Once a month. 1st, 2nd, or 4th Friday of the month, depending upon preferences of group members, from 2:15-3:45 pm.
Ellicott City, MD

Our focus will be on how leadership, particularly authoritarian leadership, affects the mental health (e.g., anxiety, depression) and well-being of the population and subcultures within the population. This is a timely topic, as the American Psychological Association’s 2017 survey, “Stress in America: The State of Our Nation,” reports that stress among Americans is at an all-time high and that 60% of adults report that the “current social divisiveness causes them stress.” We will examine how we, as clinicians, respond to the reactions of our clients who operate within various subcultures, and how their reactions affect us and our countertransferences. We will discuss how we can use our awareness of clients’ and our own cultural reactions to improve our effectiveness as clinicians.

Members who attend this study group will be able to:

  1. Describe various leadership styles, with a particular focus on autocratic/authoritarian leadership.
  2. Describe how the personality of a leader affects the development of his or her leadership style.
  3. Describe how an authoritarian leadership style is likely to affect various subcultures within the population being led, and how a clinician might respond empathically and effectively to members of those subcultures.
  4. Describe how an authoritarian leadership style may increase or decrease conflict between subcultures within a population, and how this might present in a consulting room.
  5. Describe how they as clinicians, take into account the client’s cultural context in order to understand and respond therapeutically.
  6. Describe how therapists take into account their countertransference to clients of various subcultures.
  7. Describe how intercultural conflict is likely to affect the mental health of the population.
  8. Describe the ways in which intercultural conflict may affect the mental health of the individual.
  9. Describe how contemporary analytic theories can incorporate cultural differences, so as to address the mental health needs of a diverse clientele effectively.
  10. Describe strategies for managing the increased level of stress of current and prospective clients.