Race and Culture in our Analytic Worlds: Listening So We Can Begin Conversations

This talk explores how the clinical practice of child and adult psychoanalysis is challenged and transformed when issues of race and difference are taken up as central rather than peripheral concerns.

This field is required.
This field is required.

Saturday, December 6, 2025

9:00 - 12:15 PM In-Person 
Registration is required for this program.
This event will be held in-person at BPSI.
 

Race and Culture in our Analytic Worlds: Listening So We Can Begin Conversations

This talk explores how the clinical practice of child and adult psychoanalysis is challenged and transformed when issues of race and difference are taken up as central rather than peripheral concerns. Drawing on Kimberlyn Leary’s concept of race as an “adaptive challenge” and Anton Hart’s principles for teaching diversity through dialogic engagement, Dr. Powell-Williams will argue that racial dynamics in the consulting room demand more than technical expertise—they require a shift in the analyst’s stance, involving risk, reflexivity, and relational openness. Through clinical examples and theoretical reflection, the talk examines how racialized subjectivity, implicit bias, and representational burdens shape both patient and analyst, and how genuine therapeutic work depends on the analyst’s capacity for humility, emotional honesty, and sustained curiosity in the face of discomfort.  

During the second part of her presentation, Dr. Powell-Williams will lead a discussion of 3 vignettes developed by Candidates of the BPSI Child Psychoanalytic Training program, addressing race in the treatment of a youth patient, in the classroom with peers, and in the classroom with faculty.

  

Presenter

 

Felecia Powell-Williams, EdD is a child, adolescent and adult psychotherapist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Houston, Texas. She is a graduate of the Center of Psychoanalytic Studies –Texas (CFPS) where she held the position of President of Board of Directors from 2019 through June 2025. Within CFPS, Dr. Powell-Williams currently holds positions of Co-chair of the Child & Adolescent Training Program and Chair of the Faculty Committee. She is an active board member of Houston Psychoanalytic Society, the Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAn) and she serves on multiple APsA committees. Dr. Powell-Williams is a Child and Adult training and supervising psychoanalyst (TA/SA). 

 

 

Moderator

 

Lisa Price, MD is an adult and child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. She is a faculty member at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI) where she directs the Programs in Psychodynamics and Travel Awards as well as chairs the Beata Rank Lecture. As a faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and an Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, she teaches in the MGH/McLean Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training Program. In her Cambridge private practice, she sees children, adolescents, adults, and couples across the lifespan.
 

 

Learning Objectives

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

  1. Demonstrate how racial dynamics function as adaptive challenges within the psychoanalytic consulting room. 
  2. List two key factors that shape racialized subjectivity and influence both patient and analyst. 
  3. Describe how the analyst’s stance can facilitate or inhibit therapeutic engagement around issues of race and difference.   
 

Schedule

9:00am Main Lecture
10:00 Audience Discussion
10:30 Break 
10:45 Vignettes & Discussion 
11:30 Q+A with Audience 

This program is made possible by the generous support of BPSI members and friends. Your gift to BPSI supports psychoanalytic and psychotherapy education and ensures the future of our field. To make a gift, please visit www.bpsi.org.

 
The target audience for this program is mental health clinicians at all levels of training and members of the community.
 
 
registration Fee
$125* Program Fee
 
We are committed to accessibility for all of our programs. BPSI offers an Equity Rate, and we invite you to pay what you are able for this event.
 
*The fee is waived for Early Career Clinicians (within 5 years of licensure), BPSI Members & Partners.

 

Recording

This event will not be recorded.

Continuing Education

Physicians: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint provider ship of American Psychoanalytic Association and The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute . The American Psychoanalytic Association is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.”
The American Psychoanalytic Association designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 3 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE INFORMATION FOR ALL LEARNERS: None of the planners and presenters for this educational activity have relevant financial relationship(s)* to disclose with ineligible companies* whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
*Financial relationships are relevant if the educational content an individual can control is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company. -Updated July 2021-

Psychologists: The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute maintains responsibility for this program and its content. This course offers 3 hours of CE credits for psychologists.

Social Workers: Application for social work continuing education credits has been submitted. Please contact us at team@bpsi.org or 617-266-0953 for the status of social work CE accreditation.
Please note: Per NASW requirements, social workers must attend 80% of a course in order to be eligible for continuing education credit.

Licensed Mental Health Clinicians: The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6913. BPSI is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. This program offers 3 NBCC Clock Hours.
 
 

Event Cancellation Policies & Procedures
Any program participant requesting their individual program registration be canceled must submit their request in writing via email to BPSI Office at team@bpsi.org. For fee-based events, a request for cancellation (and refund using the original form of payment) must be received no later than 48 hours in advance of the event. Requests received later than 48 hours prior to the event will not be processed or accepted. All approved refunds are subject to a $10.00 administrative fee. If BPSI cancels an event, all registrants will receive a full refund of fees paid (no administration charge) no later than two business days following the scheduled date of the event, using the original form of payment.

Grievance Policy
Please address any questions or concerns about your experience at this or any program or event you have attended at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute to the Program Chair, via the Administrative Team, BPSI,141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459; team@bpsi.org; 617.266.0953.

The Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Inc.,141 Herrick Road, Newton Centre, MA 02459, does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, age, sexual orientation, national origin or handicap in the admissions, administration of its educational programs, scholarship programs or employment.