Beth Roy
Radical Therapy
Radical Psychiatry theory begins with the simplest of premises: people are good.
We do the best we can under the conditions we are given. Those conditions are social in nature, and because severely stressed for most of us, they stress and distort the human experience. The first step, therefore, is to name the material conditions in which emotional and interpersonal life is lived.
Operationally, that set of ideas runs counter to embedded assumptions of more conventional therapies. We resist explanatory notions of pathology, of addictive or self-destructive behavior, or of biochemical flaws, believing that, in their cultural and professional popularity, they overshadow a view from a more political and material angle. If people act peculiarly, if they are hostile or depressed or anxious, we postulate that there are describable reasons for those behaviors.
Starting with an understanding of alienation, we study the ways social dynamics become deeply embedded in individual psyches and lead to feelings, ideas, and behaviors that limit a sense of what is possible, sometimes causing people to act against their own best interests in a manner that may seem irrational but, seen in a larger context, is not. Instead, such behaviors, and the feelings that intertwine them, are products of oppression and their internalization. It is in the interrelationship of material facts and internalized oppression that the work of "therapy" lies.
For us, therapy takes two primary forms:
PROBLEM SOLVING GROUP: Led by a trained facilitator, groups of six to eight people meet weekly to support each other in making important life changes. We teach cooperative process, helping group members keep relationships clear and providing an experience of being with people in positive and effective ways. By identifying internalized oppression and realistically understanding adverse realities, people strategize ways to challenge limitations and grow steadily toward their goals.
MEDIATION: As an alternative to couples or family therapy, one long session guides people in conflict through a process of clearing the air, analyzing core problems, negotiating differences, and making plans for implementing agreed-upon changes.
In addition to our on-going practices, we train newcomers through apprenticeship. A group of trainees meets regularly for experiential and didactic learning, all based on participation in the groups and mediations as assistants.
To access "Radical Therapy: The Second Decade" and other writings about Radical Therapy, go to radicaltherapy.org/resources
Conflict Resolution
Treated well, conflict can constitute a moment of creative change. Unfortunately, all too often in our society, we bring too little skill, too little help, and too much despair to the conflicts we experience.
I work from a theory that assumes that all conflict is based in something real and important. The emotions we feel -- anger, hurt, hopelessness, fear -- are all manifestations of something that calls out for attention and change. To "resolve" conflict is thus often to set foot on journeys of discovery, leading to important re-negotiations of relationships and challenges to limiting conditions of life. I pay close attention to dynamics of power, making sense of the interplay of emotional and material issues.
My work in this regard takes three forms:
- FAMILY AND FRIENDS: Working through conflicts between couples, among parents and children, between friends and in friendship circles. Although I am not a lawyer, I do work with divorcing couples who want help dealing with barriers to negotiating financial settlements and arrangements for cooperative co-parenting
- ORGANIZATIONS: Generally in partnership with colleagues, mediating conflicts in community organizations and small workplaces.
- COMMUNITIES: As part of a team, helping communities to advance multicultural relationships in the process of dealing with compelling current issues.
Since the process is sometimes (often? always?) more important than the final result, I want to let you know how much we appreciate all the time and skill you brought to this mediation.
Issues of race and class exist in any community, and to let them be aired in all their discomfort and honesty in order to come to a greater understanding of each other and ourselves is a remarkable achievement.
– Joseph Smooke, Executive Director
Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center
Workshops
Mediating Power & Emotion
Training for Beginners and Advanced Practitioners with Beth Roy
January 30th–February 2nd
Beth Roy, our lead trainer, draws on five decades of experience as a mediator. She taught conflict studies and mediation at University California, Berkeley, for many years, and has trained mediators as part of the Radical Therapy community privately throughout. She is the author of numerous studies of conflict between and within communities (The Bernal Story and Some Trouble with Cows, among others), and is a co-founder of Practitioners Research and Scholarship Institute (PRASI) which has supported people to produce research grounded in practice by people whose lived experience is otherwise missing from the literature of the mediation field. In addition to many families and friends, Beth has mediated communities and organizations in the U.S. and abroad, including university faculties, city departments, religious groups, medical clinics, theater companies, small businesses, labor organizations, and more.
When people in ongoing relationships, whether familial, friendly, professional, or otherwise, find themselves in difficult conflicts, feelings run deep and hard. The high heat of emotions often ends mediations in defeat. We may wait for tempers to cool or storms to blow through, but without full expression and attention, that may not happen. At the core of deep feelings lie conflict dynamics that call out for naming and for change. The crucial information for performing such transformation lies in the emotions themselves, properly heard and addressed.
Who is this training for?
This 23-hour training is intended to be helpful for newcomers and seasoned practitioners alike. It draws on Beth Roy and colleagues’ many years of mediating in multicultural settings, especially guiding people to move beyond interpersonal injuries of racism by uncovering and confronting systemic inequities. Our understanding of power dynamics looks at structural and cultural as well as internal factors. Every mediation is an exercise in teaching tools and approaches for bringing together the personal and the political in order to advance negotiation of real changes.
Skills we teach:
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When, who & whether to mediate: pre-interviews
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Advance “homework” in preparation and coaching
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Teaching and facilitating tools for honest, non-judgmental emotional communication
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Analyzing power and proposing meaningful feedback
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Facilitating the building of a shared narrative about the roots and dynamics of the conflict
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Facilitating change using cooperative negotiation skills
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Speaking appreciation
The training will meet on the following schedule.
All times in Pacific time zone.
DAY 1: January 30th 4pm–7 pm
DAY 2: January 31st 9am–12pm, 1pm–5pm
DAY 3: February 1st 9am–12pm, 1pm–5pm
DAY 4: February 2nd 9am - 12pm, 1pm–4pm
Want more info?
Please join us for a free one-hour info session on Zoom. Email broy@igc.org for link.
All times in Pacific time zone.
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Wed. January 22nd at 4:00pm
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Sat, January 25th at 2:00pm
Can’t attend but want to support our sponsors’ work, initiatives, and community?
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation!
This is a 3 1/2-day live, online event where you’ll participate actively with Beth Roy assisted by a talented crew of Radical Therapy Practitioners. Our teaching approach relies on lots of interaction among participants. We demonstrate live fishbowl mediations when possible, engage you in exercises and role plays, and base scenarios on stories you bring, from your life or your practice.
In order to build community and protect confidentiality in the space, this event will not be recorded. If you miss a training date, we cannot provide you with a recording of the training. Live zoom captioning will be enabled.
We will send Zoom login information one week before the event, so please make sure the email you use to register is the correct one to receive this information.
To inquire about details or to request that a workshop be planned for your group, email broy@igc.org.
Coming Next
MEDIATING POWER AND EMOTION:
Weaving Interpersonal and Organizational Conflict
A 23-Hour Training
March 13-16
All conflict involves dignified differences of interests and needs. Equally, conflict evokes strong emotions as it challenges our sense of self and norms of behavior. When conflict occurs in group settings, whether workplaces, families, communities, or other kinds of organizations, these factors combine with complex dynamics of power, identity, and culture. Often, interpersonal conflict, skillfully mediated, leads to constructive change in organizational systems and traditions – and vice versa. Beth Roy offers a four-day training in mediating power and emotion, with a focus on organizational conflict, especially those involving differences of identity and culture. This highly participatory workshop teaches skills in analyzing power dynamics at play in multiple domains, while also facilitating constructive emotional expression.
Gender Differences in Clerical Workers' Disputes
by Patricia Gwartney-Gibbs
Carter at Camp David
Social Movements and Conflict Resolution
with Lou Kriesberg & John Burdick