Article archive / December 1, 2013
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 4. Source pages: 7.
Dr. Susanne M. Jensen, a Baton Rouge clinical psychologist nationally known for her contributions to the practice of group psychotherapy for over 35 years, gave a one-day Institute designed to help group psychotherapists discover and reflect on their own personal style of group psychotherapy. The Institute, titled “Finding Your Own Style as a Group Psychotherapist,” was held November 2nd at Peabody Hall on the Louisiana State University campus, a few rooms away from where Dr. Jensen taught her first psychology course in this country in 1968.
One of the themes in her morning lecture was examining how one’s own personal and family history shape the development of the group therapist. “I grew up in a family of hard working physicians in a small German town close to the French border. I received my academic degrees at the University in Bonn,” said Jensen, a former Louisiana State Board of Examiner’s of Psychology board member and past president of the Louisiana Group Psychotherapy Society (LGPS). “In growing up, if we were not hard at work, we worked hard at looking busy,” she said to laughter from a warm and respectful audience, many of whom she has trained as therapists over the past three and one half decades. “My style has been to work hard as a therapist and it has been challenging for me to learn to take time off for leisure and play”. “Although that’s been challenging for her,” noted Dr. David Hayes, a psychotherapist trained by Dr. Jensen in late 1980, “I look at the audience and see the product of her hard work. The majority of the therapists attending here today, going back to the 70s would say Dr. Jensen was their main mentor in group therapy training.”
Lauren Tressler, a graduate student psychology intern at LSU, noted, “Dr. Jensen’s lecture was personally liberating to me because a therapist of her caliber was explaining that personality traits aren’t always seen as pathology. In fact, they are often our most significant strengths.”
Dr. Chris Garner, a former president of LGPS, said: “I really like the way she explained that group therapists don’t pick a style so much as we are our style; we become our style. All of the personal factors, our biology and gender, our personality and training, and our ongoing development create who we become professionally. As we continue to professionally create ourselves, we become our style.”
Christen Cummins, a recent president of LGPS, said: “I most enjoyed Dr. Jensen’s afternoon lecture on women’s developmental psychology and its contribution to a woman’s style as a therapist.” Ms. Cummings noted that about sixty-six percent of the therapists attending were women. “I really appreciated Dr. Jensen’s firsthand account of the efforts of women psychotherapist have made over decades to show that women develop differently than men, really through the entire life span.” This was perhaps most poignantly illustrated by Jensen in the way a woman develops in the context of never ending cultural messages that she should be responsible for relationships, for cooperation and nurturing, and never for instigating open conflict.
Dr. Jensen herself stated, “I really enjoyed preparing for my afternoon lecture best. It meant a great deal to be here with colleagues who make it their life work to reflect, to grow, and to understand their own development so that they can best help the people who seek assistance.”
Dr. Darlyne Nemeth, a former president of LGPS and highly respected Baton Rouge medical psychologist and contributor to the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy noted: “Dr. Sue Jensen has been and continues to be the greatest influence on my professional development as a group psychotherapist. Whether through her exquisite teaching, role modeling or mentoring, Dr. Jensen has set the standard for clinical training in this field. Her presentation was an informative and insightful personal and professional history of this eminent group psychotherapist. I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from this distinguished colleague and friend.”
“For over forty years Dr. Sue Jensen has set the standard for what it means to be a group psychotherapist in the city of Baton Rouge in our time, and she has shown us a vision of the future of our profession,” noted Dr. David Hayes, her colleague in private practice.
“One walked away from these lectures feeling energized and excited about being a therapist,” Christen Cummins said. “And knowing deep inside that one is fortunate to have chosen this profession as life’s work.”
Members of the Louisiana Group Psychotherapy Society with Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Dr. Susanne Jenson. (L to R) Christen Cummins, (social worker) Josh Pitre, (social worker) Drs. Jensen, Chris Garner, and David Hayes (psychologists). (Photo courtesy Dr. Hayes)
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.