Women, Intersectionality, and Power in Group Psychotherapy Leadership

This ground-breaking book presents multifaceted perspectives to examine assumptions about gender, intersecting identities, and power that impact women's experience as group psychotherapy leaders, mentors, and educators. Leaders in the field discuss the theories, training, personal experience, mentorship, and clinical work that empower women group psychotherapists beyond the limits of traditional technique and practice. Chapters boldly investigate theoretical, cultural, and personal paradigms, and explore themes of intersectionality, gender-role identity, and hidden bias. The authors challenge embedded societal norms to encourage deeper gender and cultural intelligence in group psychotherapy leadership. This text provides guidance and clinical wisdom that will inspire, scaffold, and embolden contemporary group psychotherapy leadership.

Yoon Im Kane, LCSW, CGP, is a Yale University trained psychotherapist, author, and founder of two companies based in NYC and Hawaii. She presents on Mindfulness and Group Leadership at professional conferences. Saralyn M. Masselink, LCSW, CGP, is in private practice in Los Angeles, CA and teaches locally and nationally about the transformative power of group therapy. She graduated from Smith College School for Social Work. Annie C. Weiss, LICSW, CGP, FAGPA, leads local, national, and international trainings. She has a private practice in Newton, MA, teaches group dynamics to Harvard medical students, and holds degrees from Yale University and Smith College.

Introduction; Chapter 1: Unwelcoming and Group Process; Chapter 2: Spirituality and Struggle as Sources of Strength and Power for African American Women: Implications for Group Therapy Leadership; Chapter 3: Belonging: Queer: Theory's Contribution to Modern Analytic Groups; Chapter 4: Training Elastigirl: Developing Strength and Flexibility in Female Group Psychotherapists; Chapter 5: A Very Civilized Tea Party: A Leader's Resistance to Aggression in a Women's Group; Chapter 6: From Chrysalis to Butterfly: Women Leading Women from Silence to Power; Chapter 7: Redefining Female Power: The Myth of the Selfless Therapist; Chapter 8: Cinderella, The Wicked Queen, and Glinda Walk into a Group: Countertransference Resistance and the Female Group Leader; Chapter 9: Liberating Ambition in Women Group Psychotherapists; Chapter 10: Women Sharing the Power Seat: Equity and Equanimity in Co-leading Groups; Chapter 11: Brown, Barriered, Bold: One Therapist's Story of Leadership; Chapter 12: Vulnerability & Violence: Female Group Leadership, the Social Unconscious, & the #MeToo Movement; Chapter 13: The Significance and Importance of Repairing Empathic Failures; Chapter 14: Currents of Countertransference: Rage, Shame, and Wise-Mind Group Leadership; Chapter 15: Donning the (Super [-Marginalized] Woman) Cape: Facilitating Group as a BIPOC Woman; Chapter 16: Systems-Centered Training for Group Leaders: Weakening Social Survivor Roles that Undermine Women (and Men) in Leadership; Chapter 17: "You're Not What I Expected": Addressing the Unsaid as an Asian American Female Group Therapist; Chapter 18: Courage to Lead: The Shadow of Racism on Women of Color Leading Psychotherapy Groups; Index.