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.
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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.
CE/CME
available for psychologists, social workers, counselors and physicians pending approval.
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 24, 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.
