READING GROUP: How to Survive When Clients and Communities Resist Change

In an era of managed care, how can psychoanalytic principles be woven into a community mental health system?
About this Event

HATING HOMELESSNESS: How to Survive When Clients and Communities Resist Change

This reading group will meet online on Sunday, March 29, 2025 from 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM via Zoom.

In an era of managed care, how can psychoanalytic principles be woven into a community mental health system? By exploring hateful countertransference reactions — both his own and those of members of the community in which he practiced — Brian Ngo-Smith will examine professional tensions that arose in his work with an unhoused client. What do such reactions tell us about the complexities of working psychoanalytically in public practice settings? Through this lens we can begin to understand what a homeless client may represent to their city, as well as to their therapist. This lecture and discussion will consider how psychoanalytic thinking can challenge current “best practices” in community mental health by focusing on long-term stability, while also expanding these ideas into macro practice with larger systems that resist change.

For more details about this event and general information, please visit https://ncspp.org/events/community-mental-health-reading-group-1