What Large Group Experience Teaches Us About Group Therapy and Ourselves as Therapists
Co-Chair: Large Group Team Members
Date: January 23-24, 2026
Time: Friday - 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM and Saturday - 8:30 AM – 5:15 PM
Location: Friends Meeting House of Washington, 2111 Decatur Pl NW, Washington, DC 20008, In-Person Only
11.0 CE/CMEs
Space is limited
Program Description:
This Conference provides a forum for participants to relate their learning from large group experience to the challenges of group therapy practice and to explore the impact of that experience on the person of the therapist.
We will use small and large group experiences, demonstration groups, and discussion to explore what it means to be a socially aware and attuned group therapist, to approach a therapy group with diversity, context, and humility in mind, and to reflect on one’s personal style and values as a group therapist.
The NGPI Large Group Team will serve as conference co-chairs.
Ayana Watkins-Northern, PhD, CGP, AGPA-F
Robert Schulte, MSW, CGP
Kavita Avula, PsyD, CGP
Karen Eberwein, PsyD, ABPP, CGP
Victoria Lee, PhD, CGP
Farooq Mohyuddin, MD, CGP, FAPA, AGPA-F
Learning Objectives
By the conclusion of the conference, participants will be able to:
- Understand how a therapy group functions as a microcosm of its larger social environment.
- Identify three ways that contextual factors may influence a therapy group.
- Name two interventions a therapist might use to work with contextual factors in the here-and-now.
- Identify a personal bias that could negatively impact group cohesion.
- Recognize the presence and absence of intersectional identities in the membership of a group and the leader/s.
- Describe two strategies for cultivating civic mindfulness as a therapeutic group goal.
- Recognize a microaggression occurring in the here-and-now of a group session.
- Name three factors in the health-care system that may impact the quality and availability of group therapy services.
Registration closes January 22, 2026 at noon ET.
Space is limited.
