Register for the 2025 Fall Conference!

The Cultural Mother in Group Psychotherapy: 

Deepening our Engagement with Difference

Presented by Paul LePhuoc, PhD, CGP
Please visit our conference website for more details about the conference, including the conference schedule, recommended readings, and transportation information. 

We invite you to join us and our conference speaker Paul LePhuoc, PhD, CGP on November 7-9, 2025 in Baltimore, MD at the Renaissance Harbor Hotel.

The specter of difference is upon us--our bodies, our individual and collective psyches. The immense difficulty in discussing these incendiary topics, as well as the often-unrecognized complicated trauma undergirding differences, highlights the need for a nuanced, theoretically complex engagement. This workshop will present the Theory of the Cultural Mother as an engaging lens for understanding difference in our own lives, our patients' lives and our experiences in group. We will discuss techniques that provide the group leader with effective tools to engage with "difference as hierarchy" (e.g., sex, gender, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical disability), enabling a fuller and deeper attunement to our members' experiences.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the conclusion of this program, attendees will be able to:

1. Describe two components of the theory of the Cultural Mother.

2. Explain how the Cultural Mother impacts group members' transferences.

3. Explain how the Cultural Mother impacts the group leader's countertransference.

4. List ways of building insulation for members when systems of oppression are stimulated and revived.

5. Discuss modern analytic concepts and techniques that are useful in exploring difference in group.

Paul LePhuoc is a licensed psychologist and a Certified Group Psychotherapist (CGP) in Houston, Texas, where he maintains a full-time private practice that includes both solo and co-leadership of therapy and training groups. He is a graduate of the Center for Group Studies program in Modern Analytic Group Leadership. He is also Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine and has served on the Board of the Houston Group Psychotherapy Society and the International Board for the Certification of Group Psychotherapists for the American Group Psychotherapy Association. He has presented at the local and national level on the topics of race, difference and psychoanalytic group psychotherapy. Paul and his husband, Jimi, stay very busy raising their seven-year-old son, Kai, who loves show tunes, art, Legos and martial arts.

10.5 CE/CME
available for psychologists, social workers, counselors and physicians *pending approval.

*The content for this activity has been submitted for continuing education credits. For questions email: cce@ubhc.rutgers.edu.

REGISTRATION RATES AND INFORMATION

Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel

202 E Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD 21202

Click Here to Book Your Room

Conference Fees:

MAGPS Member: $395
Non-member: $450
New Professional: $250
Student/Retiree: $150
*Group rate: $325
Scholarship Recipients: Free
Small Group Leaders: Free
**CE/CME Processing Fee: $50

*Group rate available for 4 or more members from same organization. Please contact our Conference Chairs to receive the group registration code. 

**Note: For attendees who are interested in obtaining continuing education credit for this activity, an additional CE/CME Processing Fee will be applied. Payment can be processed at time of registration.

Registration Deadline: 
Friday, October 31, 2025

Cancellation Policy:
Full refund less $25 if cancellation made by October 17;
No refunds after that date.

For registration assistance, or to register by phone, contact our conference registrar at registration@magps.org. For more information, visit our Conference website or contact the conference co-chair, Jill Peñaloza, at conferences@magps.org.

MAGPS Anti-Racism White Affinity Group

Sunday November 23, 2025
Virtual from 3:00-5:00 PM

Join us for the MAGPS White Affinity Group:  Sunday, Nov. 23rd, from 3:00-5:00pm  ET. 

This group is for white participants and is co-convened by Barbara Cristy and Jill Penaloza.

The MAGPS White Affinity group meets the fourth Sunday of each month from 3-5pm ET. Save the date for our next meeting on December 28th! 

This is a virtual meeting. You will receive the Zoom meeting link after you have registered.  

In this meeting we discuss our own experiences of identity, race and racism, and how white supremacy culture and consciousness affects us, our practices, and MAGPS. 

Although these groups are not traditional interpersonal process groups, we do expect to be attuned to what comes up in the here and now. The purpose is not to enhance clinical group skills but to use group process to deepen our awareness of how we can become anti-racists in an anti-racist organization.

The MAGPS BIPOC Consultation Group meets on the 3rd Sunday of each month. You will receive an email to register for these meetings or you can register by going to the MAGPS website and clicking on Events. For more information about affinity groups and other anti-racism programming at MAGPS, please reach out to JEDI@magps.org. 

All registrants will get the Zoom Meeting Link emailed to them. 

Affinity groups are free and we welcome all MAGPS Members.
Click here to renew or join MAGPS for 2025.

If you have any questions about this event, please email our JEDI Chairs at JEDI@magps.org.