THE IMPACT OF RACE AND CULTURE
ON TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTERTRANSFERENCE:
A Course for Clinicians of Color
This mini-course is an overview of theories and practice in psychoanalytic work within the context of race and multicultural issues. The course specifically focuses on transference and countertransference issues that arise in racial sameness and difference in therapeutic dyads. Analytic articles will be supplemented by inter-disciplinary scholarship from critical mixed-race theory and social justice perspectives.
This course will better serve psychologists and other mental health professionals who are treating people of color and immigrants in their community setting and/or in their private practice. By focusing on the therapist-client dyad, an introduction to transference and countertransference concepts will be enhanced through a lens of social justice and critical race theory. Participants will learn how to navigate unconscious material that emerges in transference-countertransference enactments. This will better serve psychologists and other mental health professionals to be informed and prepared when treating patients who experience racism, internalized racism or some other form of oppression.
In serving the public, this course will inform and enhance psychologists and other professionals to be well-versed and add tools to their clinical skillset in treating people of color and immigrants. Often, people of color and immigrants seek and search for therapists to understand them and/or therapists who look like them. This course will offer a skill in which the psychologist or mental health professional will be more attuned to racial and cultural dynamics, survive the impasses and co-create repair with the person they are treating. The use of the transference-countertransference is particularly powerful in repairing a rupture as the exchange becomes more authentic, co-created, rather than perpetuating yet another power dynamic this person may already be living in the world.
NCSPP is aware that historically psychoanalysis has either excluded or pathologized groups outside of the dominant population in terms of age, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, disability, and size. As an organization, we are committed to bringing awareness to matters of anti-oppression, inequity, inequality, diversity, and inclusion as they pertain to our educational offerings, our theoretical orientation, our community, and the broader world we all inhabit.
Presenters Response:
Given that this course is specifically centers around race, culture, ethnicity and any other oppressed group, some discussion and/or integration of facilitating intergroup dialogue will be facilitated and monitored. This material will certainly bring up painful triggers for people, and the instructor will have a structured format to foment a safe space to have these discussions around oppression, exclusion, racism with each other during the course. The instructor is sensitive to what this material will generate in our discussions and will be mindful of maintaining a respectful, inclusive dialogue in the space.
At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Analyze racial and cultural studies from a psychoanalytic perspective for clinicians of color who work with their same racial or cultural group, highlighting the transference-countertransference matrix, re-enactments and the complexities around language, mourning and loss.
- Discuss the impact of racial and ethnic identity on clinical practice and interpersonal dynamics taking place in the consulting room.
- Discuss theoretical concepts of transference and countertransference and introduce specific racial and ethnic factors that manifest in both inter-racial/cultural and intra-racial/cultural transference/ countertransference matrices.
- Utilize the concepts of countertransference as a tool to further the treatment.
- Explain how racial or cultural sameness or difference impacts transference/ countertransference.
- Apply concepts of psychoanalysis, critical mixed race theory and social justice to clinical practice with patients/clients who identify as people of color.
- Apply concepts learned in the course to clinical vignettes to better synthesize the material.
- Ditlmann, R. K., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Dovidio, J. F., & Naft, M. J. (2017). The implicit power motive in intergroup dialogues about the history of slavery. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(1), 116-135, Tittler, M. V., & Wade, N. G. (2019).
- Hayes, JA, Gelso, CJ, Goldberg, S., & Kivlighan, D.M. (2018). Countertransference Management and Effective Psychotherapy: Meta-analytic Findings. Psychotherapy, 55:496-507
- Holmes, Joshua (2013) Using Psychoanalysis in Qualitative Research: Countertransference Informed Researcher Reflexivity and Defence Mechanisms in Two Interviews about Migration in Qualitative Research in Psychology, Vol 10 - Issue 10
- Marmarosh, Cheri. (2012) Empirically Supported Perspectives on Transference in Psychotherapy Theory Research Practice Training, 49(3): 364-9
- Tittler, M. V., & Wade, N. G. (2019). Engaging White participants in racial dialogues: Group composition and dialogue structure. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 23(2), 75-90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/gdn0000099
Rossanna Echegoyén, LCSW, is Founder and Co-Chair of the Committee for Race and Ethnicity at the Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis. She is co-chair of the Inter-Institute Task Force for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in psychoanalytic training. She has led reading groups and is on faculty at two institutes in New York.
This is an intermediate course for clinicians of color with moderate to extensive experience in clinical practice and some knowledge of psychoanalytic theory and approaches.
LCSW/MFTs: Course meets the requirements for 8 hours of continuing education credit for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and/or LEPS, as required by the CA Board of Behavioral Sciences. NCSPP is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (Provider Number 57020), to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCS, and/or LEPs. NCSPP maintains responsibility for this program /course and its content.
Psychologists: Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for these programs and their content.
Enrollees who cancel at least SEVEN DAYS prior to the event date will receive a refund minus a $35 administrative charge. No refunds will be allowed after this time. Transfer of registrations are not allowed.
For program related questions contact June Lin-Arlow at hi@junelin.com or 415-570-8603.
For questions related to enrollment, locations, CE credit, special needs, course availability and other administrative issues contact Michele McGuinness by email or 415-496-9949.
Education Committee
The Education Committee is responsible for the development of a variety of courses and workshops given throughout the year in San Francisco and the East Bay.