardia Brooks and Jacqueline Ambrosini.

Deadline: Call for 50th Anniversary GROUP Journal Cover Art
2026-05-15
Call for Cover Art: Celebrating 50 Years of GROUP Journal
Deadline for Submissions May 2026
As we approach the 50th Anniversary of GROUP: The Journal of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society in 2027, we invite artists, clinicians, and community members to submit original artwork for our new cover design. The selected artwork will serve as a visual symbol for our milestone year, appearing on future issues of GROUP, including the 2027 anniversary issue.
Themes & Inspiration
Since 1977, GROUP has been the scholarly voice of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society (EGPS), dedicated to advancing group psychotherapy. We seek an image that captures the essence of group and EGPS values, including:

Connection, Transformation, and Hope
Multiplicity and Diversity in voices, identities, and cultural contexts.
The interplay between Individuality and Community.
Movement, process, and the bridging of past, present, and future scholarship.

All visual interpretations—abstract, representational, digital, or mixed media—are welcome.
Submission Guidelines

Requirement

Detail

Format

Original visual artwork (painting, illustration, photography, digital design).

File Type

High-resolution digital file (minimum 300 dpi; .jpg or .png preferred).

Orientation

Portrait orientation, adaptable to a standard journal cover (approx. 8.5” x 11”).

Artist Statement

Short statement (150–250 words) explaining how your piece reflects the spirit of GROUP and EGPS values.

Eligibility

Open to all EGPS members, readers, contributors, and interested artists.
The Artist warrants that the submitted Artwork is original, is the sole work of the Artist, and does not contain any libelous or unlawful statements.
The Artist grants to EGPS and the Group Journal an exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to publish, reproduce, distribute, and display the Artwork in all formats, including print and electronic, as part of the Group Journal and in all derivative works, reproductions, or subsequent editions of the Journal, and as part of the EGPS website and promotional materials. The Artist will be credited and retains copyright of the Artwork.

Submit To

Niki Keating at nkeating@colgate.edu by May 15, 2026.

Selection and Recognition
A review panel of GROUP editors and 50th Anniversary working group members will select the winning artwork. The featured artist will receive credit for the use of their art on the issue cover and a brief artist feature in the front matter of the journal and in EGPS communications. Consistent with copyright agreements of the journal, EGPS reserves the right to use the image in future publications and marketing materials.
We invite your creative expression to honor the legacy of the past fifty years and envision the next.
Warmly,
GROUP 50th Anniversary Working Group
Niki Keating, PhD, CGP, Chair

EGPS Spring Event: Talking about Sex in Groups
2026-05-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy, 33 W 60th Street, New York, NY, 10023, United States
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.

WG4RE May Discussion Group: Unpacking Some of the Impact of Historical and Racial Trauma on Indigenous and African American Populations
2026-05-19 20:30 - 21:45 | Zoom
Work Group for Racial Equity May Discussion Group: Unpacking Some of the Impact of Historical and Racial Trauma on Indigenous and African American Populations
We’ll build on our prior discussion of Sinners by taking a deeper look at how historical trauma has shaped the lived experiences of two foundational U.S. populations—Indigenous and African American communities. In this session, we’ll examine how historical and racial trauma can produce intergenerational impacts, including effects on health, identity, relationships, community well-being, and trust in institutions, including mental health systems. We’ll also see how trauma and oppression can echo across time.
Hosts: Chris Dolin and April Harvin
Resources
Articles

The historical trauma response among natives and its relationship with substance abuse: a Lakota illustration – PubMed
Intersection of Racism and PTSD: Assessment, Treatment of Racial Stress and Trauma

Video

Healing from Historical Trauma: Understanding Trauma Part 2

No fee to attend. All are welcome.

Annual Membership Meeting
2026-05-28 20:00 - 21:15 | Zoom
For all EGPS Members:
Please join us for our 2026 Annual Membership Meeting.
Thursday, May 28, 8:00-9:15pm on Zoom
All EGPS members are welcome!
We’ll review our last year and look forward to the next, introducing the newly elected Board members, and also offering opportunities for conversation amongst members and leaders of EGPS.

Not yet a member? Join us!

Group Journal Fireside Chat: "The Forgotten Only Child in Interpersonal Therapy Groups" with Christina Dixon
2026-05-29 12:00 - 13:30 | Zoom
A conversation with GROUP author Christina Dixon, LCSW, CGP
Free ZOOM event
Hosted by the GROUP Journal Committee
Focusing on her article in GROUP:
The Forgotten Only Child in Interpersonal Therapy Groups
Article Abstract:
Rates of only children are rising in many countries throughout the world, including the United States. The experience of an only child needs to be better understood to support these clients in group therapy and to help them integrate into a world they have never personally experienced—that of interacting with siblings. By examining unique aspects of the only-child experience, I hope to aid group leaders in becoming culturally competent with this growing population.
This is a free event open to all EGPS members and non-members.

Deadline: Workshop Proposals for the Annual Conference
2026-06-05 18:00
Groups have long been understood as circles—spaces of gathering, reflection, desire, and shared meaning-making. Yet circles are rarely calm or stable for long. At times, they hold heat: conflict, urgency, fear, and the intensity of difference. In the current moment, many groups find themselves organized around these very forces, as polarization, mistrust, and social fracture permeate clinical, organizational, and public life.
What does it mean to lead when the circle is on fire?
This conference explores the challenges of leadership in groups charged with anxiety, division, and moral tension. Leaders today are called not only to facilitate dialogue, but to withstand and work within powerful affective currents. These dynamics often contribute to harm and defensive processes such as splitting, scapegoating, withdrawal, and the hardening of positions that foreclose curiosity and mutual recognition.
At the same time, difference—of identity, experience, power, and perspective—remains both a source of vitality and a site of profound strain within groups. How do leaders engage difference without either collapsing it into false consensus or amplifying it into irreparable rupture? How can conflict be worked with rather than extinguished or inflamed? What capacities are required to remain present, thoughtful, and ethically grounded when the group itself feels volatile or combustible?
We invite workshop proposals that take up these questions across psychotherapy, organizational, and community settings. Submissions might explore: leadership under conditions of fear and uncertainty; the management of conflict and aggression in groups; the role of identity, power, and historical trauma in shaping oppressive group dynamics; the leader’s use of self in high-intensity settings; and practices that support resilience, repair, and the possibility of dialogue across difference. We are interested in proposals that promote leadership practices that are affirming and inclusive of diverse identities, and that attend to the social unconscious as it permeates and shapes group life.
We particularly encourage proposals that integrate theory with lived and clinical experience, and that engage participants in experiential, reflective, or process-oriented learning. As groups become increasingly charged spaces, this conference seeks to illuminate how leaders can embrace the fire but not be consumed by it—and instead learn to work with it in ways that sustain connection, complexity, and growth.
We invite proposals to align with our organizational Mission and Vision.

Seminar Series: Taking Up Role: The Multiple Dimensions of Person-in-Role, Authority, and Social Identity in Groups - Mary McRae & Kelley Hershman
2026-06-07 11:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
Location: Virtually on Zoom
Description: Roles in groups and organizations operate across multiple dimensions: the role assigned by the organization, how the individual takes up that role (person-in-role), and how the role is perceived by others. These dimensions are often misaligned, particularly in the context of social identity, where assumptions and projections shape how authority is granted, resisted, or undermined. This workshop focuses on making these dynamics visible. Using brief video vignettes and live group process, participants will examine how identity influences role and authority in real time, and how to intervene when gaps emerge between role, behavior, and perception.
Presenter Bios:
Mary B. McRae, Ed.D, is a counseling psychologist in private practice. She also does coaching and group facilitation to enhance more effective and productive functioning. She is the President of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology. Dr. McRae is the author of a book, an educational video and several articles and book chapters.
Kelley Hershman, B.S., M.A., M.S., LMHC-D, is a Licensed Psychotherapist, Clinical Director and Co-Founder of The Soho Center for Mental Health and Clinical Learning in New York City. She received both her B.S. in Applied Psychology, and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from New York University. She received her M.S. in Counseling, Clinical & School Psychology at The University of California in Santa Barbara. Her research interests include the study of adult attachment in marriage, family and organizational behavior. She also researches race, interracial marital stress, authority, gender and status as they relate to power and leadership within human systems and cultures. She has been practicing the Group Relations Consultation since 2008.
If you have any questions or concerns, contact the Seminar Series Co-Chairs, Nardia Brooks and Jacqueline Ambrosini.

WG4RE June Discussion Group: How do we greet the 250th anniversary of our country's Declaration of Independence?
2026-06-16 20:30 - 21:45 | Zoom
Work Group for Racial Equity June Discussion Group: How do we greet the 250th anniversary of our country’s Declaration of Independence?
Not just within the Trumpist moment, but in the long sweep of our history that has bent occasionally toward and frequently away from justice for the generations of Black people descended from those who were enslaved and for Native Americans and other immigrant people of color.
What is the meaning of patriotism or love of country for people of color and allies?
In our next Discussion Group, we will address these questions through the lens of Eddie Glaude Jr’s recent book, America, USA: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries.
We certainly don’t expect participants to have read the book. Here are a few resources that give the flavor and some context. Please join us! All are welcome.
Hosts: Chris Dolin and Virginia Seewaldt
Resources
Articles

NY Times Book Review: It’s America’s Birthday, and He’ll Be Mad if He Wants To
A Nation’s Story: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
New Yorker: How Problematic is Patriotism?

Video

No fee to attend. All are welcome.

Deadline: Training Program Applications Due
2026-08-01
