Finding the Center Within Turbulent Systems
an Experiential Workshop forAnalysts, Candidates and Related Clinicians
Who Are You In Your Group?
Co-Sponsored by
New Center for Psychoanalysis
Grex, The West Coast Affiliate of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems
and
The “Psychoanalysis-in-Transition” Planning Committee
A One-Day Workshop
In-person at New Center for Psychoanalysis,
Los Angeles
Saturday March 20, 2027
All Members, Former Members, Candidates and Students from the
California analytic institutes are invited to register and participate.
A Complementary Introductory Didactic and Experiential Webinar
on Group Relations Theory and Practice
Will be Available For Those Interested in the Workshop
Monday March 1 5:00-7:00 pm Pacific Time via ZOOM
Continuing Education Credit:
This workshop has been approved for 6 hours of CE and CME credit
provided by the American Psychoanalytic Association
The pre and post conference events will not provide CE or CME credit
We are inviting members of all of California analytic training organizations (faculty, members, former members, candidates and students) to come together to learn from experience about group dynamics and reflect on their institutional roles. The workshop will include experiential group events that comprise some core components of a Group Relations Conference with particular application to exploring the dynamics within analytic institutes. This work incorporates discoveries of Wilfred Bion, and numerous contemporary theoreticians and practitioners.
There has been an increased interest within the national and international analytic community to include group relations or process groups as the fourth leg of analytic training in response to the increasing complexity of analytic modeling and institutional group life.
New Center for Psychoanalysis (NCP) and Grex are co-sponsoring this workshop to address some of the modern challenges in the development of analytic training including pressures on the field from many alternative therapeutic modalities including AI and the need to diversify practitioners. These and other challenges have led to numerous tensions and conflicts within institutes that impact both the structure of the organizations and the capacity to train the next generations of analysts. In response there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of group dynamics as a lens that can assist in understanding the internal and external forces that impact all aspects of our work.
This experiential workshop will foster and study the emergence of various aspects of group life to help support leaders, faculty and institute/center members. Some of the themes that are examined in these workshops include:
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How unconscious forces live in groups
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How a group defines its task and boundaries
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How a group manages their anxieties in taking up the task
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How leadership emerges and who takes it up
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How is authority responded to
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How group members take up different roles
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How identity and diversity impact groups
History of the Event and Group Relations Work in the Context of Analytic Institutes
This one-day group relations workshop draws from the organizational experience of the California institutes and the ongoing tradition of Group Relations Conferences for analysts in the U.S. and internationally organized by the “Psychoanalysis-in-Transition” group. Also, there are growing pressures to move from the tripartite to a quadripartite model of training which includes a fourth leg – training in the group dynamics of groups, institutions, and the society in which psychoanalysis is embedded.
Background
With the growing interest in the work of Bion, attention has been directed to his early discoveries made while working with groups prior to World War II and later at the Tavistock Clinic. He introduced the leaderless groupboth for purposes of therapy as well as training in the Clinic. His formulations, set out in Experiences in Groups, were taken up by his colleagues , most notably A.K. Rice, who brought group relations to the United States. Along with others he developed a method for the study of unconscious group dynamics with a special focus on authority, leadership, roles, collective group-as-a-whole, fantasies and defenses. The method, known as group relations, has grown into an integrated theory and practice of the study of unconscious processes ingroups and organizations. It can be seen as another branch of psychoanalysis, both as a training model and as an approach to intervention into groups and organizations.
Bion thought of the analytic dyad as a specialized group and thus found a theoretical and clinical continuity between the private self and the group self (i.e., narcissism and our socialism, as termed by Bion). Both are studied from a framed analytic situation where the analyst or group consultant enters and joins anintersubjective field and occupies a role to receive and harvest transference from the individual or the group. In both, the analyst/consultant relies on his, her, their countertransference to “metabolize” the projections acrossa role boundary. A distinguishing feature of the group relations model is that it affords opportunities forexperiential learning and yet explicitly offers no therapeutic intent. Thus, the focus is on the group and social system of the workshop and not on individuals.
This workshop provides an opportunity to explore what Bion termed our “groupishness,” that is, unconscious, instantaneous joining of the intersubjective whole of a group. Bion’s use of the group-as-a-whole concept drew upon Kurt Lewin’s work on field theory. There is an experiential continuity between the dyad and larger groups. This has been explored in several regions of the world, including by the Barangers’ in Argentina, Ferro and Civitarese in Italy and Ogden in the US. Like the analytic situation, the approach of the group relations model holds and explores the potential emergent life in the field through accepting the paradox that the individual while speaking for themselves is also speaking for the group they have joined. It always both/and,[, not either/or. Either/or thinking leads to polarization and splitting which we can observe in organizations, including analytic institutes, and our politics
The Learning Task of the Workshop
This workshop is designed to provide participants with an opportunity to create, with the consultants, a learningcommunity whose primary task is to learn in the here-and-now about the experience of authority, leadership and followership in groups. The learning may enhance one’s ability to distinguish and recognize off-task defensive behavior in the group. Participants are invited to explore the perceptual shift from yourself as a separate individual, to yourself as influenced by and influencing the group mentality. You willencounter theparadox that when you speak, you speak both for yourself and for the group as a whole.
Attendance - Workshop is in-person only but pre and post events are online
The events at this day-long workshop are interconnected as part of total immersive experience. As such, eachparticipant is integral to the process. Plan to attend all events.
The workshop begins promptly at 8:30 am and ends at 5:30 pm
Workshop Events
Pre-Workshop Zoom Presentation – Introduction to the Group Relations Model
The task of this highly recommended but optional two hour meeting will be to introduce theoretical concepts of group-as-a-whole and describe the group relations methodology. It will be very helpful especially for participants who are unfamiliar with group relations. The meeting will be held March 1 5:00-7:00 PM Pacific Time Please follow this zoom link to register. There is no charge for the presentation.
Experiential Group Relations Workshop Event Descriptions:
Opening Plenary – A meeting of all workshop members and
consultants to frame the workshop and the primary learning task, to set the boundaries of time andspace , and to take up administrative questions.
Small Study Groups (SSG) – A group of 8-10 members and a consultant or consultant pair. The primary task of the SSG is to examine its own process as it emerges in the here and now.
Large Study Group (LSG) – Comprised of all members of the workshop and 2-3 consultants. The taskof the LSG is to examine its own behavior as it emerges through the course of the event here and now. This event differs from the SSG in that face-to-face interaction is problematic or not possible due to the size of the group and seating orientation.
Role Analysis Group (RAG) - A “then-and-there” group to provide workshop participants with an opportunity to step back and reflect on their experience, particularly the roles they came to assume inthe workshop events and how it may apply to outside roles and organizations.
Closing Plenary – All participants, members, consultants and administrators, have an opportunity tostep back from the here and now events and collectively reflect on the workshop experience and to explore the nature and dynamics of the learning community we have created over the day together. We will reflect on analytic institute group dynamics including issues of power and authority. There will be a focus on how leadership roles are assumed, particularly via the unconscious pressure both from the group and from within the leader, to assume and remain in these roles.
Workshop Roles:
Workshop Member Role – All workshop members take a learning role to explore authority and leadership dynamics emerging in the group Members draw from their direct observations of the group and from their conscious experiences, internal feeling states, fantasies and dreams.
Workshop Consultant Role - The consultants to the here and now events (SSG and LSG) will consultonly to the group-as-a-whole and not to individual members of the group within the time and spaceboundaries of the workshop. The focus will be on here and now events occurring in real time during the sessions. In “there and then” role analysis groups (RAG), consultants will explore with members the roles they took in the workshop and how roles might connect to outside roles in organizations.
Workshop Administrator Role - The administrator manages the registration and participantboundaries of the workshop as well as providing a relational interface between the consultants, participants and the site.
Note: The staff are committed to strict confidentiality and will not discuss any individuals outside of the boundary of the workshop. We encourage members to follow the same practice.
Conference Staff
Director
Raymond Bakaitis
Raymond Bakaitis is a psychologist practicing in Los Angeles. He is a Past-President of the Los Angeles County Psychological Association. He is a Past-President of the A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI) and a Past-President of Grex, AKRI’s West Coast Affiliate. He is one of the original co-creators of International Group Relations China (IGRC) and is an active member of the Lithuanian Group Relations Society. He is in the group organizing the Ghana, 2027 reparations themed group relations conference.
Administration
Thomas Brod, MD, DLFAPA
Thomas Brod is a senior faculty member of the New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles. Formerly Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine he now is full-time private practice of psychoanalysis. He coordinates the NCP Manifest Mind series and co-cordinates its Film & Mind series
Mari Tang is a Group Relations practitioner, leatherdyke, and software engineer based in Los Angeles, CA. She spends her free time riding motorcycles.
Consultants
Marilyn Jacobs Marilyn S. Jacobs, Ph.D., ABPP is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in psychoanalytic private practice in Los Angeles. Her clinical roles include assessment and treatment of patients with chronic pain and systems dynamics consultation to health care practitioners. Formerly, she held the positions of Assistant Clinical Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She has held governance and leadership positions in the Division of Psychoanalysis (39 - SPPP) of the American Psychological Association and the American Board of Professional Psychology (Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic Psychology). Her enduring commitment to psychoanalytic group relations and its applications is expressed with membership in Grex, the West Coast Affiliate of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems and the Psychoanalysis in Transition Planning Committee. She is the author of American Psychology in the Quest for Nuclear Peace (1987), co-editor of Freud at 150: Twenty First Century Essays on a Man of Genius (2008) and contributor to Deer’s Treatment of Pain: An Illustrated Guide for Practitioners (2019).
Dr. Mojgan Jahan is a clinical psychologist practicing in California and Texas.
Her work integratesmindfulness-and compassiobased approaches to trauma, depression, anxiety, and chronic illness,alongside a longstanding commitment to stress management as a Master Trainer in Mind Body Medicine. Formore than 20 years, she has served as staff of Group Relations conferences, bringing particular interest toways in which social and organizational contexts and unconscious dynamics shape identities, values,meaning, and behavior. She is a member of the A.K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems, GREX,and a co-creator with Group Relations International. Her experience as an immigrant and across diversecultural milieus informs her capacity to hold multiple perspectives, while her commitment to social justiceanimates her work. Together, these experiences allow her to help integrate nuances of an individual's internalworld with the broader systemic forces that shape their lived experience.
Dr. Liu Jin holds a PhD in Psychology from Peking University. She works as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist in private practice for individuals and groups. She has participated in Group Relations work since 2014 and has completed a series of trainings for consultants organized by the Division of Group Counseling and Group Therapy (DGCGT) of the Chinese Association of Mental Health (CAMH). In Group Relations conferences during 2016–2026, she has worked in various roles, from cultural interpreter to more leadership positions of administration or consultancy. In 2022, she directed two online GR one-day conferences, and was the Associate Director of the 2024 and 2025 annual conferences of IGRC (International Group Relations China). Recently, she has become a Psychoanalyst-in-Training at NCP (New Center for Psychoanalysis).
John Lundgren, M.D., FIPA, is a Training and Supervising Analyst and former President of the Psychoanalytic Center of California. He has served as Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine. There, as Co-Director of the course on Leadership and Authority, he integrated Tavistock Group Relations into the training of all mental health trainees through twice yearly 4 day conferences. He currently leads a process group, just established, in the core training curriculum of PCC as the fourth leg of analytic training.
Barnet D Malin MD is a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist formerly of Santa Monica, CA, now retired from clinical practice in Asheville, NC. He earned his BA in music from Brown University and his MD at Columbia University. He is a former Training and Supervising Analyst at the New Center for Psychoanalysis (NCP) and the Psychoanalytic Center of California (PCC). Dr. Malin is a member of the IPA and the PCC, and is a former member of NCP, AKRI, and GREX. He has presented original work nationally and internationally, and has published on Bion and other topics. His forthcoming book, Questioning Bion’s O Concept, will be published by Routledge.
Rev. Dr. Jaime Romo brings an interdisciplinary perspective to trauma, identity, relational dynamics, and the conscious and unconscious processes shaping individual and collective experience. His background integrates teacher education, hospice chaplaincy, trauma-informed care, and scholarship examining multicultural identities and the psychological impacts of interpersonal and institutional trauma. A certified A.K. Rice Institute consultant, he has directed Group Relations conferences exploring authority, boundaries, roles, and unconscious group dynamics. He is also a certified Traumatic Incident Reduction educator and facilitator trainer who has supported hundreds of individuals in processing traumatic experiences and fostering psychological integration and posttraumatic growth. Dr. Romo currently serves as Minister for Healing and Healthy Environments at Pilgrim United Church of Christ in Carlsbad, California.
Nina J (NJ) Traylor is a psychoanalytic candidate at the William Alanson White Institute and Vice President of the New York Center for the Study of Groups. She is drawn to a psychoanalysis and group relations practice that attends to both inner life and social context — including how our backgrounds and life experiences shape relationships, identity, and what feels possible.
Pre-Workshop Presenters
This workshop will use two seminal articles in the Group Relations field as a framework for understanding some of the basic building blocks of GR theory and how these concepts become manifest realities in the living laboratory of a GR conference.
Leonard Levis, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice in psychotherapy and organizational consultation in Berkeley, California. He is a Fellow and certified consultant of the A. K. Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems (AKRI), where he chairs the Director Development Committee. He is also a member of Grex, AKRI’s West Coast affiliate. Dr. Levis has consulted with and facilitated process groups for both Jungian and psychoanalytic institutes. Over the past 30 years, he has directed, served on the staff, and attended numerous group relations conferences including the initial Psychoanalysis in Transition group relations conference
Sarah Rosenbaum, Ph.D. (she/her) is a clinical psychologist in private practice, providing individual, couples, and group psychotherapy, as well as organizational consulting and executive coaching. She is a Fellow and past president of the A.K. Rice Institute (AKRI), and a long-time member of the New York Center AKRI Affiliate. She is also a co-creator in Group Relations International, where she is one of the senior training faculty. She teaches an online course on "Foundations in Group Relations Theory” for an international audience, and has consulted at dozens of Group Relations conferences for more than thirty years.
Post Workshop Application Groups – On Zoom – The task of this optional online meeting to be held several weeks after the workshop will be to further explore how the workshop learning applies to the dynamics of organizations and institutes. Dates for this followup opportunity will be arranged in coordination with participants.Dates TBD
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this program, participants will be able to:
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Describe group relations “group-as-a-whole” theory and the concepts of boundaries, authority, roles, task, projection, role valence, and leadership
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Distinguish between the stated task and covert or “under the surface” task.
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Compare the experience of the analytic dyad and the group-as-a-whole with consideration of issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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Compare Bion’s concepts of “narcissism” (one’s personal self) and “socialism” (one’s group self).
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Identify applications of unconscious group processes to analytic organizational and institutional dynamics.
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Describe the experience of tolerating “not knowing” what is operating in a group and not rushing to “figure out” what is happening in a group, analogous to tolerating “not knowing” what is happening with a patient or institution.
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Describe how to use one’s internal feeling and emotional state as information about what might be happening in a group and how one is being “used” in a group.
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Describe Bion’s concept of the analytic dyad as a specialized group and his concept of the clinical continuity between the private self and group self.
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Distinguish between here and now learning about what is occurring in the present moment compared to there and then learning which reflects upon events that have or will occur outside the present moment.
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Describe how group and social pressures consciously and unconsciously connect to the roles the individual is more or less likely to take in a group or institution as a function of the individual’s personal identities.
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Describe how when attention broadens from the individual and the dyad to collectives (groups), understanding of the unconscious expands to include its social dimensions.
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Describe how group theory and embedded practice can be incorporated into analytic training.
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Explain the value of group work (theory and practice) in analytic training and its effect on sibling and institutional transferences.
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Cite an example of a type of group task-defense against accomplishment of its primary task such as: dependency, pairing, fight/flight or oneness.
Registration and Conference Fees
CLICK TO REGISTER for the main workshop
Registration closes on Friday March 12, 2027
Fees:
Analytic Institute Members: $300.00
Former Institute Members: $300.00
Analytic Institute Candidates/Students: $200.00
Registration includes the optional pre-workshop and post-workshop events.
Continental breakfast and lunch are included in the workshop.
Fee Reductions will be considered on a case by case basis, please email administration below
Refund Policy:
Until Jan 15 100% refund
Jan 15- Feb 1 75% refund
Feb 2- Feb 30 25% refund
Eligibility:
This workshop is open to Members and Candidates and other professionals affiliated with the following analytic institutes:
Former members of these institutes may also register at the members rate.
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C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles
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C. G. Jung Institute of San Diego
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C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco
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Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis
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Los Angeles Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies
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New Center for Psychoanalysis
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Newport Psychoanalytic Institute
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Psychoanalytic Center of California
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Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California
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San Diego Psychoanalytic Center
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San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis
Other Information:
Physical Accommodations: The New Center for Psychoanalysis complies with ADA requirements. For accommodations contact the Conference Administrator.
Conflicts of Interest:
Boundary Management: The conference staff will make every attempt possible in assigning members to workshop groups to avoid dual relationships/role conflicts within institutes between analysts and candidates. The group assignments will be provided prior to the workshop. If you determine there is a boundary conflict within small group assignments, please advise the administrator.
Financial Disclosures: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationships to disclose with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
A.I. Disclosure: Artificial Intelligence was not used in developing this website nor for translating and summarizing relevant articles. It will not be used for preparing or delivering this workshop.
References
Eisold, K. (1994). The intolerance of diversity in psychoanalytic institutes. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 76, 785–800.
Green, Z. G., & Molenkamp, R. J. (2005). The BART system of group and organizational analysis: Boundary, authority, role and task. University of San Diego, School of Leadership and Education Sciences.
https://digital.sandiego.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1084&context=soles-faculty [1, 2]
Lundgren, J. (2023). The place where psychoanalysts live: Introducing group relations to psychoanalytic institutes. In C. Archer, R. Kelly, G. Strauss, & J. Triest (Eds.), The ecosystem of group relations: Culture, gender and identity in groups and organizations. Routledge.
Valuable Other References:
Armstrong, D. (1997). The ‘institution in the mind’: Reflections on the relation of psycho-analysis to work with institutions. Free Associations, 7(1), 1–14.
Beshers, M., & Hughes, A. (2025). Navigating the social turn. The American Psychoanalyst (TAP), 59(2), 31–35.
Bion, W. R. (1961). Experiences in groups, and other papers. Tavistock Publications. (Republished by Routledge and Karnac Books).
Charalambides, S. (2026). “The group turn” in psychoanalysis: A proposal for including group work in apsychoanalytic training. Psychoanalytic Perspectives, 23(1), 4–22.
Eisold, K. (1985). Recovering Bion's contributions to group analysis. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 45(4), 327–340. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01252867
Gonzalez, F. (2023). On identity and the political in psychoanalysis. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 92(4), 567–598. doi.org
Kernberg, O. F. (1979). Regression in organizational leadership. Psychiatry, 42(1), 24–39. doi.org
McRae, M. B., & Green, Z. G. (2009). A world of difference: Lessons and innovations on the study of race, authority, and identity. In E. Aram, R. Baxter, & A. Nutkevitch (Eds.), Group relations conferences: Tradition, creativity, and innovation in the study of authority, leadership, and organization (Vol. 2). Karnac Books.
Menzies, I. E. P. (1960). A case-study in the functioning of social systems as a defense against anxiety: A report on a study of the nursing service of a general hospital. Human Relations, 13(2), 95–121.
Shapiro, E. R., & Carr, A. W. (2012). An introduction to Tavistock-style group relations conference learning. Organisational and Social Dynamics, 12(1), 70–80. doi.org
DOWNLOADABLE ARTICLES for the Pre-Workshop Zoom
This workshop was developed through
collaboration with NCP and a subcommittee of the
Psychoanalysis in Transition Planning Committee:
Raymond Bakaitis
Thomas Brod
Marilyn Jacobs
Jack Lampl
John Lundgren
Grex is the west coast affiliate of the A K Rice Institute. It was founded in 1969 and since then has sponsored group relations conferences and other related events and workshops throughout the west coast.
The Psychoanalysis in Transition Committee was formed following work with Analysts at the Regional Bion Symposium. It is comprised of psychoanalysts, analytic oriented psychotherapists and group relations professionals. It was the sponsor and originator of three successful online international group relations conferences for Psychoanalysts, analytic candidates, Jungian analysts. The conferences were held in 2022, 2023 and 2025.