In our wish to be of service during the COVID 19 pandemic, The Illinois Group Psychotherapy Society is offering free programming for mental health professionals in the Chicagoland area. The trauma of living with the pandemic and its impact on our personal and professional lives is significant. As psychotherapists, we are dealing with our own reactions to the pandemic while at the same time being the person our clients lean on to help them manage. It is a lot. As you hold your clients and families, we are here for you.
Several IGPS members have stepped forward during this isolating time to provide support groups and a workshop on building an online therapy group. These groups and workshops are offered at no charge. See below for details (all times are CST).
Drop-In Support Groups: The “people who need people” are now being told to avoid people. How are you managing the split between desire and fear?
Via an online platform, our licensed group therapists will hold two eight-week support groups. The group will be used to explore and frame our experience of COVID-19 as it moves into the space of our homes, practices, and relationships.
Note: These groups are supportive in nature and are not psychotherapy. Our wish is to provide a space where the unique experience of being “helper” can be shared and validated with others in the same role. Limited to 12 participants in any given week.
- Drop-In Group 1 – Sundays, 6:00-7:30 p.m. beginning May 10:
Led by Marvin Evans, LCPC, MBA, CSOTP, CGP. Marvin is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Certified Group Psychotherapist who has been working in the field of Counseling for over twenty years. Marvin is an eclectic therapist with a strong attachment to Reality Therapy. He specializes in working with marginalized populations on issues of trauma, identity, sexuality, and existential angst implicit in trying to make sense of this thing called life. Please contact Marvin at scylle.me@gmail.com with questions or to join.
- Drop-In Group 2 – Wednesdays, 4:00-5:30 p.m. beginning May 13:
Led by James O’Keefe, MS, JD, LCPC, CGP, NBCCH. Jim is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Certified Group Psychotherapist with over 40 years of experience as a psychotherapist working with adults and adolescents in individual, couple, family, and group therapy. He is interested in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Schema Therapy, clinical hypnosis, sexual dysfunction therapy, pain management, crisis intervention and the application of mindfulness principles to the healing and growth process. Please contact Jim at james.okeefe@sbcglobal.net.
Starting and maintaining your groups online through COVID-19: This online workshop will prepare clinicians who want to start or transition their therapy/process groups online. This workshop will provide the fundamentals of how to start and lead online groups, as well as some understanding of how to overcome the challenges of running groups using this new platform.
This workshop will take place on Saturday, May 9th from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. and will include both didactic and experiential learning.
Who should attend: Therapists who have interest in starting or transitioning their groups online.
Meet your Leaders:
Jim O'Hern, LCSW, CGP Portland, OR
Jim O'Hern is a licensed clinical social worker and a certified group psychotherapist. Jim is passionate about group therapy and is a recent graduate of the Center for Group Studies modern analytic training program and continues ongoing training on a weekly basis. Jim leads both long-term and short-term modern analytic process groups in Portland, Oregon and co-facilitates an online training group for therapists with Dr. Heather Frank.
Heather Frank, PsyD, CGP Chicago, IL
Heather Frank, Psy.D. is licensed clinical psychologist and certified group psychotherapist. Dr. Frank is the owner of the group practice, Chicago Counseling Collective PC, in Chicago and leads long-term modern analytic process groups in her practice. Dr. Frank is passionate about education and training in group psychotherapy and co-leads an online training group for therapists with Jim O'Hern, LCSW, CGP. Contact drhfrank@chicagocounselingcollective.com to register.
For additional information, please contact info@ilgps.org.
PAST CONFERENCES
Fall Conference 2019 - The Art of Group Leadership: Staying Open to Ourselves and Others
Presenters: Britt Raphling, LCPC, CGP and Dave Kaplowitz, LMFT, CGP
Spring Conference 2019 - Early Longing, Emotional Engagement, Gender Identity, and Sexual Desire: Being Fully Ourselves in Relationship
Katie Griffin, FAGPA, CGP, LPC
Fall Conference 2018 - Power, Privilege, and Social Location: The Challenge of Exploring Difference in Groups
Paul Gitterman, LICSW, MSc
Spring Conference and All Institute Workshop 2018
Core Course on Group Psychotherapy featuring Hylene S. Dublin, LCSW, ACSW, BCD, CGP, LFAGPA and Lawrence Viers, PhD, CGP
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) featuring Freda Friedman, PhD, LCSW, RNAP
The Tavistock Approach to the Small Study Group featuring Solomon Cytrynbaum, PhD
Self-Regulation Within the Fear of Not Knowing featuring Thomas Herman, LCSW
Fall Conference 2017: The Promise of Real Play Group Psychotherapy
Featuring Katie L. Steele, PhD, CGP, FAGPA
Spring Conference 2017: Gloria Goes to Group: One Group, Three Theoretical Perspectives
Freda Friedman, PhD, LCSW, RNAP
Britt Raphling, LCPC, CGP
Lawrence Viers, PhD, CGP, FAGPA
Panel Moderator: Barney Straus, LCSW, CGP, FAGPA
Fall Conference 2016: Core Issue Completion Therapy
Michael Lukens, PhD
Spring Conference 2016: All Institute Conference
- Attachment Theory and Group Psychotherapy; Darryl Pure, PhD, ABPP, FAGPA, CGP
- Mindfulness-Based Group Psychotherapy; Sarah Kallick, PsyD, CGP and James O’Keefe, JD, LCPC, CGP, NBCCH
- Screams, Scars, Secrets, Shame: Treating Addiction and Underlying Trauma; Marcia Nickow, PsyD, CADC, CGP
- Core Course: The Principles of Group Psychotherapy; Hylene Dublin, LCSW, BCD, CGP, LFAGPA and Lawrence A. Viers, PhD, CGP, FAGPA
Fall Conference 2015: Modern Gestalt Group Therapy: A Relational Approach to Growth and Healing
Peter Cole, LCSW, CGP, and Daisy Reese, LCSW, CGP