Samavaya Psychology

 

Our Philosophy

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Samavaya's educational programming aims to build upon the rigorous relationship between theory, evidence, and practice that is the foundation of psychology,  and we aim to create a space where the relationship between theory, hypothesis testing, and practice can be further developed. Doctoral level psychologists, depending on the orientation of their training program, often have a cursory foundation in multicultural and diversity issues and typically have no exposure to the impacts that social structures and social practices have on mental health and illness. We aim to meet the expressed needs of psychologists who want to explore how the dynamics of power and social structures impact mental health and illness.

 

Samavaya aims to offer an educational space that builds upon the lessons learned from a clinical practice and that focuses on the integration of clinical and social theory, clinical evidence, and direct service.  It is vital to understand that we do not aim to replace one set of truths with another.  Instead, we aim to help clinicians learn that clinical knowledge is formed in relationship to theory, practice, and social structures and to support clinicians in understanding themselves as clinical observers, hypothesis developers and testers, and theory developers.

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Samavaya offers reading groups, seminars, lectures, and workshops oriented toward clinicians with active caseloads.  With this in mind, all programs stand alone and participants can expect to achieve the learning goals of each program during the time allotted.

 

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Upcoming Programs

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Addressing Diversity through Social Identity Assessment: Clinical Theory and Practical Skills

12/13/2025

9:30-5:00pm Pacific Time

Instructor: Mamta Dadlani, PhD

(Virtual All Day Workshop includes 1 hour lunch and two 15 minute breaks)

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​This workshop will allow participants to learn strategies to conceptualize and address issues of diversity and social justice in the therapy dyad, building upon the ADDRESSING assessment method outlined by Hays (2008, 2024) and expanded by Dadlani (2012). Specifically, participants will learn about the application of social identity theory as a useful treatment tool. First, participants will have an opportunity to explore social identity as a method of reflection about oneself and one’s patients. Next, participants will learn about the relationships between social identity, structural power, and countertransference and how to think about these elements flexibly in any therapy relationship. Finally, participants will learn a specific method of social identity assessment and will utilize this method to think about the intersection between their own identities and those of a patient in their practice. Through the use of large group discussion and small break out consultation groups, participants will explore using this model in multiple contexts and will identify ways that social identity assessment can shape treatment goals and interventions.

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A secure registration portal will open mid-September 2025. Click here to learn more about this program.

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Integrating Disability Justice into your Clinical Practice: Collective Access & Collective Health

1/10/2026

9:00-1:15pm Pacific Time

Instructor: Mamta Dadlani, PhD

(Virtual Workshop includes a 15 minute break)

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Every single person alive has or will have an experience with disability, and yet the psychological impacts of disability as well as best practices around addressing the mental health issues related to disability are woefully undertheorized and underdeveloped. This workshop will introduce participants to foundational, integrative, and flexible ways to formulate disability as related to both the individual and the built environment and to query formulations of disability beyond permanent disability related to age, intellect, and physical functioning. It will also allow participants to explore why the field and why they as providers have under addressed this vital influence on mental health. After these definitional frameworks are offered, participants will link their evolving understanding of disability to clinical practice.  First, the presenter will briefly outline a case, offer a review of intake and treatment planning considerations, and share sample documentation that integrates disability concerns. Next, participants will move into small groups to discuss a provided case example with attention to defining disability, identifying potential mental health impacts, naming treatment goals and interventions shaped by a consideration of disability, and reflecting on how their own biases and experience with disability space their clinical engagement.  Finally, participants will work in pairs to consult on a current case where considerations of disability would improve treatment processes and outcomes. The workshop will close with a sharing of critical clinical lessons learned

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A secure registration portal will open mid-September 2025. Click here to learn more about this program. 

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Theorizing with Fanon: Examining Violence in Clinical Practice

1/24/2026

8:45am-Noon Pacific Time

Instructor: Mamta Dadlani, PhD

(Virtual Seminar includes a 15 minute break)

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Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) was a psychiatrist, philosopher, and writer who took up questions of consciousness, psychic impacts of oppression, anti-colonialism, and liberation in part by thinking with the ideas of psychoanalysis as a means of pursing psychological and physical freedom. The past 10 years has brought a renewed interest in his work with particular attention to the psychological impacts of violence and social practices that denigrate one person to amply the other. In preparation for this seminar, participants will read an excerpt of Fanon’s work and a contemporary reaction that attends to clinical practice. During the seminar, the instructor will guide the participants through a close reading of excerpts, will explore the implication of these readings for violence in clinical practice, and will provide opportunities for case discussion through both prepared and in-the-moment-associated clinical material. We aim to (1) articulate Fanon’s ideas about the interpersonal and structural roots of violence and their resolutions; (2) analyze how violence impacts our patients psychology and functioning; (3) assess how structural violence shapes treatment planning and intervention; and (4) critique the possibility of clinicians enacting structural violence.

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*This seminar will be offered several times throughout the Spring of 2026 with different reading excerpts.

*Enrollment in each session will be limited to 8 participants, and participants may enroll in multiple sessions.

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A secure registration portal for the first session (1/24/2026) will open mid-September 2025. Click here to learn more about this program. 

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Selected Past Presentations and Workshops

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The Hope is Over, The Fight Goes On: Listening Deeply to Unspeakable Pain​   

Presentation at the 44th Annual Spring Meeting of the American Psychological Association Division of Psychoanalysis (39) Meeting, Virtual Conference. 2025.

 

Queer Families Coming to Be. 

Presentation at the 43th Annual Spring Meeting of the American Psychological Association Division of Psychoanalysis (39) Meeting, Washington DC. 2024

 

Designated Leadership through Embodied Enactments and Generative Conflict: Speaking Truth and Taking Action.

Leadership award acceptance speech at the 42st Annual Spring Meeting of the American Psychological Association Division of Psychoanalysis (39) Meeting, New York, NY. 2023.

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Addressing Diversity though Social Identity Assessment: Clinical Theory ​​and Practical Skills. 

Daylong continuing education seminar co-sponsored with the Vermont Psychological Association. 2023.

 

Reverie, Power, and Making Use of Internalized Oppression. ​  ​

Invited workshop with clinical staff at Silver Lake Psychotherapy, Los Angeles, CA. 2022

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Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks at 70.​                 

Keynote presentation at the Contemporary Freudian Society, New York, NY. 2022.

 

Psychoanalysis After Fanon. ​       

Plenary presentation at the 110th Annual Meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 2021.

 

Reckoning with Anti-Blackness and Failures in Mentalization. ​           

Presentation at the 40th Annual Spring Meeting of the American Psychological Association Division of Psychoanalysis (39) Meeting, Virtual Conference. 2021.

 

Microaggression in the Countertransference. ​         

Presentation at the 39th Annual Spring Meeting of the American Psychological Association Division of Psychoanalysis (39) Meeting, Philadelphia, PA. 2019.

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Selected Publications

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Dadlani, M.B. (2024). Religion in the therapy room: Reflections on the Beloved by a child of the Indian diaspora. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 11(1), 20-25. https://doi.org/10.1037/scp0000341

 

Lasheen, T.A. & Dadlani, M.B. (2023). Troubling un(happiness): Finding pathways toward liberatory embodiment. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 24(1), 35-42.

 

Dadlani, M.B. (2021, May 17). New Voices: Capitalism. The Psychoanalytic Activist.

https://psychoanalyticactivist.com/2021/05/17/new-voices-capitalism/

 

Dadlani, M.B. (2020). Queer use of psychoanalytic theory as a path to decolonization: A narrative analysis of Kleinian object relations. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 21(2), 119-126.

 

Dadlani, M.B., Overtree, C., & Perry-Jenkins, M. (2012). Culture at the center: A reformulation of diagnostic assessment. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 43(3), 175-182.

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