The Jean Baker Miller Training Institute is proud to welcome you to the JBMTI Blog! Our hope is to create a place where the JBMTI community can visit often to check out the latest news on Relational-Cultural Theory practitioners, events, applications, and inspirations.
Please feel free to send us any ideas for posts to jbmti@wellesley.edu.
Dateline recently ran an in-depth 10-segment series on bullying including both boys and girls. While the show missed the opportunity to discuss some key power dynamics such as the role of race and why there are even bullies in the first place, the series is impressive in that it delves deeper into the power dynamics of bullying beyond telling kids to just "be nice."
Dr. Amy Banks, JBMTI's director of advanced training, has long been touting the ce
ntral role of oxytocin, often called "the love drug," in connection and relational neurobiology. Two recent reports delve into the complexities of the drugs affects on human behavior.
Boston's WCVB-TV featured the story, 'Cuddle Drug' May Help Couples Bond, highlighting a new treatment of doctors giving patients "small tables that contain oxytocin" to increase feelings of intimacy. The report quotes Dr. Matt French of Wellness Solutions in Phoenix, "If a couple is struggling with bonding issues, with intimacy issues, it could be as a result of inadequate levels of the hormone oxytocin."
On the flip side, a January 11, 2011 piece in The New York Times, Depth of the Kindness Hormone Appears to Know Some Bounds, clarifies that oxytocin is not a universal answer to better connection among all people or to world peace. According to the article, Dr. Carsten K. W. De Dreu, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, decided to take a closer look at oxytocin after, "he decided on evolutionary principles that no one who placed unbounded trust in others could survive." His experiment found oxytocin to produce ethnocentric behavior, and to create "intergroup bias primarily because it motivates in-group favoritism and because it motivates out-group derogation."
What does it mean that a chemical basis for ethnocentrism is embedded in the human brain? “In the ancestral environment it was very important for people to detect in others whether they had a long-term commitment to the group,” Dr. De Dreu said. “Ethnocentrism is a very basic part of humans, and it’s not something we can change by education. That doesn’t mean that the negative aspects of it should be taken for granted.”
Bruno B. Averbeck, an expert on the brain’s emotional processes at the National Institute of Mental Health, said that the effects of oxytocin described in Dr. De Dreu’s report were interesting but not necessarily dominant. The brain weighs emotional attitudes like those prompted by oxytocin against information available to the conscious mind. If there is no cognitive information in a situation in which a decision has to be made, like whether to trust a stranger about whom nothing is known, the brain will go with the emotional advice from its oxytocin system, but otherwise rational data will be weighed against the influence from oxytocin and may well override it, Dr. Averbeck said.
Dr. Averbeck said he was amazed that a substance like oxytocin can affect such a high-level human behavior. “It’s really surprising to me that this neurotransmitter can so specifically affect these social behaviors,” he said. - NY Times article excerpt
Both reports confirm the importance of relational neuroscience research in understanding the role of the brain and its neurotransmitters in affecting human and social behavior.
The complete schedule for the upcoming Intensive Institute, The Power of Connection: Tools for Personal and Social Change, is now available.
Program Highlights: Plenaries: Why RCT Matters in the Real World, "Be the Change" Conversations, and Action Growing from Community; Workshops: Creating Connection in a Sea of Disconnection: Research-Informed Clinical Practice, Getting Unstuck: The Tools of Empathy, Reclaiming the Connected Brain: A 10 Step Program to Awaken Your Natural Ability to Connect, and "Talking" the Talk through Media Commentary; Community: Group activities and poster sessions.
Online registration will open soon. Please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any questions. We look forward to seeing you in June!
15 CEUs awarded (APA approved - NASW, LMHC, LMFT approval pending)
by Harriet Schwartz, Ph.D.
I submitted a post late in 2010 to tell members of the JBMTI community about Antioch University's Ph.D. in Leadership and Change program, a program that holds relational leadership at its core. As promised, I's writing a second post to tell you about some of the related research that is in the works or has been completed at Antioch.
Martha Miser is a current student who is developing her dissertation topic. Martha writes: "In a sentence, my dissertation topic looks at globalization, growth, and social change from a feminist lens. In particular, I am critiquing the idea of endless accumulation that is the foundation of economic growth, capitalism, globalization, etc. I'm using a number of feminist scholars in this work, including Joyce Fletcher. I can't say yet exactly if/when/how relational theory will be a major element in my dissertation argument, but in any case, I'm also interested as a practitioner in leadership development and organizational change (I'm a coach, educator, consultant)."
Deborah A. Fredricks graduated in 2009. Fredricks drew directly on RCT, citing several Stone Center publications. Deborah's dissertation title is "The Leader's Experience of Relational Leadership: A Hermenuetic Phenomenological Study of Leadership at Friendship."
And finally, I completed my dissertation "Thankful Learning: A Grounded Theory Study of Relational Practice Between Master's Students and Professors" in May, 2009. RCT continues to be at the core of my research endeavors and I'm currently conducting a second study looking at relational practice between master's students and professors: this time I am using a different methodology (critical incident technique) and am interviewing current students to try to capture the smaller moments of connection.
I share these research examples with you because I believe that Antioch is unique in the way that the program design and faculty honor and draw from RCT and relational practice more broadly defined. For more information on Antioch's Ph.D. program visit: http://www.phd.antioch.edu/ In addition, I would be delighted to talk with you or anyone you know who is interested in the program, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Dr. Dolores Finger Wright, an associate professor of social work at Delaware State University (DSU), was recently honored for "the role she played in the historic public accommodations demonstrations in Greensboro, N.C. during the early 1960s," as announced in a recent statement from DSU.
On February 5, 2011 Dr. Finger Wright received the International Civil Rights Center & Museum Sit-In Hero’s Award during a gala commemorating the 51st anniversary of the Greensboro Sit-ins.
JBMTI Director of Program Development Maureen Walker, Ph.D., recently published her article, "What's a Feminist Therapist to Do? Engaging the Relational Paradox in a Post-Feminist World," in the latest issue of Women & Therapy (34: 38-58, 2011).
The advances that women have made in public and private venues are often attributed to the successive feminist movements. One of the ironies of the 21st century, however, is that women's accomplishments are sometimes cited as proof that feminist consciousness is passe. This stance generates profound confusion and disempowerment for young women whose experience of embedded misogyny is contradicted by distortions of post-feminist discourse, one outcome of which is disconnection from socio-political context. This article illustrates the use Relational-Cultural therapy as a feminist approach that fosters healing and growth by facilitating both personal and collective empowerment. - Article abstract
JBMTI is thrilled to announce a new program initiative, the Miller Family Social Action Project. The Project's mission is to address social problems resulting from inequitable power arrangements in contemporary culture. Using the precepts of the Relational-Cultural Theory as our guiding philosophy, the Project members will work in collaboration with diverse groups and individuals to develop programs that promote reconciliation, shared power, and mutual respect across in a context of culturally stratified relationships.
Following is an excerpt from an article Jean's husband, Mike Miller, wrote for the recent Winter 2011 eConnections about the intention of the project:
Social action was a defining aspect of Jean’s life. Whether she was working with fellow Sarah Lawrence students in low-income areas of Yonkers, pursuing national health insurance while in medical school, or supporting feminist mobilizations and anti-nuclear efforts, theory and action were always intertwined for her, each clarifying the other. Her emphasis on “growth-through-connection” was not only about achieving psychological health and well-being, it was a call to action, urging us to work for social justice in all of our relationships.
The Miller Family Social Action Project is an effort to further Jean’s vision for social change through the work of the JBMTI. Over the years, the Institute has contributed to both increasing awareness of the need for connection and improving organizational communication and effectiveness. It is our hope that the Project will move Jean’s relational activism to a new level by mobilizing and inspiring even more practitioners to apply their knowledge and skills to social action that lead to positive and enduring social change.
Visit the Miller Family Social Action Project page on the JBMTI website for updated programming and initiative information
WBUR, one of Boston's NPR stations, recently ran an incredible five-part series on children and mental health in Massachusetts, "Are the Kids All Right?" Issues such as struggling to find a diagnosis; effects of medication; health care coverage; stigmas of mental health; and the shortage of pediatric mental health care providers are all explored in this important, in-depth series.
It's been five years since a federal judge issued a scathing ruling accusing Massachusetts of not providing adequate mental health services to children on public health insurance. The landmark case, Rosie D. v. Romney, has had broad implications on the diagnosis and treatment of all Massachusetts children who need mental health care. Although there have been many reforms in the five years since the suit, several challenges remain. We check in on how care has changed since Rosie D. - Excerpt from WBUR's report
Part 1: One Family’s ‘Traumatic’ Struggle For Mental Health Care
Part 2: Parents Divided By The Medication Debate
Part 3: Mental Health Screening Exposes Access Problems
Part 4: Provider Shortage Leaves Parents Searching, Doctors Overwhelmed
Part 5: Stakes High For Improving Mass. Children’s Mental Health System
Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, and brilliantly introduced by Judith Thurman, Simone de Beauvoir’s masterpiece weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology, and a host of other disciplines to analyze the Western notion of “woman” and to explore the power of sexuality.
Sixty years after its initial publication, The Second Sex is still as eye-opening and pertinent as ever. This triumphant and genuinely revolutionary book began as an exceptional woman’s attempt to find out who and what she was. Drawing on extensive interviews with women of every age and station of life, masterfully synthesizing research about women’s bodies and psyches as well as their historic and economic roles, The Second Sex is an encyclopedic and cogently argued document about inequality and enforced “otherness.”
This long-awaited new translation pays particular attention to the existentialist terms and French nuances that may have been misconstrued in the first English edition; restores Beauvoir’s phrasing, rhythms, and tone; and reinstates significant portions of the “Myths” and “History” chapters that were originally cut due to length, including accounts of more than seventy female figures.
A vital and life-changing work that has dramatically revised the way women talk and think about themselves, Beauvoir’s magisterial treatise continues to provoke and inspire. - Book description from Amazon.com
A January 30, 2011 New York Times article, Defin
e Gender Gap? Look Up Wikipedia's Contributor List reported less than 15% of the site's "hundreds of thousands" of writers are women. This statistic was discovered in a collaborative study with Wikimedia, Wikipedia's operational foundation, United Nations University, and Maastricht University.
In response, Wikimedia Executive Director Sue Gardner has announced a goal of 25% participation of women by 2015.
According to the OpEd Project, an organization based in New York that monitors the gender breakdown of contributors to “public thought-leadership forums,” a participation rate of roughly 85-to-15 percent, men to women, is common — whether members of Congress, or writers on The New York Times and Washington Post Op-Ed pages.
It would seem to be an irony that Wikipedia, where the amateur contributor is celebrated, is experiencing the same problem as forums that require expertise. But Catherine Orenstein, the founder and director of the OpEd Project, said many women lacked the confidence to put forth their views. “When you are a minority voice, you begin to doubt your own competencies,” she said.
She said her group had persuaded women to express themselves by urging them to shift the focus “away from oneself — ‘do I know enough, am I bragging?’ — and turn the focus outward, thinking about the value of your knowledge.” - Article excerpt
Please send us links to blogs you are writing as well as blogs you love! We are expanding our blogroll and want to make sure we include any and all blogs written and supported by RCT practitioners. All submissions can be sent to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
. Happy writing!
Also feel free to send any other suggestions you my have have for the JBMTI blog: topics that you would like to see written about; any updates in previously-offered resources or information; and/or articles you think fellow RCT practitioners would like to see and share.
Thank you!
Dr. Lyn Mikel Brown, director of our friends at Hardy Girls, Healthy Women, will present a webinar "Fighting Like a Girl: Myths, Realities, and Solutions" this Thursday, February 3rd from 12:00-1:30PM EST .
Reality TV, PG movies, magazines, and chic lit series are obsessed with girlfighting. What does this say about the way our culture views girlhood? In this webinar, Lyn Mikel Brown, Ed.D. explores media representations of girls' relationships, distinguishes myth from reality, considers the impact of these portrayals on girls, and discusses the importance of media literacy and strength-based approaches to working with girls. - Program description
Dr. Brown is the author of Girlfighting: Betrayal and Rejection among Girls, and Raising Their Voices: The Politics of Girls' Anger, and Packaging Boyhood: Saving Our Sons from Superheroes, Slackers, and Other Media Stereotypes.
Visit the Hardy Girls, Healthy Women website for additional information and programming.
WBUR's On Point aired a wonderful show earlier today, "How Inequality Hurts Societies." Two of the guests were Richard Wilkinson, Ph.D. and Kate Pickett, Ph.D. talking about their 2009 book The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. A larger scope of the conversation was Davos, the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum currently being held in Switzerland.
As if to overcome their reputation as practitioners of the ‘dismal science’, economists are now producing an economics of happiness. Ironically, what they find is that most of the determinants of happiness are beyond the grasp of the market. Happiness, rather than being determined primarily by income and possessions, is, at least in rich countries, more significantly affected by social relationships – by friendship, marriage, giving and volunteering. - Book excerpt
American inequality is at towering heights not seen since before the Great Depression. Wealth is packed at the top of the ladder, and dwindling on the rungs below. The picture naturally makes many uneasy. A new global research effort says we are quite right to worry about it. Two British epidemiologists say inequality is a public health issue, a national health issue. From crime rates to drug use to teenage pregnancy to heart disease and more, they say, the evidence shows inequality makes countries sick, even the rich. We investigate inequality, and the health of nations. - Tom Ashbrook, Host, WBUR's On Point
Listen to the show.
The first webinar in this spring's The Healing Brain series will be FREE! "When to Say When: The Dopamine Reward System from Moderation to Addiction" will be held Friday, March 25, 2011 from 11:00AM-12:30PM. This interactive online discussion with Dr. Amy Banks will introduce participants to the the role the dopamine reward system plays in human beings. How addictions highjack the dopamine reward system will also be explored, and how addictions affect relationships. - One CEU will be awarded (NASW, APA, LMHC, LMFT approved).
Pre-registration is required. Register today!
RCT practitioner Harriet Schwartz, Ph.D. has launched a wonderful new podcast series on her website, The Art of Relational Practice: Mentoring, Teaching, and Working Together.
Don't miss the first webinar of 2011 on Friday, January 21st. "The Smart Vagus": The Social Wisdom of Our Tenth Cranial Nerve" webinar will be an interactive discussion with Dr. Amy Banks introducing participants to the third branch of the autonomic nervous system, the smart vagus nerve. Dr. Banks will explore in depth the role this neural pathway plays in taming the stress response system so that we can find and maintain healthy human connections, and the ways that society can shape this neural pathway and how this neural pathway then helps shapes society. Register today!