Support Groups for Jewish Therapists
Community, in REAL TimeWhile advocacy and empowerment for Jewish therapists and related professionals are the key to our mission, the core of our collective has always been community. We’ve been holding zoom get-togethers for the better part of a decade, first around holidays and major events impacting the Jewish community. More recently, for regular support and connection as we navigate the increased complexity of being Jewish in the mental health space and beyond. All of the groups below are facilitated by trained and seasoned professionals but, of course, are not therapy. Scroll this page for current groups.
As our community’s engagement has grown, and we’ve seen the climate in the world outside of the Jewish Therapist sphere, we’ve ramped it up to offer niche interest and community groups with closed membership and a small cap, so those who seek deeper connection and more intentional support and growth can find it. The below are regular, weekly groups for Jewish Therapists, students, and leaders. Because these are structured and facilitated in a more formal way (leaders are seasoned clinicians and will not be double-hatting as participants), these may carry a nominal fee.
Irreverent: A Dialectically-Inspired Case Consult & Life Coping Group
A Peer Support and Case Consultation group in which we will support each other in navigating tough cases, relationships, and life circumstances through the lens of DBT: finding dialectics, revisiting skills, and reflecting concepts like acceptance and change. A great choice if you’ve got a lot of intensity in your life or are supporting clients with a lot of intensity in their lives – or both! This weekly group meets regularly on Fridays at 10:30 AM Pacific / 1:30 PM Eastern. It’s a 75-minute group with 15 minutes to schmooze afterward. This is an affinity space for Jewish participants only.
Rupture in the Rainbow: Queer/Trans+ Therapists and Leaders
We’ve seen that one of the hardest hit and most isolated branches of our community is the LGBTQIA+ branch of our tree. We’re carving out an explicitly affirming space for folks who embody this layered identity and are craving a structured space with peers who get it. This group meets regularly on Thursdays at 1:30 PM Pacific, 4:30 PM Eastern. It’s a 75-minute group with 15 minutes to schmooze afterward. This is an affinity space for Jewish participants only.
Left Behind: Progressive & Liberal Therapists & Leaders
A huge, consistent theme we’ve witnessed in colleagues has been the feeling of isolation, abandonment, and conditional acceptance in spaces of advocacy and social change. You don’t deserve to feel alone, pushed aside, or made into a casualty of ignorance. We’re looking forward to seeing and supporting you! This group meets regularly on Mondays at 4:00 PM Pacific / 7:00 PM Eastern. It’s a 75-minute group with 15 minutes to schmooze afterward. This is an affinity space for Jewish participants only.
NeuroRuach: Neurodivergent Therapists and Leaders
Being a Neurodivergent therapist can be uniquely isolating and challenging without a community and a space to unmask. This group will blend warm community with peers who “get” you and space for crucial processing of grief and loss over exclusion within the greater ND community over recent trends of antisemitism. This group meets on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month at 2:30PM Pacific / 5:30 PM Eastern. It’s a 75-minute group with 15 minutes to schmooze afterward. This is an affinity space for Jewish participants only.
Holidays & Healing
These one-off groups are scheduled throughout the year. We have a yearly Therapist Taschlich experience during the High Holidays and a Tikkun Olam themed Passover get-together plus others when salient themes arise in the Jewish calendar or secular world. Whenever devastating events or experiences happen in Jewish spaces or to Jewish people the world over, we also come together for ad-hoc support groups. Time and structure vary by theme and context and large groups will feature breakout rooms for deeper connection. Affinity group for Jewish professionals and grad students. If you want to be kept up to date on these, please subscribe to our newsletter.
Ask a Jewish Therapist: A Nonjudgmental Space to Learn from Jewish Colleagues
You’ve experienced the gap in cultural competency, you’ve witnessed it in the care your loved ones receive, and you’ve supported clients who’ve survived poor cultural competency in past therapy. You have valuable insight to lend, a desire to serve and connect, and a hope for a better clinical community that DESERVES to be realized. Come to the “Ask Your Jewish Colleagues” group to be of service to your non-Jewish colleagues. You’ll get to lend your insight and empathy in a supportive, brave and safe space and provide your contact info for anyone who wishes to consult with you further, at a deeper level. Please, no outside advertising (coaching, CE, etc). ***We will have a coffee club style support and connection experience during times when not actively engaging with our non-Jewish colleagues. This weekly, 60-minute drop-in group meets regularly on Fridays at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern.
Disencampment: Your Reprieve from Campus Mischegas
Places of higher learning, of all places, should be places where all students, faculty, and staff are safe from bigotry and exclusion. Sadly, this hasn’t been the case for Jewish members of university communities. As the year gears up for those Jewish therapists working in college counseling centers, teaching at the grad and undergrad level, and otherwise engaged with universities in any capacity, we want to be sure there’s a space to decompress, find support and empathy, and get that necessary reminder to your nervous system that you are not alone. This group does that. Whether you are faculty or staff, clinical or academic, or even a grad student serving your university community, you are welcome to join us. This biweekly (every-other-week) drop-in group that meets on Wednesdays at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern. It’s a 75-minute group with 15 minutes to schmooze afterward. This is an affinity space for Jewish participants only.
Finding Voice: Advocacy for Self & Tribe
This is a monthly group, hosted and facilitated by Halina Brooke, a seasoned advocacy professional and licensed psychotherapist. Each week, we will discuss a new topic and strategy in advocacy and feature a group member’s advocacy endeavor, taking care to support and troubleshoot any issues so they can move forward with success! We’ll take the rest of the time for peer support in self-advocacy, whether in your work or personal life, for self or loved ones. Group meets monthly on the first Thursday of the month at 12 PM Pacific / 3 PM Eastern on Thursdays. Make plans to stay for 90 minutes: a 75-minute group and then 15 minutes open schmoozing. This is an affinity group for Jewish professionals and grad students – allies by permission and with notice.
Conscious & Critical: A Space to Grapple with Modern Clinical Trends
It’s a Hallmark of Jewish culture that asking questions and pushing back are a timeless virtue and tradition. And it’s an ethical and professional best practice to critically examine and deeply understand what we’re doing before we apply any concepts and techniques to treatment. How do we navigate clinical trends that might not be sound, political pressures from society that don’t serve our clients or our integrity, and the fear of consequences for going against the grain? This group may get tense, uncomfortable, and even upsetting. That’s because the topics matter – hugely. And it will absolutely make us better at our clinical, academic, and advocacy work by helping us understand and hone our choices and conclusions. This group meets on the Third Thursday of the month at 9 AM Pacific, Noon Eastern. Register by the first of the month to get the topic ahead of time! Block out 90 minutes, with the first 75 being facilitated and the last 15 free to mingle. Space is for Jews and committed allies (antisemitism is not allowed in this venue).
More Supportive Channels
If you are looking for a subject or sub-community that isn’t listed here, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. And remember you always have our big tent community on Facebook – join us any time!