In-person attendance: $250; limited to 50 people at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA
Virtual/remote attendance: Free
CE/CME available: 6 hours (pending approval)
Hope in Hard Times: Building Community is a hybrid conference designed for mental health clinicians and allied professionals seeking to think together about the ethical, clinical, and institutional challenges of practicing in a time marked by social fragmentation, political instability, and collective trauma. Drawing on psychoanalytic perspectives and interdisciplinary dialogue, the conference explores how transgenerational trauma, structural violence, and bureaucratic systems shape both individual psychic life and professional roles—while also attending to sources of resistance, responsibility, and hope.
The conference opens with a framing panel on “Transgenerational Trauma, Resistance, and Radical Hope,” featuring brief presentations by Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP; Morteza Modarres Gharavi, PhD, LP, PsyA; and Bindu Methikalam, PhD. This session situates contemporary clinical and institutional dilemmas within broader historical, cultural, and political contexts, establishing a shared foundation for the conference.
Subsequent sessions invite participants to engage with two central questions: how clinicians and institutions can remain ethically grounded in the face of dehumanizing bureaucratic pressures, and how professionals can speak and listen across differences of identity, power, vulnerability, and role. Throughout the conference, brief didactic presentations are paired with facilitated large-group discussions to support reflection, dialogue, and application to clinical and professional practice.
The conference concludes by turning explicitly toward action and connection, examining how psychoanalytic ideas and values can inform social engagement in clinical, educational, and civic arenas. Participants will be invited to identify shared concerns and areas of interest and to make collegial connections intended to support ongoing work beyond the conference itself. Rather than managing ongoing groups, the conference serves as a clearing-house for connection, emphasizing community-building, professional resilience, and ethical responsibility in difficult times.
Conference Organizers
Marilyn Charles, PhD, ABPP
Vivian Chan, DO, MS
Presenters
Bindu Methikalam, PhD
Morteza Modares Gharavi PhD, LP, PsyA
Michael O’Loughlin, PhD
Kritika Dwivedi, PsyD
Cynthia Chalker MSS, LCSW
Carrie Attikune, PsyD
Cheryll Rothery, PsyD, ABPP
Dennis Debiak, PsyD
Hada Soria Escalante
Abby Kuchin