Early Registration Discounts
Workshop on Overlooked Cultural Issues: get 30% off through Sunday, October 13th. Enter code "OCI30" at checkout.
Workshop on Racial/Cultural Reductionism: get 30% off through Sunday, November 24th. Enter code "RCR30" at checkout.
Members: get an additional 10% off on top of these discounts by logging in.
Upcoming Workshops
All talks are accredited for psychologists, social workers, and counselors.
Are you a member? Log in to get 10% off.
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Workshop on Overlooked Cultural Issues
“Three Cultural Trends Shaping Contemporary Psychodynamic Therapy: Authoritarianism, Morality, and Humor”
2 CE Credits - $75
Sunday, October 27th, 2024, 12:00–2:00 PM EDT
2-hour live virtual workshop
Three speakers will discuss current cultural issues related to clinical psychology: a possible increase in authoritarian character structure, the decreasing role of morality as a central feature in the treatment of personality disorders, and the enduring value of humor to bridge divides. SEE FULL DETAILS
Daniel Burston, Ph.D. - Lucas Klein, Ph.D. - Christine Anerella, Ph.D. - Andrew Hartz, Ph.D. (moderator)
Student registration is discounted (no CE credits)
Members: Log in to get discount
Accredited for psychologists, social workers, and counselors.
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Workshop on Racial/Cultural Reductionism
“Wrestling with Racial and Cultural Reductionism”
2 CE Credits - $75
Saturday, December 7th, 2024, 12:00–2:00 PM EST
2-hour live virtual workshop
This workshop will explore how generalizations and assumptions can damage care, and how clinicians can overcome these tendencies with detailed inquiry and awareness of cultural and individual nuances. Special focus will be given to individuals who feel that they lack a connection to an identity group (cultural, racial, political, or religious) and how this can contribute to intrapersonal and interpersonal distress. SEE FULL DETAILS
Michael Strambler, Ph.D. - Ira Moses, Ph.D., ABPP - Andrew Hartz, Ph.D. (moderator)
Student registration is discounted (no CE credits)
Members: Log in to get discount
Accredited for psychologists, social workers, and counselors.
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Workshop on Bias in Therapy
“Sociopolitical Bias in Mental Health Care and Clinical Skill for Working with Diverse Viewpoints”
2 CE credits - $75
Saturday, September 7th, 2024, 12:00–2:00 PM EDT
2-hour live virtual workshop
This workshop outlines ways clinicians can work more effectively with patients who have diverse views. Presenters will also discuss biases in the field and suggest strategies for improvement. SEE FULL DETAILS
Sally Satel, M.D. - Richard Redding, Ph.D., J.D. - Andrew Hartz, Ph.D. - Leslie Elliott Boyce (moderator)
Accredited for psychologists, social workers, and counselors.
REGISTRATION FOR THIS WORKSHOP HAS CLOSED.
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Workshop on Self-Censorship
“Speaking Up: Why It’s Necessary and How to Approach It Clinically”
3 CE credits - $99
Saturday, September 21st, 2024, 12:00–3:00 PM EDT
3-hour live virtual workshop
This workshop will present four talks about self-censorship. Talks will discuss the mental health benefits of open dialogue, the experience of self-censorship in academic programs, false assumptions that may lead people to support censorship, and clinical tools to address self-censorship issues in treatment. SEE FULL DETAILS
Chloe Carmichael, Ph.D. - Camilo Ortiz, Ph.D. - Pamela Paresky, Ph.D. - Bret Alderman, Ph.D. - Andrew Hartz, Ph.D. (moderator) - Leslie Elliott Boyce (moderator)
Accredited for psychologists, social workers, and counselors.
REGISTRATION FOR THIS WORKSHOP HAS CLOSED.
Registration for workshops will close 90 minutes before start. All purchases are final.
Email us at info@opentherapyinstitute.org with questions about membership and purchases.
At all Open Therapy workshop talks, the views expressed are those of the speaker alone and not those of the Open Therapy Institute. The Open Therapy Institute aims to highlight overlooked issues and perspectives, not to take an official stance on each topic. Within this purview, we aim to present a range of views from diverse theoretical orientations and perspectives.
Workshops in Development
OTI workshops offer insights into overlooked issues in mental health. Workshops are led by professionals with a wide range of theoretical orientations, political views, and areas of expertise. They address topics like: biases in mental health care, how to work therapeutically with overlooked clinical populations, improving cross-political dialogue, masculinity, the role of religion and spirituality in mental health care, racial issues, gender/sexuality, self-censorship, and many others.
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One’s socio-political context often impacts symptoms of mental illness. This is evident now in OCD symptoms, as obsessive thoughts are more and more focused on anxieties about saying or doing things that are “un-PC” and then being “cancelled.” OCD symptoms often fixate on the most socially taboo phenomena, so this reveals much about today’s culture. The growth in these symptoms shows how profoundly cancel culture is impacting people, but it also illustrates why therapists need to be comfortable with un-PC topics, as effective treatment often requires nonjudgmental discussions of these issues. This talk will present case studies, recommendations for treatment, and highlight ways to train future therapists to be more comfortable working in this area. Possible implications about how other disorders could be impacted by “cancel culture” will also be explored.
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Socio-political values are often central to people’s lives, and as such they often come up in therapy sessions. These values can impact every area of a patient’s psychological functioning, such as life experiences, values, career choice, and relationships. Effective treatment requires that therapists be comfortable with and understanding of the wide range of socio-political values currently present in the American landscape. Additionally, therapy can be derailed by therapists making overtly political statements in session, attacking patients as racist or sexist, or pathologizing their political or religious views. But biases can also include statements that many therapists think are innocuous, like listing one’s pronouns in an online profile or having an “all gender” sign on the clinic bathroom. Therapists can signal bias by avoiding topics, showing discomfort in their body language or word choice, or by simply not understanding issues and not having anything thoughtful to say about patients’ experiences. Sometimes therapists assume patients want to be seen as victims, want to blame others, or want sympathy, even though many patients may be seeking mentorship or guidance that puts them in a more active role. The use of humor and incorporation of spirituality might strike some therapists as unprofessional, but many patient populations need some engagement in those areas. Because the mental health field is so left-leaning, patients often assume therapists are secular and liberal, even when they aren’t, and some patients may need reassurance to open up about anything that doesn’t ft with these assumed biases. Taken as a whole, these issues can drive people out of therapy, keep people from trying it in the first place, and can lead to antagonistic, stifled, or otherwise limited therapy sessions. All of these concerns will be discussed in detail.
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Bullying that includes explicit anti-white hatred is shockingly common, especially at schools with a small minority of white students. Children who experience this form of hatred and aggression are often overlooked because their parents don’t understand these experiences and don’t know what to do. School administrators might overlook incidents because they are confused about how to respond, afraid of being attacked for addressing the problem, or don’t see anti-white racial aggression as “racism.” These students typically have no mental health resources, no social supports, and no means of responding assertively. Their experiences may be widely invalidated as they are framed as privileged while their bullies are framed as oppressed. They may be taught these views by teachers or hear them from their parents or peers. All of these experiences make anti-white racial bullying unique. People who experience these forms of hatred may side with their bullies, internalize the hatred, or dissociate the experience entirely. Others hide their experiences because they worry that others won’t understand or be supportive, and some of these victims can be radicalized. Yet the literature on this topic is minimal and clinical resources are non-existent. This talk will give an overview and highlight the urgent need for mental health care in this area.
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In the wake of almost every mass shooting, there are calls for gun restrictions and improved mental health care, so it’s surprising that one of the most overlooked clinical populations in mental health care is gun owners. Gun owners are often mistrustful of mental health care for cultural reasons, out of a concern that gun ownership will be pathologized, and stemming from fears that red flag laws will lead to their guns being unnecessarily confiscated as a result of their seeking mental health care. Clinical skill in therapy with gun owners requires the capacity to understand the positive mental health value that gun ownership can provide, while also working with gun owners to manage risks if harm to self/other arise. This talk will argue for culturally-attuned, knowledgeable, and patient-centered care for this population.
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Many women experience reproductive loss from miscarriage, abortion, or giving a child up for adoption. Every woman’s experience in this area is unique, and women’s responses are multifaceted and can change over time. Experiences of grief and regret are common, especially if they were unaware of the full range of their options at the time. These experiences can be powerfully felt and many women discuss it rarely or never. Their feelings can be linked to religious faith, current relationship and family status, and other mental health concerns. To help patients process these experiences, therapists need to be open to conflicting and complicated feelings that often change, without taking one side or the other. This talk will argue that therapists should take an informed, patient-centered approach.
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Increasingly, racial consciousness is a central focus of education, media, and other areas of culture. For the most part this change is driven by a commitment to social justice, but this cultural shift has deep and far-reaching psychological implications. Young people in particular seem increasingly primed to notice race first when viewing art, reading literature, watching movies, and consuming other forms of media. Along with a focus on other divides like gender and sexuality, this fixation on “the racial schema” clouds out other important information, such as symbolism, style, psychological dynamics, philosophical questions, and historical trends. As these schemas become entrenched, new psychological dilemmas emerge around identity, relationships, and views on culture, society, and politics. New emotions, perspectives, and experiences can be a double-edged sword, awakening a constellation of new challenges that are only beginning to emerge as the ideal of colorblindness fades from the public sphere.
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The vast majority men and women broadly adhere to patterns of gender expression and sexual desire consistent with what has been labelled “cis/hetero-normativity.” Yet, many couples are ambivalent and uncomfortable with their desires for gender differences in their relationships, and many have internalized a stigmatized view of this dynamic. Some couples avoid the topic out of fears of conflict. Others have internalized values that conflict with their desires. Sometimes an inability to accept their attachment to features of gender normativity or gender differences in their relationship can lead both partners to feel unfulfilled, to increase conflict, or to experience a loss of sexual desire/gratification. These feelings, if unspoken or repressed can then “come out sideways” and derail relationships. Still, many couples therapists are unsure how to broach these issues or suggest that a couple may function well with some features of gender normativity, and many patients in couples therapy share similar fears about expressing these feelings. This talk will discuss how this dynamic may manifest, how it can impact relationships, and how to foster patient-centered discussions around gender normativity that enables couples to find sustainable, equitable, and mutually-fulfilling relationships.
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Terror Management Theory (TMT) argues that anxiety about death has a powerful impact on human psychology and culture. TMT is derived from existential psychoanalysis, but it has become a rich area of empirical research. It argues that death anxiety influences phenomena from the Great Pyramids to narcissistic personalities. However, one area this research overlooks is the role death anxieties play in pushes for ever-increasing government regulation. The fantasy of an omnipotent state that can protect everyone from death likely animates discussions about what might otherwise seem mundane discussions of regulatory policy. The impact of a drive to regulate on society and mental health will be examined in detail, with a specific focus on responses to the COVID-19 pandemic as a case example.
Jewish Students in Therapy Training Programs: Exclusion and Alienation
The Mental Health Toll of DEI: How Common Dynamics in DEI Programming Can Damage Social and Psychological Dynamics and Possibly Contribute to Mental Illness
“To Be Masculine or To Be Good?”: How Attacks on Masculinity Shape Identity Development in Adolescent Boys and Young Men
Snowflakes and Hand Grenades: The Link Between Hypersensitivity and Aggression
Split Identity Politics: The All-or-Nothing Framing of Demographic Groups in Social Justice Discourse and Its Link to Cluster B Social Dynamics
Law Enforcement Mental Health after 2020: Stress, Invalidation, and Trauma: Findings from Recent Research
“Aggression Doesn’t Cure Trauma”: False Assumptions about Mental Health in the Activist Discourse
DBT for Political Conflict in Families: Using Evidence-Based Approaches
Fluency in Faith: Crucial Concepts to Help Therapists (Believing and Nonbelieving) Understand and Connect with Patients’ Experiences of Faith in Psychotherapy
Surviving the Mob: Case Studies of People Who Were “Cancelled,” Publicly Shamed, Fired, Ostracized, or Blacklisted for Their Beliefs, and Their Implications for Treatment
Political Bias in the Replicability Crisis: How Widespread Questionable Research Practices Can Combine with Political Bias to Make False Claims Appear “Evidence-Based”