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Topic: Breaking the Mold: An orientation to Sociocultural Language, Terms, and Concepts
Location: TPI, 2232 Carleton St., Berkeley, CA 94704
Date: Friday, December 7th 2018, 4pm to 6pm
Facilitator: Alex Korsunskaya, LCSW & Jean Milam, LCSW
As our current culture (collectively and at TPI) strives to grapple with experiences of difference and systems of oppression, it can be hard to keep up with the refinement of language and concepts that help to identify cultural identities and complexes. We will use this time together to help define and explore terms that can be triggering or hard to understand. Such terms, while imperfect, strive to put into words many unspeakable phenomena like "white supremacy" that, when go unnamed, can perpetuate systems of oppression that continue to cause harm in our culture. We welcome anyone who is interested in learning more about how to speak about these issues in a way that is honoring to all people. People who are new to sociocultural language and also people who have a great passion for learning how to become better allies to marginalized peoples are welcome! Our intention is to create a nonjudgmental space where people can bring their questions, concerns, triggers, and curiosities so as to help create a community capable of speaking in a way that is inclusive to all and embraces difference. All are welcome.
Alex Korsunskaya, LCSW, is a therapist at Lyon Martin Health Services in San Francisco. She also seeing clients in private practice in Berkeley using somatic, psychodynamic and narrative approaches. Her specialties are alternative relationships, including polyamory and BDSM/kink; women and trauma; gender identity; immigration/significant life transitions; grief and loss.
Jean Milam, LCSW, is a private practice therapist in Oakland. She works relationally with individual adults and elder adults navigating life transitions, coping with trauma, anxiety and depression, and seeking more fulfilling relationships. She believes it is important to understand the impact of identities such as race, gender, sexuality, and ability and works to create an affirming space in which all identities can be explored.