Group Title: Psychodynamic approaches in community-based agencies
Group leader: Tracy Vega, LCSW, DSW
Meeting dates: Alternate Saturdays, beginning September 14 (virtually)
Meeting times: 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (Central)
Group Description:
Working in a community-based organization (CBO) such as a non-profit hospital, government run therapy clinic, or school can be rewarding, given the nature of the work, but can also be challenging, given the lack of clinical focus and support. It is rare to find a community-based agency that emphasizes reflective practice, supervision, and psychodynamic approaches. Administrative priorities such as documentation, billing, and caseload quotas often compromise clinical support and supervision. These organizations are fast paced, with high demands for seeing as many people as possible.
This group is a protected space for clinicians who work in such agencies to slow down to process their clinical work with a psychodynamic lens. The group will focus both on the individual case level (e.g., direct service with clients and transference/countertransference issues), and on the systemic level (e.g., organizational transference and countertransference, and how to protect yourself and your work). This group will provide a sense of community where you are held, heard, and seen. We will help each other strengthen our self-awareness and clinical decision-making skills.
About the leader:
Tracy Vega, LCSW, DSW is a Clinical Associate Faculty member of CCP, an adjunct faculty member at Erikson Institute Graduate School, and a supervisor at Youth and Family Services in Marin County, California. She earned her B.A, from Loyola University of Chicago, her MSW from the Erikson Institute as a Harris Excellence Scholar, focusing on child development and psychotherapy with 0-5 and middle school-aged youth. Her DSW was awarded by the University of Southern California, where she developed an innovative 16-week family and peer-centered treatment program, Unidos, Nos Superamos. Tracy has had a long relationship with CCP, where she has earned the Certificate in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
After providing treatment to a wide range of adults with severe co-occurring disorders at Association House in Humboldt Park, Tracy moved to Marin County in 2017, working as an emergency response social worker in Child Welfare and as a bilingual licensed mental health practitioner. Currently, Tracy is a clinical supervisor, providing clinical supervision to therapists who provide therapy for all Marin County children, adolescents, and caregivers with severe mental health issues, complex trauma, and difficult social circumstances. In addition, since 2019 Tracy has been a board vice-president of Multicultural Center of Marin, a non-profit that supports the immigrant and indigenous populations in the county.
As the child of parents who immigrated from Mexico, Tracy brings a deep appreciation of the enormous difficulties facing those living with poverty, community violence, addiction, and trauma. Years of work in community-based agencies have also reinforced Tracy’s special interest in the many impediments to careful, reflective treatment where time and resources are limited – a problem that many committed therapists face, but which is rarely addressed.