SAVE THE DATE!
The EGPS Work Group for Racial Equity
in Co-Sponsorship with the following (to-date):
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Institute
NYC Affirmative Psychotherapy (NYCAP)
The Women’s Therapy Centre Institute (WTCI)
Mary Pender Greene Consulting (MPG)
Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies (CPMS)
Chicago Center for the Study of Groups and Organizations
Grex, West Coast Center of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems
Presents A Virtual Forum
“The Case for Reparations in a Time of National Crisis"
Sunday, October 18th, 2020
2:00 - 5:00 PM
We endorse the United Nations’ definition of reparations (calling for restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and a non-repeat guarantee for harm done to a group), and believe that reparations for slavery can offer a path to atone for and heal moral/spiritual/material harm caused by centuries of white supremacist culture. We believe that NOW is the time to confront psychological obstacles that impede our path to justice and healing. The pandemics of COVID-19, of violence against black bodies, and of fear arising from both, all highlight the urgency of this work. As healthcare professionals, citizens and interconnected human beings, we cannot remain silent as racist atrocities and systemic inequities are perpetually repeated, year after decade after century.
The legacy of slavery haunts our current era of national crisis. This is manifest in the over-representation of Black, brown, and indigenous people among those killed by COVID-19, and those hit hardest by the parallel economic collapse. It is visible in the historic, nation-wide protests and up-risings sparked by the murders of Black Americans and fueled by a passionate rejection of racist policies/systems that continue to restrict Black families’ access to housing, health care, financial opportunity and basic safety.
To save lives and reduce suffering we need immediate reforms to strengthen civil rights and construct a true social safety net. But new reforms shall prove as unstable as past ones if we fail to reckon with the white supremacist ideology that enabled slavery, and that has been working to dehumanize Black and brown people since the nation’s inception. Reparations for slavery present a starting point for confronting our resistance to this reckoning, and for beginning the repair work our society urgently needs.
Please join us for an interactive dialogue about reparations, in conjunction with the presentation “Transforming Ghosts Into Ancestors: Un-silencing The Psychological Case For Reparations To Descendants Of American Slavery” by Drs. Bryan Nichols and Medria Connolly. We hope that you will share in our commitment to move forward in pursuit of racial equity, justice, and repair.
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Bios:
Bryan Nichols, PhD, is a clinical psychologist based in Los Angeles where he works with teens, families, adults and couples, and has been a consultant to a community-based gang prevention and intervention program. This work has led to the development of societal, "macro level" ideas about remediating persistent bias infecting and undermining interracial relationships, and the multi-disciplinary collaborations required for effective community-based psycho-educational interventions.
Medria Connolly, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Santa Monica, California. Long-time work in community settings and contemporary encounters with implicit bias contributed to her recognizing the limited power of individual or small group interventions to alter structural inequities confronting African Americans. This recognition led to the embrace of reparations as a prospective national intervention to address underlying psychosocial challenges and promote racial healing.
Registration information will be available soon.
EGPS Work Group for Racial Equity
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.
For more information contact:
Rudy Lucas or Christine Schmidt
For a list of resources suggested by the Work Group for Racial Equity and books reviewed by EGPS members, please click here
For a list of works that inspired monthly WG4RE discussions, please select the corresponding year:
The upcoming dates for WG4RE are:
Monday July 20 8:30 Zoom meeting
Check back soon for our next discussion group