GPALA Annual Conference: Holding Power, Facing Bias
About this Event
Holding Power, Facing Bias: Navigating Social Enactments in Psychoanalytic Group Psychotherapy
Addressing social enactments in group therapy requires integrating developmental theory with cultural identity and social power dynamics. This conference introduces modifications to key psychoanalytic group concepts, including transference, resistance, the group agreement, contact function, and leader transparency, that better address social power and identity differences. Clinical vignettes and case presentations will demonstrate how attending to social enactments extends developmental aims and promotes psychological growth, emotional repair, and deeper therapeutic engagement.
This two-day conference examines how contemporary psychoanalytic group psychotherapy can more effectively address the influence of social power, identity differences, and implicit bias as they emerge within the group process. Through lectures, experiential demonstration groups, small-group discussions, and case consultation, participants will explore how developmental conflicts and social realities become intertwined in transference, resistance, countertransference, and enactment. The program emphasizes that social enactments are not disruptions to analytic work but essential clinical material that can deepen therapeutic understanding and repair.
The opening lecture introduces the central premise that developmental transference and resistance cannot be fully understood apart from the cultural and social contexts in which they develop. Participants will examine how social transferences, like parental transferences, naturally emerge in groups and how these dynamics require an expansion of traditional psychoanalytic concepts, including transference, resistance, countertransference, the group agreement, and therapist self-disclosure. Special attention will be given to understanding how both parental authority and social or role power are enacted, challenged, and ultimately repaired within the therapeutic relationship.
These concepts are then explored experientially through a live demonstration group in which volunteer participants engage in an unscripted group process. Prior to the demonstration, the group leader establishes a revised group agreement that includes respect for visible and invisible differences, the assumption of good intentions coupled with responsibility for interpersonal impact, confidentiality, and the expectation that emotional injuries will be identified and explored when they occur. Following the demonstration, participants engage in a structured debriefing and later meet in facilitated small groups to reflect on the tensions clinicians experience when their professional role intersects with their own privileged and marginalized identities.
The second day begins by examining how the Modern Analytic group agreement can be expanded to better address the lived experiences of marginalized individuals. Participants will consider revisions that broaden members' life narratives to include both family and societal experiences, redefine resistance to incorporate the influence of identity differences on participation, recognize that healthy aggression is shaped by social context, and introduce the concept of the social narcissistic defense. A second demonstration group provides clinical illustrations of these revised theoretical concepts and is followed by a large-group discussion integrating participants' observations and clinical questions.
The afternoon sessions focus on the unique countertransference challenges created by social enactments. Participants will distinguish subjective, objective, and social/cultural countertransference while exploring how therapists may unconsciously defend against threats to their role power by redirecting discussion, overinterpreting, pathologizing expressions of social anger, or responding from positions of moral certainty. Discussion also addresses the emotional impact on leaders when they are experienced simultaneously as caring therapists and representatives of privileged or marginalized social identities, creating opportunities for both therapeutic growth and significant emotional dysregulation.
Special attention is devoted to the distinctive challenges faced by therapists from marginalized groups, whose authority may be undermined through enactments involving prejudice, projective identification, or internalized systems of oppression. The conference examines methods for strengthening therapists' resilience through supervision, reflection on attachment to the idealized professional self, reduction of punitive superego judgments, and development of the Valuing Self. Participants also explore the thoughtful use of therapist self-disclosure, including how to determine when disclosure serves the therapeutic process and when it risks shifting emotional burdens onto group members.
The conference concludes by translating these concepts into clinical practice through small-group reflection and live case consultation. Participants discuss their own experiences of recognizing implicit bias, examine clinical cases involving social enactments, and collaboratively explore interventions that promote repair while maintaining analytic integrity. The program closes with a large-group discussion and evaluation, providing participants with an integrated framework for recognizing, understanding, and therapeutically addressing the complex interplay of social power, identity, transference, and countertransference in psychoanalytic group psychotherapy.
Learning Objectives:
- Attendees will be able to explain the importance of addressing issues of power and identity differences when working with group members with marginalized identities.
- Attendees will be able to list 2 revisions of the Modern Analytic group agreement that address issues of privilege and power.
- Attendees will be able to describe how the leader’s identities and positionality impact social enactments.
- Attendees will be able to utilize the concept of the Valuing Self to build stamina and resilience in the group leader.
- Attendees will be able to list the benefits and risks of the use of self-disclosure in addressing social enactments.
- Attendees will be able to analyze the impact of culture on the definition of healthy aggression.
Conference Schedule
Day 1 – Friday, September 18, 2026
1:00 PM Registration Opens
1:30–2:00 PM Arrival & Registration
2:00–3:30 PM Welcome, Opening Lecture & Discussion
3:30–3:45 PM Break
3:45–5:45 PM Demonstration Group & Large Group Debrief
5:45–6:45 PM Dinner
6:45–7:00 PM Transition to Breakout Rooms
7:00–8:15 PM Small Group Experience
8:15–8:30 PM Return to Large Group & CE Sign-Out
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Day 2 – Saturday, September 19, 2026
9:00–10:00 AM Morning Lecture
10:00–11:00 AM Demonstration Group
11:00–11:15 AM Break
11:15 AM–12:00 PM Large Group Discussion & Q&A
12:00–1:45 PM Lunch
1:45–2:30 PM Afternoon Lecture
2:30–2:45 PM Transition to Small Groups
2:45–3:30 PM Small Group Discussion
3:30–3:45 PM Break
3:45–4:45 PM Clinical Consultation Group
4:45–5:15 PM Closing Q&A
5:15–5:30 PM CE Evaluations, Sign-Out & Closing Announcements
10.25 CEUs will be granted upon full attendance.
To accommodate those who would like to participate but have financial limitations, scholarships are available. If you are interested in volunteering at this event, please contact Advisory board Co-Chair Natalie Zaragoza at [email protected].
Presenter:
Ellen L. Wright, Ph.D. is a licensed Psychologist and Psychoanalyst in private practice in Philadelphia. She is a founder and faculty member at the Center for Group Studies in New York City and a Supervising and Training Analyst at the Philadelphia School of Psychoanalysis and the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles.
Dr. Wright lectures nationally and internationally and has authored papers on innovative applications of psychoanalytic techniques. Dr. Wright delivered the Louis Ormont Lecture at the American Group Psychotherapy Conference in March of 2023, the title of which was “Humility and Transparency in the Group Leader.” Her recent publications include, “Redefining Female Power: The Myth of the Selfless Therapist,” found in Women, Intersectionality, and Power in Group Psychotherapy Leadership, “Modern psychoanalytic group therapy online: Adaptations of theory and technique,” published in The Virtual Group Therapy Circle, and “Navigating Social Enactments in Psychoanalytic Group Therapy,” both co-authored with Dr. Aaron Black (International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, in press.).
Course Level: Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced
Target Audience: Licensed Psychologists, MFTs, LCSWs, Other Non-Mental Health Professionals
The Group Psychotherapy Association of Los Angeles is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Group Psychotherapy of Los Angeles maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 205.00 to USD 410.00
