Institute: Reclaiming the Night: Darkness, Rest, Dreams, and the Unseen Realms

AGPS Institute

Reclaiming the Night: Darkness, Rest, Dreams, and the Unseen Realms

Facilitated by: 

Lavanya Shankar, PhD, Licensed Psychologist (applied for CGP)

Tickets for this event available starting October 2nd 

There is a world that reveals itself only after the sun goes down. Night jasmine, white lotus, brahma kamal: flowers that withhold their fragrance until darkness falls. The night has its own textures, its own scenery, its own intelligence. It is the realm of the hidden and the secret, the erotic and the mysterious, the fallow, the dreaming, the intuitive.

Our training as group therapists orients us toward the seen. We learn to track interactions between members and intervene to facilitate meaningful communication, whether intimate or conflictual. We attend to verbal exchanges and clinical material, but there is an art to holding those visible threads while maintaining contact with what lives beneath the surface -- the emotional currents, the unconscious images, the subtle sensations in the body. To invite this hidden realm into our groups, we must first find our own footing there.

This institute is an invitation into that world, into night consciousness as its own rich terrain, full and complete on its own terms, rather than simply the absence of day. We'll explore what it means to welcome this kind of consciousness into a group setting, not only through words but as a felt presence to enter together. We'll consider how to cultivate a container where it can arise and be met alongside the more visible aspects of group life. We'll also attend to the resistances that commonly arise: fear of darkness in all its meanings, fear of the unknown and unseen, and reluctance to surrender the rational mind to a different kind of intelligence.

There will be space here to question the idealization of productivity and rational thought, and to consider how our internalization of these beliefs serves a white patriarchal and capitalist culture that benefits from our compliance. The night has always been ours. This institute is an invitation to remember.

About the Presenter:

Lavanya Shankar is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Austin, Texas. She is a depth-oriented practitioner drawn to the liminal space between the seen and unseen dimensions of experience, a territory she inhabits both by nature and by training. Her vantage point makes her particularly attuned to the undercurrents that animate a group, including emotional inductions, enactments, and power dynamics. In a group setting, she facilitates the translation of those undercurrents into language and relational engagement.

Rooted in both Western psychodynamic training and South Asian contemplative traditions, Lavanya brings a cross-cultural orientation to her work. She understands collective forces such as racism, misogyny, and the enduring legacies of white patriarchal culture as inseparable from the life of the group, and holds this lens as central to her clinical work.

Lavanya is a graduate of the Center for Group Studies. Building on this foundation, she brings a cross-cultural, depth-oriented perspective into group settings. She is particularly interested in expanding the range of what group work can hold, including the weight of collective history and the imaginal life of the group.

What Are Group Institutes?

Institutes are a highly experiential form of small group teaching led by experienced instructors. They are intended to develop therapy skills relevant to leading groups. They often offer a chance to explore a particular theme in greater depth or to experience a different theoretical approach. Institutes are primarily designed for mental health professionals who have clinical psychotherapy experience. While institutes are not therapy, they are process-oriented and it is expected that they may stir feelings spanning the whole range of human experience. Members agree to attend the entire group, to participate actively, and to respect the confidentiality of the other members. The secure environment of these small groups allows for rich cognitive and deep emotional learning about group process and oneself, not to mention a chance for personal and professional renewal.

Objectives:

 Attendees will be able to:

1. Describe how night consciousness arises in a group setting and your own relationship to it.
2. Identify three common resistances to night consciousness in yourself and in the group as a whole. 
3.  Demonstrate capacity to hold and work with the less visible dimensions of grouplife.
4. Examine internalized beliefs about darkness as they relate to race, patriarchy, and capitalism.

Event Schedule 

Friday 

2:00 Introduction and Orientation

2:15-3:45 Process Group 1

3:45-4:00 Break

4:00-5:30 Process Group 2

Saturday

9:00-10:30 Process Group 3

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45-12:15 Process Group 4

12:15-1:45 Lunch

1:45-3:15 Process Group 5

3:15-3:45 Reflections, Discussion 

3:45-4:00 Survey

4:00pm End

Location given at registration. The location is wheelchair accessible.

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

A reminder to scholarship recipients that only one Institute is included in the yearly scholarship. Please, reach out with questions to coordinator@austingroups.org.