2021 Annual Conference: The Cultural Mother in Group Psychotherapy- Deepening Our Engagement with Difference in the Lives of Our Patients

Paul LePhuoc, PhD, CGP

The specter of difference is upon us, our bodies, our individual and collective psyches. The immense difficulty in discussing these incendiary topics, as well as the often-unrecognized complicated trauma undergirding differences, highlights the need for a nuanced, theoretically complex engagement. This workshop will present the Theory of the Cultural Mother as an engaging lens for understanding difference in our own lives, our patients’ lives and our experiences in group. We will discuss techniques that provide the group leader with effective tools to engage with “difference as hierarchy” (e.g., sex, gender, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical disability), enabling a fuller and deeper attunement to our members’ experiences.

About the Presenter:

Paul LePhuoc is a licensed psychologist and a Certified Group Psychotherapist in Houston, Texas, where he maintains a full-time private practice that includes both solo and co-leadership of therapy and training groups.  He is a graduate of the Center for Group Studies program in Modern Analytic Group Leadership.  He is also Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and has served on the Board of the Houston Group Psychotherapy Society and the International Board for the Certification of Group Psychotherapists for the American Group Psychotherapy Association.  He has presented at the local and national level on the topics of race, difference and psychoanalytic group psychotherapy, and has led training groups on Modern Analytic group psychotherapy in St. Petersburg, Russia, through the Center for Group Studies.

Paul “grew up” in Austin, professionally, having graduated from UT Austin’s Counseling Psychology Program.  He greatly valued receiving multiple scholarships/volunteer opportunities from the Austin Group Psychotherapy Society during graduate school, allowing him to attend numerous formative AGPS Annual Conferences.  Paul and his husband, Jimi, stay very busy raising their four-year-old son, Kai, who loves show tunes, puzzles, construction trucks, and demolition.

Schedule:

Friday, 11/5/21, 1:00-5:30pm

Saturday, 11/6/21, 9:00am-5:30pm

There will be optional Zoom socials immediately following the conference. Details forthcoming.

Objectives:

Participants will be able to:

• Describe two components of the theory of the Cultural Mother.
• Explain how the Cultural Mother impacts group members' transferences.
• Explain how the Cultural Mother impacts the group leader’s countertransference.
• List ways of building insulation for members when systems of oppression are stimulated and revived.
• Discuss modern analytic concepts that are useful in exploring difference in group.

11 CEUs available for social workers, LPCs, LMFTs, and psychologists.