This webinar, from April 22, 2015, features Abbey Weiss Kanzer, PsyD, LP, of the Center for Victims of Torture. It is part of the National Capacity Building (NCB) webinar series. NCB is a project of the Center for Victims of Torture.
Description:
With this webinar, the NCB Project continues a series: Group Treatment with Survivors of Torture.
Survivors of Torture programs across the US are creating and using innovative and effective techniques in providing treatment services through groups. In this series, we will feature three torture rehabilitation programs that are conducting group treatment, within Judith Herman’s three-staged framework – as written about in her book, Trauma and Recovery
This webinar is the second in the NCB Project’s three-part series on Group Treatment with Survivors of Torture. In the series, the NCB Project will highlight three Survivors of Torture programs that are using innovative techniques to provide group treatment. This second webinar will feature an in depth look at a women’s psychotherapy group conducted at the Center for Victims of Torture. This group represents a Stage Two – Remembrance and Mourning – group of Judith Herman’s framework for healing from trauma. Dr. Kanzer will discuss many aspects of facilitating these level 2 groups including how to start and how not to get stuck, the development of the “group community,” balancing group needs vs. individual needs of participants, how to work with and honor the trauma experiences within the context of group, and the role of the clinician in the group to help maintain aspects such as group safety and attention to group process.
- Stage One Group webinar in this series, The Orientation Group: PSOT’s Approach to Welcoming and Further Resourcing Clients, may be found here.
- Stage Three Group webinar in this series, Reconnecting Survivor Communities at the International Institute of Connecticut, may be found here.
Objectives
After attending this webinar participants will be able to:
- Identify the benefits to survivors of torture of participation in a psychotherapy group.
- Describe the differences between a psychotherapy group and an education and support group.
- Describe the role of the clinician in the group.
- Discuss successes and challenges experienced in one particular group iteration.
Presenters
Abbey Weiss Kanzer, PsyD, LP
Psychotherapist and trainer
The Center for Victims of Torture
Abbey Weiss Kanzer, PsyD, LP is a psychotherapist and trainer at The Center for Victims of Torture. Dr. Kanzer obtained her Doctorate of Psychology in Clinical Psychology from the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University/Twin Cities. She is licensed by the Minnesota Board of Psychology as a Licensed Psychologist. At the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), Dr. Kanzer has a position as a psychotherapist providing psychological evaluation and treatment services for clients. This includes clients from more than 10 different countries. She also worked on an initiative called the Healing in Partnership Project at CVT. This project sought to bring mental health education and treatment outside of the clinic and into communities affected by war and trauma. The communities she is currently working with include Karen (pronounced Kah-Ren) refugees from Burma, Bhutanese, and Oromo from Ethiopia. Dr. Kanzer has worked at the Center since July, 2006.
Resources
- Arcel, L.T. (1998). Group psychotherapy with victims of torture. In L.T. Arcel (Ed.), War violence, trauma, and the coping process: Armed conflict in Europe and survivor responses, (pp. 143-154). Copenhagen: International Rehabilitation Council for Victims of Torture.
- DeLucia-Waack, Janice L. (2002). A written guide for planning and processing group sessions in anticipation of supervision. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 27(4).
- Drozdek, B. & Wilson, J. P.(2003). Uncovering: Trauma focused treatment techniques with asylum seekers. In Broken spirits: The treatment of traumatized asylum seekers, refugees, war and torture victims. New York: Brunner-Routledge.
- Fischman, Y. & Ross, J. (1990). Group treatment of exiled survivors of torture. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 60(1).
- Foa, E. B. & Rothbaum, B. O. (1998). Treating the trauma of rape. New York: Guilford Press.
- Foy, D. W., Eriksson, C. B. & Trice, G. A. (2002). Introduction to group interventions for trauma survivors. In Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice. (5(4), 246-251.
- Foy, D. W.; Glynn, S. M., Schnurr, P. P., Jankowski, M. K., Wattenberg, M. S., Weiss, D. S., Marmar, C. S. & Gusman, F. (2000). Group therapy. In Effective treatments for PTSD: Practical guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (pp. 155-175, 336-338). New York: Guilford Press.
- Goodman, M. & Weiss, D. (2000). Initiating, screening, and maintaining psychotherapy groups for traumatized patients. In R. H. Klein & V. L. Schermer (Eds.), Group psychotherapy for psychological trauma, (pp. 47-63). London: Guilford Press.
- Guide to working with young people who are refugees. Victoria Foundation for Survivors of Torture, P.O. Box 96, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 3052.
- Harvey, M. R. (1996). An ecological view of psychological trauma and trauma recovery. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9(1).
- Harvey, M. R. & Koss, Mary P. (1991). Group treatment for survivors. In The rape victim: Clinical and community interventions, (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
- Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and recovery. New York: Basic Books.
- Kinzie, J., Leung, P. K., Bui, A., Keopraseuth, K. O., Rath, B., Riley, C., Fleck, J. & Ades, M. (1988). Group therapy with Southeast Asian refugees. Community Mental Health Journal, 24, 157-166.
- Klein, R. H. & Schermer, V. L. (2000). Creating a healing matrix. In R.H. Klein & V. L. Schermer (Eds.), Group psychotherapy for psychological trauma (pp. 3-46). London: Guilford Press.
- Kudler, H. S., Blank, A. S. & Krupnick, J. (2000). Psychodynamic therapy. In Effective treatments for PTSD: Practical guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (pp. 176-198, 339-341). New York: Guilford Press.
- Loewy, M. I., Williams, D. T. & Keleta, A. (2002). Group counseling with traumatized East African women in the United States: Using the Kaffa Ceremony Intervention.” Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 27(2).
- Lubin, H., Loris, M. Burt, J. & Johnson, D. R. (1998). Efficacy of psychoeducational group therapy in reducing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder among multiply traumatized women. American Journal of Psychiatry, 155(9), 1172-1177.
- Ortiz, Diana (2004). The survivor’s perspective: Voices from the center. In The mental health consequences of torture, E. Gerrity, T. M. Keane & F. Tuma (Eds.). New York: Kluwer/Pleneum Publishers.
- Pearlman, L. A. & Saakvitne, K. W. Cotherapists’s countertransference in group therapy with incest survivors. In Trauma and the therapist: Countertransference and vicarious traumatization in psychotherapy with incest survivors. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
- Smith, H. (2003). Despair, resilience, and the meaning of family: Group therapy with French-speaking African Survivors of Torture. In Understanding and dealing with violence: Multicultural perspectives (pp. 291-319). R. Carter & B. Wallace (Eds.). California: Sage Publications.
- Van Der Kolk, B. A., McFarlane, A.C. & Van Der Hart, O. (1996). A general approach to treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. In Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society. New York: Guilford Press.
- Van Der Kolk, B. A. (2002). Beyond the talking cure: Somatic experience and subcortical imprints in the treatment of trauma. In EMDR, promises for a paradigm shift. New York: APA Press.
- Von Wallenberg Pachaly, A. (2000). Group psychotherapy for victims of political torture and other forms of severe ethnic persecution. In Group psychotherapy for psychological trauma. New York: Guilford Press.
- Woodcock, Jeremy (1997). Groupwork with refugees and asylum seekers. In Race and groupwork, Mistry, T. & Brown, A. (Eds.) London: Whiting and Birch Ltd.
- Yalom, I. (1985). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (3rd Ed.). New York: Basic Books.
- Young, B. Group treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: Conceptualization, Themes and Processes.
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