Sat, Sep 19, 2026
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM PT
This event in in-person only!

St. Clement's Episcopal Church

2837 Claremont Boulevard
Berkeley, CA 94705
Target Audience & Level: 

The audience will include mental health practitioners and trainees in the mental health disciplines. The instructional level will be intermediate.

Cancellation & Refund Policies: 

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.

Contact Information: 

For program related questions, contact Mara Gerson, at MGerson@ncspp.org.

For questions related to enrollment, locations, CE credit, special needs, course availability and other administrative issues, contact Niki Clay by email or 415-496-9949.

Committee: 

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.

Mara Gerson, Psy.D., Chair
Lily Hiott-Millis, Psy.D.
Natasha Oxenburgh, Psy.D.
Deia Verghese, Psy.D.
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Registration Notes: 

NCSPP offers online course registration and payment using PayPal, the Internet’s most trusted payment processor. All major credit cards, as well as checking account debit payments, are accepted.

Lecture | Event
CE Credits: 
6.00
Participant Limit: 
75
Tuition: 

$270 — General (Non-Member)
$210 — General (NCSPP Member)
$180 — Pre-Licensed/CMH (NCSPP Member)
$90 — Students
$90 — Scholarship (Apply for the scholarship rate here. Prior approval required to register at this rate.)

 

Social, Cultural, and Political Stress in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

With Usha Tummala-Narra, Ph.D.

Course Overview: 

The current sociopolitical climate in the United States is rife with stress, polarization, and isolation. This brings unprecedented psychological consequences for vulnerable individuals and communities, and has significant implications for how psychotherapy practitioners and clients engage in clinical treatment. In this course, Dr. Tummala-Narra will discuss how culturally-informed psychoanalytic psychotherapy can engage social, cultural, and political stress and trauma, with a particular focus on the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities. Specifically, she will focus on interactions between personality, social context, and relational stress as they show up in transference and countertransference dynamics, and how these dynamics carry new meanings in the current sociopolitical environment. This day-long course with Dr. Tummala-Narra will include a lecture and discussion of theoretical concepts, as well as clinical case material.

Instructor Bio:
Usha Tummala-Narra, Ph.D., is an esteemed professor, author, and clinical psychologist. She is a Professor of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology at Boston College, and is a Consulting Editor for Psychoanalytic Dialogues and for the American Psychologist. Dr. Tummala-Narra has served as a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association Holmes Commission on Racial Equality, and in leadership roles in the American Psychological Association (APA). She is the author of Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy (2016), the editor of Trauma and Racial Minority Immigrants: Turmoil, Uncertainty, and Resistance (2021), and co-author of Applying Multiculturalism: An Ecological Approach to the Multicultural Guidelines (2023), all published by the APA.

Commitment to Equity: 

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.

Presenter's Response:

The course will focus on issues of race and culture, and the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. There will be a focus on anti-oppression in culturally-informed psychoanalytic treatment.

Course Objectives: 

At the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to:

  • identify and describe at least three contemporary sociopolitical stressors that are impacting clients, therapists, and the therapeutic process.

  • recognize three ways in which splitting and overgeneralization can manifest in a sociocultural climate of polarization and isolation, and describe at least two clinical interventions to treat these phenomena as they emerge in the therapeutic dyad.

  • identify and describe at least two ways in which racial and cultural stereotypes can shape mental health practitioners’ understandings of personality and psychopathology.

  • discuss two clinical examples in which racial and cultural dynamics may emerge in transference and countertransference dynamics within the therapeutic dyad.

Empirical Reference: 
  • Eng, D.L., & Han, S. (2024). Racial rage, racial guilt: The uses of anger in Asian America. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 34(4), 441-260.
  • Holmes, D.E. (2016). Culturally imposed trauma: The sleeping dog has awakened. Will psychoanalysis take heed? Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 26, 641-654.
  • Kerr, N. (2024). Culture as the bad object. Psychoanalysis, Culture, and Society, 29(1), 1-14.
  • Tummala-Narra, P. (2022). Can we decolonize psychoanalytic theory and practice? Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 32(3), 217-234.
  • Yi, K. (2023). Asian American Experience: The illusion of inclusion and the model minority stereotype. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 33(1), 45-49
Continuing Education Credit: 

LCSW/MFTs: Course meets the requirements for 6 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