Topic: Microaggressions Series #1: Focus on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation
Location: TPI, 2232 Carleton St., Berkeley, CA 94704
Date: Friday, March 2nd, from 4 pm to 6 pm
Facilitators: Leslie C. Bell, PhD, LCSW & Nicholas DiCarlo, LCSW
This series of Dialogues on Difference (DOD) is part of the rollout of institute wide efforts to better understand and respond to microaggressions that happen in our community. We endeavor to make these Microaggression dialogues an exploratory and non-judgmental space for folks to bring questions, concerns, and an attitude of openness and not knowing.
In this DOD, we will explore the ways that marginalization of gender and sexuality occurs through daily interactions and societal expectations. This will involve interactive and experiential learning with common scenarios of microaggressions. We will be sharing language about gender identity and dysphoria, as well as some statistics and testimony regarding the lived experiences of various marginalized individuals. Finally, we will promote ways to recognize and support individuals and groups who are traditionally diminished.
The dialogue will begin with some didactic material and concepts to help people ground theoretically around this topic. We will then open space to explore questions and think psychodynamically about some of the dynamics of shame and othering that can occur with these topics. We will conclude with some ideas of how to intervene in a microaggression that you are directly part of or a witness to.
Leslie C. Bell, PhD, LCSW, is a clinical social worker and sociologist who specializes in women’s development and sexuality. She maintains a private practice in Berkeley. She is the author of Hard to Get: 20-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom (2013, UC Press) and the co-editor of Gender, Sex, and Sexualities: Psychological Perspectives (2018, Oxford University Press). An award-winning lecturer, she has taught courses on women’s development, gender inequality, and sexuality at U.C. Berkeley, the Women’s Therapy Center, and TPI. She currently supervises at TPI and is president-elect of the Executive Board of TPI.
Nicholas DiCarlo, LCSW, has a private practice in Oakland where they see individuals, couples, and facilitate small groups. They graduated from TPI's PGTP and specialize in working with older adults. Their other focuses include attachment trauma, adult children of divorce, and marginalization of identity via race/class/gender. They also write about aging and social policy, motivated by the belief that the psychic and social are invariably bound.
Dialogues on Difference are a free benefit to all TPI members.
Admission is free. RSVP by 2/28. If needed, we can move to a larger venue. is required to attend as space is limited. RSVP by clicking here.