Fall Conference
Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD
See me, feel me, hear me, heal me:
Cultural Competence in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy
Saturday, October 21, 2017
University of Tennessee Medical Center
Morrison Education and Conference Center
1924 Alcoa Highway
Knoxville, Tennessee 37920
Description of Program
See me,
Feel me,
Hear me,
Heal me.
These simple lyrics from Tommy obscure the fact that it is no easy task to see, feel, hear, let alone heal, patients, particularly those who come to us from vastly different cultural and experiential worlds. We may too easily assume that we know our patients' experiences and fail to truly see, feel, and hear them.
What is it like to be physically violated, beaten, raped, or assaulted because of the color of your skin, your gender identity, or your religious or ethnic background? Most of us cannot imagine the genuine terror of being pulled over for a simple traffic violation if your color is brown or black. Nor can we imagine what it is like to live in minute-by-minute fear of being deported. We can’t fully imagine the petty indignities of having assumptions made about one’s experience without ever having been asked about it.
Even when we are trying our best, we truly can’t comprehend these foreign experiences by thinking that we intellectually grasp them. It’s inevitable that we will reach for stereotypes to understand our patients from different backgrounds and cultures, but it is imperative that we also abandon the stereotypes in order to find the individual. So, how can we come to understand these and other experiences from our cultural positions of relative safety and privilege?
Psychoanalysis is used to dealing with interpersonal and intrapsychic factors in understanding psychological symptoms and disorders. How then do we incorporate an additional factor: the socially and politically created and maintained forces and prejudices that impact some of our patients? Our benign interest in the patient’s experience cannot ignore the fact that we and the patient are cultural creations. The challenge is to listen from a position of relative privilege without defensiveness or obsequiousness. And if we can do this, what is the importance of the therapeutic relationship in addressing the effects of oppression on patients’ senses of safety, functioning and relational lives? We find our path to a meeting of minds through a recognition of our irreducible cultural embeddedness.
Listening to you, I get the music,
Gazing at you, I get the heat,
Following you, I climb the mountain,
I get excitement at your feet.
During this conference, Dr. Tummala-Narra will discuss how a psychoanalytic perspective can deepen our understanding of how cultural forces are vitally implicated in any attempt to understand our patients, especially patients whose complex cultures, ethnicities, and sexualities differ from our own.
This program meets the requirements for psychologists licensed in the state of Tennessee for continuing education that pertains to cultural diversity.
Presenter
Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD, a graduate of Michigan State University Clinical Psychology Program, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology at Boston College, Massachusetts. She is the author (or co-author) of more than 40 journal articles and the author of Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy (APA Books, 2016), and the recipient of the Division of Psychoanalysis' Johanna Krout Tabin Award as well as the Diversity Award.
Schedule
8:30am Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:50am Welcome and Introduction
9:00am Framing Sociocultural Issues from a Psychoanalytic Perspective
This presentation will focus on conceptualizing cultural competence from a psychoanalytic perspective, including the ways in which psychoanalytic concepts offer unique insights for understanding the role of sociocultural context in the patient’s and therapist’s lives. Dr. Tummala-Narra will emphasize the role of the patient's indigenous narrative and the use and interpretation of language and affect in psychotherapy.
10:30am Break with Refreshments
10:45am Negotiating Sociocultural Identity in the Context of Oppression
This presentation will center on the complexity of cultural identity formation within the context of choice and constraint. There will be a focus on the impact of sociocultural oppression on the intrapsychic and interpersonal worlds of the patient and the therapist, and how ongoing trauma (pre- and post-election) influences the therapeutic frame and process.
12:15pm Lunch
Please note that lunch will be “on your own.” Morrison’s Cafeteria will be open, of course, and you are free to "brown bag" your lunch. As always, APS graduate student members will supply coffee, tea, and bottled water plus snacks throughout the day. Contributions to GSAF are greatly appreciated.
1:15pm Case Presentation and Discussion
This case presentation will illustrate the concepts presented in the morning with the goal of deepening participants' understandings of how sociocultural context shapes conscious and unconscious processes in the therapeutic relationship. A discussion with the audience regarding impressions of theory and technique will follow the presentation.
2:45pm Break with Refreshments
3:00pm Addressing Sociocultural Issues in Clinical Training
This part of the conference will focus on the importance of self-examination and the impact of instability in our sociopolitical climate on clinical training programs, including supervision. Dr. Tummala-Narra will discuss some dilemmas inherent to clinical training that are related to sociocultural issues, and participants will be asked to share their experiences in training and to examine their own goals for engaging with issues of diversity in practice and training.
4:30pm Complete Evaluations and Adjourn.
Learning Objectives
After attending this intermediate-level program in full, participants will be able to:
1. Describe at least two notions from contemporary psychoanalytic theory that can help clinicians examine their own, often unconscious, biases in order to hear patients' experiences more fully.
2. Define cultural competence, including the impact of unconscious determinants of cultural biases, as it relates to psychoanalytic understanding.
3. Describe at least three components or phases of cultural identity formation and describe how factors of choice and constraint affect each.
4. Name at least three common cultural assumptions, especially personally relevant ones, and describe how one can utilize such self-reflection to navigate cultural differences in psychotherapy.
5. Describe at least two approaches for navigating emotional responses and ideological tensions resulting from the current political climate as they emerge in treatment with patients.
6. Describe dilemmas that derive from cultural differences and that affect training and supervision, and explain at least two strategies for addressing them with students/trainees.
Participants
This program is open to all APS members and other interested mental health professionals who may not be members. It is not limited to individuals practicing in a predominately psychoanalytic mode. The material will be appropriate for clinicians with intermediate levels of experience and knowledge.
Registration Fees and Policies:
BY October 16, 2017:
Members and Scholars: $90
Non-members: $125.
Early-Career Professional and Graduate Student Members: $10
AFTER October 16, 2017 and at the door:
Members and Scholars: $105.
Non-members: $140.
Early-Career Professional and Graduate Student Members: $25
Online registration will close on October 19, 2017.
Although walk-ins will be accepted, please register online at www.aps-tn.org in advance to assure adequate food and seating.
If you prefer to pay by check, please print the Conference Registration form, and mail with your payment to:
Scott Swan, PhD
APS Treasurer
1005 Kenesaw Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37919.
Refunds honored with written/electronic notice at least 24 hours before date of conference. Contact Scott Swan, PhD.
Contact the APS President Bill MacGillivray, PhD to negotiate fees, if needed.
Facility is accessible to persons who are physically challenged. If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to Bill MacGillivray, PhD.
APS Membership:
Eligible professionals can join APS or renew their membership for the 2017-2018 program year for $80. Scholars can join/renew for $50 and Early-Career Professionals can join/renew for $45. Graduate students may join or renew for $25.
American Psychological Association Approval Statement:
Division 39 is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Division 39 maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Continuing Education:
This program, when attended in its entirety, is available for 6 continuing education credits. With full attendance and completion of a program Evaluation and Learning Assessment, a certificate will be issued. Psychologists will have their participation registered through Division 39.
In order to fulfill licensure requirements, the Rules of the Board of Examiners in Psychology in Tennessee (http://tn.gov/health/article/board-of-examiners-in-psychology) state that psychologists must obtain three continuing education hours that pertain to cultural diversity as specifically noted in the title, description of objectives, or curriculum of the presentation, symposium, workshop, seminar, course or activity. Cultural diversity includes aspects of identity stemming from age, disability, gender, race/ethnicity, religious/spiritual orientation, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and other cultural dimensions.
This program meets the requirements for psychologists licensed in the state of Tennessee for continuing education that pertains to cultural diversity.
APS and Division 39 are committed to conducting all activities in conformity with the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles for Psychologists. APS and Division 39 are also committed to accessibility and non-discrimination in continuing education activities. Participants are asked to be aware of the need for privacy and confidentiality throughout the program. If program content becomes stressful, participants are encouraged to process these feelings during discussion periods.
Selected References/Recommended Reading
Contemporary Psychoanalytic Views on the Experience of Immigration (2013).pdf
Cultural Competence as a Core Emphasis of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (2014).pdf
Psychoanalytic Applications in a Diverse Society (2013).pdf
Fors, Malin. (In Press). A Grammar of Power in Psychotherapy. APA Books.
Greene, B. (2007). How difference makes a difference. In J. C. Muran (Ed.), Dialogues on difference: Studies of diversity in the therapeutic relationship (pp. 47–63). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Holmes, D. E. (2006). The wrecking effects of race and social class on self and success. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 75(1), 215–235
Sue, D. W. (2001). Multidimensional facets of cultural competence. The Counseling Psychologist, 29, 790–821
Tummala-Narra, Pratyusha. (2016). Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy. APA Books.
Contact
If participants have special needs, we will attempt to accommodate them. Please address requests, questions, concerns and any complaints to the APS President Bill MacGillivray, PhD.
There is no commercial support for this program nor are there any relationships between Division 39, APS, presenter, program content, research, grants or other funding sources that could reasonably be construed as conflicts of interest. During the program, the validity/utility of the content and risks/limitations of the approaches discussed will be addressed.