63rd Annual Conference

Friday February 24

All-Day Workshops

10:00 A.M. –1:15 P.M. & 2:45-6:00 P.M.

Workshop 35a

Working with Difference Within and Between Groups: A Group Relations/Tavistock Model

Chairs:    

Ruthellen Josselson, Ph.D.,  Faculty, Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California

Dannielle Kennedy, LICSW, Ph.D., Senior Consultant, KRW International, Minneapolis, Minnesota

This workshop will explore systemic processes – overt and covert, conscious and unconscious – that are influenced by individual characteristics of group members such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age and a myriad of other differences, seen and unseen.  In the role of managers and consultants, the instructors will attend to here-and-now relations within and between groups.

Experiential-didactic-demonstration-sharing of work experiences

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Harness the power of experiential learning for cognitive insight about the overt and covert management of difference.

2. Experience and understand projective processes in group both as sender and receiver, both individually and collectively.

3. Experience and understand the impact of individual characteristics such as age, race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and nationality, among others, on group process.

4. Experience and understand various individual and group responses to authority (dependence, submissiveness or withdrawal) and to peers (destructive competitiveness, emotional exploitiveness or withdrawal) in group life.

Course References:

1. Bennis, W., & Shepard, H. (1956). A Theory of Group Development. Human Relations, 9, 415-437.

2. Bion, W. (1961).  Experiences in Groups.  New York: Basic Books, Inc.

3. Main, T. (1985). Some Psychodynamics of Large Groups. Group Relations Reader, 2.  A.K. Rice Institute.