64th Annual Conference

Workshop 32

The Power of Women's Groups:  Women Claiming Their Desire and Passion

Presented under the auspices of the Women in Group Psychotherapy SIG

Chairs:     

Anne Oakley, Ph.D., Coordinator, Brief Psychotherapy Centre for Women, Women’s College Hospital, Toronto, ON, CANADA

Judith Schoenholtz-Read, Ed.D., CGP, FAGPA, Associate Dean for Clinical Training, Fielding Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA

Open to participants with more than ten years of group psychotherapy experience

Women are influenced to focus on attracting love rather than toward learning about and then claiming their desires. Women’s groups provide a “safe space” to explore the cultural-developmental context and dynamic themes related to female desire, passion and romantic love as expressed in idealizations, fantasies,  and sexual and intimacy needs. Applying feminist and relational theories, the workshop will demonstrate how to work with these themes to promote change in women’s groups.

demonstration-didactic-experiential-sharing of work experiences

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Identify historic and cultural views of female desire as well as feminist and relational theories as they relate to female love, desire, sexual and intimacy needs in the context of a relationship.

2. Integrate guidelines on how to create a "women's space" in group psychotherapy to provide a safe and healing environment for the exploration of themes related to passion, desire and romantic love.

3. Identify group processes that facilitate the exploration of women's idealizations, fantasies and real relational needs and integrate the group experience with female development and dynamics.

4. Create a framework for women to understand how they participate in being an object of desire and how they can move toward being the subject of desire.

References:

1.  DeChant, B. (Ed.) Women and group psychotherapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York: NY. Guilford Press.

2.  Young-Esendrath, P. (1999) Women and desire: Beyond wanting to be wanted. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.

3.  Sullivan, R. (2001) Labyrinth of desire: Women, passion and romantic obsession. Washington, DC: Counterpoint.