An In-Person Experiential Group Relations Conference
Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems (Boston)
CIVIL WAR:
LEADERSHIP, AUTHORITY, AND POWER IN AN AGE OF
Saturday, October 19 to
Monday, October 21, 2024
Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis
1581 Beacon St, Brookline, MA (Boston metro area)
Sponsored by:
DIRECTOR'S INVITATION
Civil war is all around us. The struggle for power and control between groups and individuals holding polarized positions has become the norm. Our national and local politics, our legal processes, our communities and neighborhoods, our universities and kindergartens, our workplaces, our places of worship, our volunteer organizations—all are now battlefields on which factions hack at each other, each seeking dominance for their own worldviews and beliefs. And hovering in the background is the spectral menace of a literal civil war, a shooting war.
Civil war is also within us. Many of us wage a war with self as we face the tension between our own deeply rooted valuing of the human community and our urges to dismiss, demean, silence, erase, and exterminate those whom we dislike, who disturb us, who seem so different from us, and to whom we respond with hate. And sometimes the targets of these urges are not other people or groups but rather parts of ourselves.
Amid these civil wars, the responsibility and challenge of leadership remains, a challenge that requires us to speak with authenticity and courage to what we see, hear, think, and feel. This ‘conference’, offered as a resource in taking up the challenge of leadership, will be an experiential learning event conducted in the Group Relations tradition. As such, it will not feature experts delivering slide presentations to relatively passive learners. Instead, it will be an opportunity to grapple with its title theme in the context of a temporary organization that participants and staff will co-create. Within that organization, we will explore together our here-and-now experience of engaging with each other across various roles within a living system. Focused primarily at the level of the group, we will pay attention to what is happening at both the conscious and unconscious levels, and to how the title theme manifests among us. We will explore our very human needs, wishes and fears, both rational and irrational, in ways that connect these to the civil wars of which we are a part, including those inside us. We will not work with the theme “out there,” but rather “in here” within the groups we form during the event. This intense experiential learning will help us grow our understanding and expand our options for action, enabling us to work more effectively amid the struggles that we face. We invite you to join us on this journey.
mak wemuk, JD
Conference Director
METHODOLOGY
This is a different kind of conference, one in which learning will be primarily through experience. Within a structure provided, participants will co-create a temporary organization and culture, engage with each other in that living system, and continuously reflect on the collective and individual experiences they are having.
Using their here-and-now experiences, participants will seek to better understand both conscious and unconscious systemic processes encountered in the exercise of leadership, authority, and power, with particular attention to the ways in which these processes connect to the conference theme. By focusing on both conscious and unconscious processes, participants will learn to better see and hear both what is above the surface and what is beneath it. Participants may find themselves developing new narratives and testing new ways of increasing group and individual effectiveness.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEARNING
Participants will have opportunities to:
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Observe, take part in, and analyze both covert and overt group processes through participating in groups that vary in size, structure, and task.
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Observe, take part in, and articulate underlying patterns of group interaction by forming groups, establishing leadership structures, and relating with other groups and the institution as a whole.
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Observe, experience, and articulate how we collectively and individually take up roles, negotiate authority, accomplish tasks, cross borders, and manage anxiety in a changing context.
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Observe, experience, and discuss the fluidity of power and authority; the way power, roles, identities, tasks, and boundaries might shift or become more rigid in response to an emergent context.
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Observe, experience, and discuss the difference between the stated task of a group and the task it appears to be pursuing.
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Observe, engage in, and articulate collective and personal reactions to well-defined authority and clearly delineated boundaries.
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Observe, experience, and articulate how varied aspects and perceptions of individual identity such as race, class, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and education level are used by groups with and without the conscious awareness of the individuals involved.
PRIMARY TASK & PURPOSE
The primary task of this conference is to study conscious and unconscious dynamics arising in the exercise of leadership, authority, and power—and the relatedness of these dynamics to the conference theme—as they unfold in the here-and-now through the taking up of roles in a temporary system.
The purpose of the conference is to build leadership capacity for one’s life outside the conference and to develop a spirit of inquiry into the lived experience of organizational life.
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CONFERENCE EVENTS
In general, a Group Relations conference offers participants a combination of “here-and-now” events and reflective events. In the “here-and-now” events, participants study what is going on in the moment, paying particular attention to unconscious dynamics and looking at the group-as-a-whole, rather than simply intrapersonal or interpersonal dynamics. In the reflective events, participants are invited to reflect on, make meaning of, and apply their experiences. The descriptions below provide more detail about various events.
Small Groups
Each participant is assigned to a Small work Group consisting of 8-12 participants and a consultant. The task of the Small Group is to study the exercise of leadership, authority, and power as it unfolds in the here-and-now, and the relatedness of what unfolds to the conference theme. The Small Group is a setting that allows face-to-face interchange.
Large Group
The Large Group consists of all conference participants and 3 consultants. The task of the Large Group is the same as that of the Small Groups, but in a setting that makes face-to-face interaction difficult or impossible. As such, it highlights dynamics that may occur in communities and large organizations or gatherings, where personal interactions are limited.
System in Action Event
In this event, participants form their own groups. The groups are asked to interact with other groups including the staff group. Participants and staff examine the system of this event as it evolves and unfolds, including its relatedness to the larger conference system. Staff provides consultation to the groups upon request.
Review Groups
Participants are assigned to a group of 5-6 people and a consultant. The Review Group provides members with the opportunity to review their experiences in the conference to that point and consider what and how they are learning. Participants will have an opportunity to explore connections between their experiences in the conference and their experiences in communities, organizations and groups in the outside world.
Conference Discussion
In this event, participants and staff have an opportunity to collaborate in reviewing and analyzing their experiences in the conference as a whole. Throughout the conference, participants and staff may have taken up several roles and experienced many kinds of relationships with each other. The Conference Discussion is an opportunity to recognize and discuss feelings, attitudes, and behaviors, and to perhaps discover patterns of action or deeper levels of significance with implications and applications to our outside communities and organizations.
Post-Conference Reviews
These sessions provide additional opportunities for participants and staff to reflect on conference learning about unconscious processes in groups, the roles that are taken up in groups, how splitting and projection affect groups, and the relatedness of these and other dynamics to the conference theme. Participants and staff may attend one or both sessions or none at all. Following the conference, an invitation to participate in the post-conference review sessions will be sent out. The dates and times are:
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November 20, 2024, 7:00 p.m. - 830 p.m. ET
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November 23, 2024, 10:00 a.m. - 11.30 a.m. ET
CONFERENCE STAFF
Members of the staff design and manage the conference as a whole. As collective management, they manage the boundaries of conference events, particularly in relation to time, task and territory. Staff do not manage the participants or their behavior, but instead collectively manage the boundary conditions that allow the participants freedom to engage the primary task as they choose and as they authorize themselves and each other to do.
The consulting staff serve the purpose of the conference by linking their own experiences to the conference activity and offering observations, reflections and working hypotheses that explore both the conscious and unconscious aspects of the process that is emerging. Their observations and interpretations focus at the level of the group and not on the individual. Throughout the conference the roles staff members take are open for examination and reflection by participants and the staff themselves. It is the purpose of all staff roles, whether administrative or consulting roles, to encourage and support participant awareness, analysis, reflection, and understanding of the emerging conference dynamics.
EXECUTIVE STAFF
mak wemuk, JD
Conference Director and Consultant
(he, him) mak wemuk is indigenous (of the Coahuiltecan peoples) and Latine (Chicanx). He is a consultant specializing in health equity, racial equity, executive coaching, and organizational development (Luna Consulting & Coaching). He is Vice President of the Washington-Baltimore Center for the Study of Group Relations; a Co-Creator of Group Relations International; a member of the Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems (Boston), a practitioner in the Insight for Community Impact network; a Fellow, Director Development Mentor, and Conference Committee member for AKRI; a Past-President of the National Association of Latino Healthcare Executives (NALHE); and a member of the National Lawyers Guild. He is the father of four powerful young women and is based in the Chicago area.
Annysa Polanco
Associate Conference Director and Consultant
(she/her) Annysa is a first-generation Dominican American and a mom of two. She is the Director of Equity and Workplace Culture at the Museum of Modern Art. A DEI Practitioner and Social Worker by training, Annysa's work focuses on building resiliency in people and systems through organizational change. She serves on the Board of AKRI as the current Vice-President and is a member of the New York Center.
Tanya Lewis, Ph.D.
Director of Administration
Tanya Lewis Ph.D. is the program director for systems psychodynamic informed leadership development at Bureau Kensington (https://bureaukensington.com/). Her work experience includes senior positions in post-secondary education and nonprofit community based settings working towards social justice. She is the coordinator of Insight for Community Impact (https://www.ici-ici.ca) in Toronto, Canada.
Hannah Goldstein, M.Psy.
Associate Administrator
(she/her). Hannah is a doctoral candidate at the George Washington University. Her relational and clinical values center psychodynamic, anti-racist, and liberatory lenses. Formerly a student of English literature, Hannah is interested in language as a medium and the ways it is used to invoke and subvert power. She is a member of the GW PsyD’s Social Justice Committee, Section IX (psychoanalysis for social responsibility), and the Washington Baltimore Center for Group Relations.
CONSULTING STAFF
Andrew Alsoraimi-Espiritu
Consultant
Andrew has worked in higher education for the past decade and currently resides on unceded Kumeyaay land. He currently serves as the Assistant Director of Admissions and Marketing at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. Additionally, he is the Vice President of Grex: An Institute for the Study of Authority and Leadership in Groups, a GRI Co-Creator, Board Member of a public Waldorf charter school, and a member of a goat cooperative. Before working in higher ed, he had the privilege to work and live in two countries, Japan and Jordan. Coming from a legacy of men who served their country, Andrew was a Peace Corps volunteer in Jordan and lived in a small Bedouin village, just outside of Petra. Andrew was introduced to group relations work as a graduate student at the University of San Diego and has primarily been involved in conference work there. He is an active co-parent of two children who share heritage from Palestine, Okinawa, Yemen, China, and the Philippines and hopes to provide them with the opportunity to experience a group relations conference in the future.
(she/her) Anita is a grassroots community development and social justice worker. A first-generation Indian immigrant to Canada, Anita’s work and life experiences on the front lines of anti-poverty, social, and ecological justice work span a global context. In Toronto, she is actively engaged on issues of mental health & addiction, housing and homelessness, food insecurity, and equity. She is the Executive Director of Working for Change, a grassroots survivor-based organization working to build power in communities that live in poverty, and also serves on the board of a housing justice Community Land Trust. Group relations work has been a critical tool in her kit as she works towards healing in community.
Anita Prasad
Consultant
Aschylus Robinson, MSW, LCSW
Consultant
(she/her) Aschylus [uh-shy-lus] is a Queer Black American woman from Chicago, Illinois. She works as a clinical therapist and supervisor in private practice in Salt Lake City, Utah. Aschylus values learning through vulnerability, reflective honest awareness, and authenticity and consistently challenges herself to be present in those ways in this work. Aschylus has been participating in group relations work for almost a decade. She is a member of Grex and A.K. Rice Institute.
Chelsea Rodriguez (she/her/ella) is a Black, Dominican-American leadership coach and organizational consultant. She supports the growth and transformation of motivated leaders, teams and groups so they might lead through change and complexity with more intention, compassion and inclusion. She has spent the last 15 years doing this work from within large-scaled organizations in the financial services and technology industries. Chelsea also supports transformation in the context of the pregnancy and birth experience, supporting BIPOC birthing people in the Washington Heights, Bronx and Harlem areas of NYC as a doula. Her involvement in group relations work began as a master’s student in the Social-Organizational Psychologist program at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Currently she is one of the Members-at-Large of the New York Center for the Study of Groups, Organizations, and Social Systems, a regional affiliate of the A.K. Rice Institute.
Chelsea Rodriguez, MA
Consultant
(she/her/ella) Diana is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first-generation Chicagoan. She is a psychotherapist specializing in trauma, including racial and systemic trauma, and spent over a decade in the community mental health field serving low-income families on the west side of Chicago. Diana is a Certified Consultant of the A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems and a member of the Chicago Center for the Study of Group and Organizations. She is a clinical consultant for the fellowship program at the Chicago Center for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and a Professional Mentor for the Braven organization.
Diana Castañeda, MA, LCPC
Consultant
(she/her) Nina is a first-generation immigrant by way of Jamaica and Puerto Rico and by way of somewhere in Africa. Currently based in Brooklyn, New York, she is pursuing psychoanalytic training at the William White Institute and also works as an educational content program manager at Meta. Nina is an alumna of Teachers College, Columbia University's Organizational Psychology Program and the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York. Preceding her current endeavors, Nina served as an active-duty logistics officer in the U.S. Army for 11 years, including two combat deployments.
Nina Traylor, MA
Consultant
(she/her) Rosette is a full-time lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she is core faculty for their Teaching and Teacher Leadership program. Her research presences the inner lives of teachers and their relationship to death in their pedagogies. She is a consultant and coach for educational and workplace ethics, inclusion, and power dynamics in groups at Leadership Lab International. She has served as a board member for the Boston Center for the Study of Groups and Social Systems and is a current member of both CSGSS and the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems. She is a proud former Chelsea Public Schools teacher and first-generation scholar.
Rosette Cirillo, Ph.D.
Consultant
Born and raised in Taiwan and is currently living in Los Angeles. Private practice psychotherapist in Los Angeles; non-profit long-term care consultant and trainer; former board member, affiliate representative, and secretary for AKRI; member of 2024 AKRI Dialogue Planning Committee; member of AKRI, GREX, and the New York Center; and a co-creator in GRI. Graduated from Master of Counseling at Northwestern University. Trained in psychodynamic, group psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing®, mindfulness, multicultural, and social justice-oriented approaches. Has been involved in the Group Relations field in a variety of different roles throughout the USA, China, Taiwan, and Israel since 2014.
Yu-An Wang, MA, SEP®, LMHC, LPCC, NCC
Consultant
WHO IS
THE CONFERENCE FOR?
This conference is open to anyone wanting an opportunity to learn through immediate and direct experience about group dynamics, influence, and about overt and covert actions involved in the exercise of leadership, authority, and power. No particular background or experience is necessary to participate. People from a wide variety of fields and organizations and industries have participated in CSGSS conferences including but not limited to individuals from educational institutions, foundations, healthcare systems, mental health and addiction centers, first responder units, nonprofits of all sorts, community organizing, technology companies, organizational and management consulting, national volunteer programs, arts organizations, and various business enterprises.
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
All Conference Events will begin and end precisely at the times scheduled. The conference will begin promptly at 9:00 AM Eastern on Saturday, October 19, 2024, and end promptly at 5:20 PM Eastern on Monday, October 21, 2024.
Saturday, October 19 The Conference Opening is at 9:00 AM Eastern.
Saturday events end at 7:00 PM Eastern
Sunday, October 20 Conference events run from 9:00 AM to 8:15 PM Eastern
Monday, October 21 Conference events run from 9:00 AM to 5:20 PM Eastern
FAQ
Location
All conference events will take place at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, 1581 Beacon St, Brookline, MA (Boston metro area).
Attendance
This conference is designed as an integrated experience with each event building on the one previous. Participants should plan to attend all events.
Continuing Education
The conference expects to offer approximately 20 Continuing Education credits/clock hours for Psychologists (all levels), Mental Health Counselors, and Social Workers. Notice, including the exact number of hours, will be posted here once the appropriate CE-granting bodies have approved our application.
Fee Reduction
A limited number of reduced-fee registrations will be available for those with true financial need. Please contact the Director of Administration, Tanya Lewis, at csgssweekend@gmail.com for details before you register. Please be prepared to submit a written, clear, and compelling explanation of your financial need.
Withdrawal Policy
Fees can only be refunded (less a $85 administration charge) if a written notice of cancellation is received by 11:59 PM Eastern on October 4, 2024.
Confidentiality
Staff will not report the behavior of any individual member to anyone outside the conference.
Stress
The conference is an educational endeavor and does not provide psychotherapy or counseling. Although the experiential learning available can be stimulating and enriching, it can also be emotionally stressful. Thus, applicants who are ill or experiencing significant personal difficulties should forgo participating at this time.
FEES
(due in full upon registration)
Early Registration by
September 24
Non-Discounted Rate
Current Members of CSGSS, GRI, ICI,
AKRI, and BGSP Faculty and Staff Rate
Group Rate*
Full-Time Student Rate**
$545
$495
$495
$295
Regular Registration by
October 10
$595
$545
$545
$345
* Group rates are for 3 or more participants coming from the same organization.
** Full-time students must submit copy of current student ID
One discount per application. A limited number of reduced-fee registrations will be available for those with true financial need. The number and amount of these reduced-fee registrations will be based on the overall enrollment of the conference relative to the number of applicants seeking reductions. To inquire, please contact the Director of Administration, Tanya Lewis, at csgssweekend@gmail.com before registering. Please be prepared to submit a written, clear, and compelling explanation of your financial need.
RECOMMENDED READINGS
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SPONSORSHIPS AND
ENDORSEMENTS
The Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis (BGSP) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. BGSP maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
The Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis has been approved by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 5676. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Application for social work continuing education credits is being submitted. Please contact BGSP at ContinuingEd@BGSP.edu for the status of social work CE accreditation.
For information on continuing education credits, call BGSP at 617-277-3915.​