Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society

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 (America/New_York) | 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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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: 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.

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.

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
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 (Live Online Day)
2025-11-14 08:30 - 18:45 | Zoom

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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 September Discussion Group: Impact of ACEs and Racial Trauma on the People We Serve and Our Practice
2025-09-16 20:30 - 21:45 | 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.

Deadline Extended - EGPS Training Program in Group Psychotherapy Applications due August 31
2025-08-31
GROUP THERAPY IS HEALING IN COMMUNITY!
At a time of increasing need for relationships and community, Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society offers a Training Program in Group Psychotherapy that is designed to accommodate therapists and group leaders in clinics, agencies, and private practice. The program consists of three weekly components: Group Consultation, Didactic Instruction, and Experiential Group. The Training Program addresses racial and social justice issues in group work of all kinds.

Just some of the areas covered:

Early Group Development
Phases of Group Development
Othering in Groups
Systems of Power and Inequaliity
Racial Dynamics in Groups
Racial Affinity Groups
Non-Verbal Communication in Group Work
Embodied Ethics
Leader Interventions with Patients Experienced as Difficult
Transference and Countertransference

Trainees receive didactic instruction as well as guidance and consultation in how to begin and facilitate their own groups. For those who are already running groups, participating in this program will help you understand the processes and dynamics occurring among your group members and address challenges with clarity. Trainees will also participate in an “Experiential” process group to have the in-vivo experience of being a group member.

The program meets weekly from September through June on Zoom. The Didactic and Experiential Group Components meet on Wednesdays from 7:15 – 10:00 PM ET. The dates and times for the Consultation Group component of the program will be determined.

The Training Program Faculty is composed of senior members of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society and the American Group Psychotherapy Association.
A certificate is awarded upon completion of the program. The Training Program, with an option for additional consultation, is designed so that qualified applicants can use the educational and supervisory components toward inclusion in the International Board of Certification for Group Psychotherapy.
Faculty members consult with our Dean of Curriculum as they prepare their courses; meet annually with an expert in intersectionality, and are encouraged to engage in ongoing racial literacy and anti-oppression training.
Each trainee will be paired with a mentor who has group experience to help you get your very own group up and running!

Trainees will learn to:

Facilitate intimate connections & difficult discussions
Recognize the impact of systemic oppression on group dynamics
Experience and study one’s own social location and how the aspects of identity, power and privilege play out in groups

Experience the Power of Group Work:

Increasing feelings of connection and decreases feelings of isolation
Fostering relationships and noticing obstacles to intimacy
Being part of a larger whole & recognize one’s impact
Supporting and helping & being supported and helped.

Rolling Admissions until August 31st, 2025: Submit your application immediately to be considered for the upcoming September, 2025 – June, 2026 class!
Tuition $5,900
Need based partial scholarships are available through the J. Dustin Nichols Scholarship Fund.
A Reparations rate is available to cover partial tuition for Indigenous applicants and applicants of the African diaspora to enhance educational opportunities that have been historically denied.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Co-Deans of Admissions
Claire Julian, ClaireMJulian@gmail.com
Ashley Leeds, LCSW, ashley@leedspsychotherapy.com, 917-900-2083

From a former trainee: “The EGPS Training Program approaches group therapy from a whole range of theoretical perspectives. There’s not ‘just one way’ to run groups”

The EGPS Training Program in Group Psychotherapy was the recipient of an “Award for Outstanding Contributions in Education and Training in the Field of Group Psychotherapy” presented by the International Board for Certification of Group Psychotherapists.

Mission: The EGPS Training Program is committed to providing training in group theory and processes that recognizes significant aspects of personal identity. The program seeks to facilitate understanding of the impact of systemic and institutional oppression on individuals and groups; and to counteract racism and white supremacy through teaching of anti-oppressive approaches to group work, and through the process of administering the program. The program promotes racial literacy through anti-racism training, and the incorporation of diverse racial and cultural perspectives through our faculty and curriculum. We are committed to racial justice through the provision of reparations funding for Black and Indigenous trainees.

Vision: Recognizing that traditional group psychotherapy has been defined by western white dominant patriarchal culture, we envision group healing that draws on a greater variety of cultural practices and approaches to healing that seeks to not only to address the needs of individuals but of the greater society.

EGPS WG4RE - "White Racial Identity Development and How Whiteness Harms White People"
2025-06-17 20:30 | Zoom
EGPS Work Group for Racial Equity

The EGPS Work Group for Racial Equity meets monthly to discuss relevant books, films, podcasts, and articles. Further information can be found on the EGPS website at www.egps.org.
Join us! We are a “drop in group.” You are invited to participate whenever you can. Connect via a Zoom link on the third Tuesday evening of the month. To receive the link to join the monthly meeting, each month you will need to click on the “registration link” listed below. Once you have “registered” the Zoom link will automatically be sent to you. (There is NO fee for attending these monthly Discussion Groups.)

EGPS Work Group for Racial Equity
Discussion GroupTUESDAY, June 17, 2025
8:30 – 9:45 PM
(eastern time)
On Zoom
(information to join the meeting is below)
White Racial Identity Development and How Whiteness Harms White People
Facilitated by Dr. Virginia Seewaldt

Since 2020, we have seen both a surge in anti-racism efforts and an intense backlash against them. As institutions retreat under political and cultural pressure, we’re called to reflect more deeply on whiteness, white racial identity, and the less visible ways white supremacy harms white people too.
This collection of readings and podcasts for this month’s discussion group explores how white identity develops, how white supremacy distorts white people’s sense of self and community, and how anti-racism work can lead to personal (and ultimately collective) liberation. While white people benefit materially from systemic racism, they also pay hidden emotional, relational, and moral costs. White supremacy isolates, numbs, and constrains. In contrast, anti-racism opens the door to empathy, clarity, connection, and integrity. Most white people don’t even know what they are missing in this regard, and how much more capacity for humanity is available to them.
Join us as we come together in community to discuss this topic with openness, humility, and a shared commitment to learning and growth.
10 ways white supremacy wounds white people: A tale of mutuality (article)
Teaching While White Podcast Interview with Dr. Janet Helms ( podcast: 31 minutes)
White Racial Identity and Anti-Racist Education: A Catalyst for Change (article)
Why talking about race is especially hard for White people (article)
Francesca Maxime Interview with Dr. Janet Helms (podcast: 1 hour 6 minutes)

To attend this free discussion you must register with the link below to receive access.
Click Here to Sign-Up to receive the link for this Discussion
To attend this FREE discussion, you much click the above link and complete the ‘registration form.’ After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the discussion.

EGPS Work Group for Racial Equity (WG4RE) Mission Statement
The Work Group for Racial Equity of the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society aims to initiate opportunities for members to examine how racism is embedded in individuals’ unconscious, in groups, and in our organization. Utilizing a collaborative process, the work group supports EGPS efforts to integrate awareness about race and racism in professional events and presentations.
The Work Group also seeks to enhance members’ understanding of the impact of institutional racism on their work, encourages members’ examination of internalized racial oppression, and works with the Board of Directors to strengthen our racial equity lens.
Healing from racial injustice is a result of learning and struggling together. We hope all members will join EGPS in this work.

Upcoming Discussion:
All upcoming discussions will be held on Zoom on
Tuesday evenings from 8:30 – 9:45 PM

Healing from racial injustice is a result of learning and struggling together. We hope you will join EGPS in this important work.
For more information, please contact the Co-Chairs of the Work Group For Racial Equity:
Chris Dolin, LCSW, chrisdolin21@gmail.com
or
April Harvin, LCSW, aprilharvin.lcsw@gmail.com

If you would like to join our email list click here

EGPS GROUP Journal Fireside Chat with Author Christine Schmidt
2025-06-06 12:00 - 13:30 | Zoom
Join us for the next Fireside Chat, featuring recent EGPS President, Christine Schmidt, LCSW, CGP, as we celebrate her latest article in the spring issue of GROUP! On Friday, June 6, 2025, 12:00 Noon – 1:30 PM, we will discuss Christine’s upcoming article: “Confronting whiteness in short-term learning groups: How co-constructed group agreements encourage anti-racist emotional and intellectual learning.” The article is a thought-provoking piece that encourages group leaders to utilize a foundational element of group work, the group agreement, as an educational tool for anti-oppressive work. Additionally, we will discuss Christine’s current group work, writing process, and any future projects that she may have on the horizon. Abstract: Whiteness is ubiquitous in groups that convene in a culture permeated by white supremacy. Whiteness thwarts learning in short-term psychoeducational learning groups and is bound to be enacted repeatedly. Whiteness will reconstitute itself until it is identified, interrupted, and the group is restored to collaborative learning. Co-constructed, living group agreements, rather than traditional group contracts, offer facilitators of short-term learning groups a tool to address racial enactments and transform the white space to an anti-oppressive learning space. This article explains the benefits and provides a framework, examples, and suggestions for facilitators who seek to co-construct group agreements as an alternative to traditional group contracts. The article focuses on short-term psychoeducational learning groups but may also be applicable to other group constructs.
This is a free event open to all EGPS members and non-members. We ask that you kindly register by Thursday, June 5th to receive the Zoom link.

Register here to receive the Zoom link.
