Session 2 will be held on September 30 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm EDT

This seminar attempts to raise awareness of unconscious states of mind around race in clinical work using a variation of the Balint method. This Method utilizes group engagement with a case problem brought by a case holder who describes a clinical vignette. The short vignette narrative can be a significant moment in working with a person of color (POC), either as the therapist or as a supervisor for the therapist. It can also be when both people in a dyad are white, and race is in the material, sometimes expressed, often not fully engaged. For example, the case holder feels stuck around a particular racial enactment, is puzzled by a racialized countertransference, or is curious about excessive positive or negative feelings towards the POC client/patient. Additionally, if/when both parties in the dyad identify as white, a case holder may have become aware of a gap, an absence of material relating to race.
In response to the case vignette, the group’s work is to make their associative life available to the case holder in such a way as to connect to and open up their own countertransferential experiences. The Balint hypothesis is that the unconscious of all participants will be resonant and provide access to new possibilities as to feelings and ways of seeing things.

Each session will consist of a) an opening group plenary where a vignette is offered by a senior faculty person describing their work with a POC or white patient or with a training case with a POC supervisee. The focus is on collective deep listening to and clarifying the presenter’s experience of working and thinking in the area of racial differences and encounters. The following two sessions provide opportunities for two volunteer Seminar members to bring case vignettes. b) Working in smaller break-out groups, the participants will use their associative life to frame a response to the presenters’ posed question. The goal is learning and enlightenment about what race means in the context of clinical work, as highlighted by these examples.

Participants (candidates, faculty/supervisors, graduates, and guest colleagues) commit to attending all two sessions. Readings will be sent out a week in advance. Session 2 will be held on September 30 10:30 am – 12:30 pm.