Healing Collective Trauma: A Culturally-Informed Psychodynamic Approach

This is a 2 hour On Demand Webinar. Access information, resources and CEU information will be available shortly after registration and registrants will be given unlimited access to the recording for a full year.

This webinar was broadcasted live on October 22, 2022 as part of the Collective Trauma Conference

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Some fringe movements and political parties have framed immigrants and refugees as the major cause of unemployment, crime, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, they have classified them as a threat to their cultural and social fabric, unearthing a global collective anxiety.

In the United States, many policies and actions have made explicit the connection between racism and xenophobia. These include:

  • heightened policing of Black and Brown people;
  • deporting unauthorized immigrants and separating children from parents;
  • constructing a wall at the U.S. Southern border; and
  • banning entry of people from six predominantly Muslim countries.

Amid rising forms of xenophobia and racism, we witness a range of responses to immigrants and refugees, including empathy, support, rejection, and violence.

This presentation will focus on a culturally informed psychodynamic approach to understanding the impact of collective trauma incurred in migration. These impacts include displacement, xenophobia, and racism. Usha will explore the dynamics of xenophobia and racism in the context of the therapeutic relationship. She will also examine it in the context of community-based initiatives, emphasizing a decolonizing perspective in working with immigrants and refugees.

At the end of this presentation, participants will be better able to —

  • Describe how xenophobia and racism impact the intrapsychic and interpersonal lives of immigrants and refugees
  • Recognize how psychodynamic theory informs and deepens an understanding of sociocultural context in psychotherapy and community-based interventions with immigrants and refugees
  • Identify ways in which practitioners, researchers, and educators can make efforts to decolonize psychological understandings of health and pathology

Usha Tummala-Narra, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist, Director of Community-Based Education at the Albert and Jessie Danielsen Institute. She is also Research Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University.

Dr. Tummala-Narra’s research and scholarship focus on immigration, trauma, race, and culturally-informed psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Her publications include over 90 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in books. She is also in private practice, working primarily with survivors of trauma from diverse sociocultural backgrounds.

Usha Tummala-Narra is an Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and the Asian American Journal of Psychology. She is also author of Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy (2016) and the editor of Trauma and Racial Minority Immigrants: Turmoil, Uncertainty, and Resistance (2021), both published by the American Psychological Association Books.

TimeTopic Covered
1st hour
  • Describe how xenophobia and racism impact the intrapsychic and interpersonal lives of immigrants and refugees
  • Recognize how psychodynamic theory informs and deepens an understanding of sociocultural context in psychotherapy and community-based interventions with immigrants and refugees
2nd hour
  • Identify ways in which practitioners, researchers, and educators can make efforts to decolonize psychological understandings of health and pathology

This training offers 2 hours of direct contact (not counting breaks or lunch). It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their individual state boards/regulatory body to verify CE requirements for their license to practice.

For Live Broadcast Attendees

Webinar attendance by participants is automatically tracked, documented and archived for future reference. Upon confirming you have attended 100% of the webinar and upon completion of a course evaluation, you will be issued a certificate of participation (see below).

For Attendees of On Demand/Recorded Version

If you cannot verify 100% attendance of the Live Broadcast or if you are watching the On Demand/recorded version of this webinar, you will need to complete a Post-Webinar Quiz with a pass of at least 80% in order to verify your attendance.

For Canadian and International participants

Upon fulfillment of the above requirements, Canadian and international participants will be issued a Certificate of Participation which features:

  • Name of Participant
  • Title of Training
  • Name of Presenter plus their credentials
  • Number of hours of training
  • Date of training
  • Confirmation that you have passed a quiz with at least 80% grade to verify your attendance

Please check carefully with your regulating body/organization that this certificate is sufficient proof for you to claim CEUs.

For general information about Continuing Education for Canadians and International participants, please click here.  

This training is aimed at all mental health professionals, including:

  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Clinical and Counselling Psychologists
  • Psychiatric Social Workers
  • Pastoral Counsellors
  • Psychotherapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Physicians
  • Nurse Practitioners
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Counsellors
  • Graduate Students in Accredited Programs in the Above Fields
  • case managers
  • licensed professional counsellors
  • all other professionals who would like to develop, update or expand their skills and knowledge in mental health practices

This course is an intermediate-advanced level.