Topic: Loving Across Difference: Building the Therapeutic Frame with Multi-heritage and Multi-ethnic Couples
Location: TPI, 2232 Carleton St., Berkeley, CA 94704
Date: Friday, March 6th 2020, 4pm to 6pm
Facilitator: Elizabeth Ohito, LCSW

Integrating cultural understanding and values when seeing multiheritage couples is an essential component of understanding how identity shapes values and behaviors in emotionally committed relationships. This DoD is a presentation and conversation on how to assess for and support exploration in the therapy room of a couple's respective cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Cultural assumptions, held by the clinicians and even in each member of the couple relationship, are important to identify and illuminate with a couple as part of the especially in the beginning stage of the therapy. I will be presenting some strategies for clinician self-reflection as well as some prompts and materials to help the couple speak to their respective cultures and the interactions between them.

Elizabeth Ohito, LCSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice who works with individuals and couples. Her clinical work, based in San Francisco and Oakland centers culture and identity as a central component of emotional healing and wellbeing. She has trained and worked at UC Berkeley. UCSF, City and County of San Francisco, as well as with a group psychotherapy practice in San Francisco. She can be contacted at www.elizabethohito.com/contact

Admission is free. RSVP is required to attend as space is limited.

Topic: Navigating Ableism in the Therapy Room: A Discussion for Therapist on How to be Informed Able-bodied Allies
Location: TPI, 2232 Carleton St., Berkeley, CA 94704
Date: Wednesday, Nov 13th 2019, 6:30 to 8:00pm
Facilitator: Audre Mowry, Registered Associate MFT

In this Dialogue on Difference we will be discussing ways that therapists and clinicians of varying abilities can be more informed about and supportive to our clients with disabilities. We will explore ways of creating affirming and welcoming spaces for our clients. There will be a case study presented and invitation to share any cases that participants may bring and may have questions about. We will also have space to discuss the challenges that we may have encountered in our practices already and be curious together how we can become more informed allies.

Audre Mowry, Registered Associate Marriage & Family Therapist, is a graduate of The Wright Institute and the two year program at The Women’s Therapy Center, she currently holds a part-time private practice in South Berkeley, under her supervisor Joan Monheit LCSW. Her specialties are working with sexuality, grief, and the LGBTQ community. She works with individual, dyads, triads and groups. Her therapeutic lens combines strength-base, client-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally-aware theories.

Admission is free. RSVP is required to attend as space is limited.

Topic: Transgender and Gender Variant People in Psychotherapy: Creating Affirming Space in a Consulting Room
Location: TPI, 2232 Carleton St., Berkeley, CA 94704
Date: Friday, October 4th 2019, 4 pm to 6 pm
Facilitator: Silvia Sandoval, LCSW & Alex Korsunskaya, LCSW

In this Dialogue on Difference, we will talk about some of the experiences of transgender and gender variant (TGV) people in psychotherapy, as well as discuss some challenges that TGV people face when trying to access mental health services. We will also explore how clients' other identities may intersect with their gender identity and how that impacts their experiences in therapy. Time will be given to exploring how therapists can create a more affirming space and examining how therapists’ sociocultural location may impact their work with this population.

Before joining Mission Neighborhood Health Center, Silvia Sandoval, LCSW was the Mental Health Director at Lyon-Martin Health Services and Women’s Community Clinic. She has been practicing professionally for the last 19 years, mostly in the nonprofit sector providing direct, clinical social work services to members of disenfranchised communities, immigrants and people of color. Silvia Sandoval has a Master’s degree in social work from the Catholic University of America and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at The Smith College School for Social Work. She is psychodynamically and relationally trained with an emphasis on social and racial justice, intersectionality, trauma and their long term impact on the mental health of individuals and communities.

Alex Korsunskaya, LCSW, is a therapist and social worker at Lyon Martin Health Services, a medical clinic in San Francisco that specializes in transgender health care. She also sees clients in private practice in Berkeley using somatic, psychodynamic, and narrative approaches. Her specialties are alternative relationships, including polyamory and BDSM/kink; women and trauma; gender identity; immigration/significant life transitions; grief and loss.

Admission is free. RSVP is required to attend as space is limited. 

Topic: Speaking to the Pain: Naming Racial Microaggressions
Location: The Psychotherapy Institute, 2232 Carleton St., Berkeley, CA 94704
Date: Friday, April 5th 2019, from 4 pm to 6 pm
Facilitators: Ali Kimmell, LCSW

This Dialogue on Difference welcomes clinicians from a variety of sociocultural locations to enter into a dialogue about how to speak in the moment to the enactment of racial microaggressions. From our unique sociocultural locations, we will explore what gets evoked for us when microaggressions occur using the lens of white fragility and silence and the trauma triangle of perpetrator/victim/bystander. Through the use of small group role-plays and large group discussion, we will practice together new skills and techniques for effectively speaking to racial microaggressions and engaging in reparative conversations as a community.

Ali Kimmell, LCSW, has a private practice in Oakland where she sees individuals, couples, and runs mixed gender process groups. She trained at TPI’s postgraduate training program, Smith College School for Social Work, and the Center for Group Studies in New York City. Ali practices from a relational psychoanalytic lens and integrates social justice and somatic awareness into her work. She has a particular passion for the healing power of group psychotherapy and supporting people finding greater emotional connection to themselves and others.

Dialogues on Difference are a free benefit to all TPI members.

Topic: Making the Invisible Visible – What is White Culture?
Location: The Psychotherapy Institute, 2232 Carleton St., Berkeley, CA 94704
Date: Friday, March 1st, 2019 from 4 pm to 6 pm
Facilitators: Alex Korsunskaya, LCSW & Jean Milam, LCSW

In this Dialogue on Difference, we will explore white culture; it's origins, traits, and how we can recognize and dismantle our participation in it. We’ll examine how white culture functions to perpetuate racial inequality and oppression and investigate the ways that white culture shows up in our lives, in our professional communities, and in the therapeutic relationship. We invite participants into a supportive space that will foster learning and honest exploration.

Jean Milam, LCSW, is a private practice therapist in Oakland. She works relationally with individual adults and elder adults navigating life transitions, trauma, anxiety, depression, coping with grief and loss, and who are seeking more fulfilling relationships. She believes it is important to understand the impact of identities such as race, gender, sexuality, and ability and works to create an affirming space in which all identities can be explored.

Alex Korsunskaya, LCSW, is a therapist at Lyon Martin Health Services in San Francisco. She also sees clients in private practice in Berkeley using somatic, psychodynamic, and narrative approaches. Her specialties are alternative relationships, including polyamory and BDSM/kink; women and trauma; gender identity; immigration/significant life transitions; grief and loss.

Dialogues on Difference are a free benefit to all TPI members.

Admission is free. If needed, we can move to a larger venue. is required to attend as space is limited. 

Topic: Breaking the Mold: An orientation to Sociocultural Language, Terms, and Concepts
Location: TPI, 2232 Carleton St., Berkeley, CA 94704
Date: Friday, December 7th 2018, 4pm to 6pm
Facilitator: Alex Korsunskaya, LCSW & Jean Milam, LCSW

As our current culture (collectively and at TPI) strives to grapple with experiences of difference and systems of oppression, it can be hard to keep up with the refinement of language and concepts that help to identify cultural identities and complexes. We will use this time together to help define and explore terms that can be triggering or hard to understand. Such terms, while imperfect, strive to put into words many unspeakable phenomena like "white supremacy" that, when go unnamed, can perpetuate systems of oppression that continue to cause harm in our culture. We welcome anyone who is interested in learning more about how to speak about these issues in a way that is honoring to all people. People who are new to sociocultural language and also people who have a great passion for learning how to become better allies to marginalized peoples are welcome! Our intention is to create a nonjudgmental space where people can bring their questions, concerns, triggers, and curiosities so as to help create a community capable of speaking in a way that is inclusive to all and embraces difference. All are welcome.

Alex Korsunskaya, LCSW, is a therapist at Lyon Martin Health Services in San Francisco. She also seeing clients in private practice in Berkeley using somatic, psychodynamic and narrative approaches. Her specialties are alternative relationships, including polyamory and BDSM/kink; women and trauma; gender identity; immigration/significant life transitions; grief and loss.

Jean Milam, LCSW, is a private practice therapist in Oakland. She works relationally with individual adults and elder adults navigating life transitions, coping with trauma, anxiety and depression, and seeking more fulfilling relationships. She believes it is important to understand the impact of identities such as race, gender, sexuality, and ability and works to create an affirming space in which all identities can be explored.