Quarterly Meeting for Members And Colleagues (QMMAC)

Friday 27th February 2026, 9.30am – 4.00pm

Online Zoom meeting

Thinking about the Gaze: Desire and Dreads of Groups

We invite you all to the uneasy intimacy of group life, where being seen is both hunger and hazard. The group becomes both a mirror and a magnifying glass: a place of recognition, envy, aggression and of course, retreat. We draw on Bion, Nitsun, Winnicott, Foulkes and Yalom to create this interactive workshop to explore how unconscious fantasies shape who is visible, which one of us withdraws and who decides to carry the group’s unwanted feelings. Focusing on bodies, silences and the virtual disappearances, we will reflect on the pleasures of hiding and the disasters of not being found. Through this work, we will come to think about how groups become a site where exposure can be survived, and transformed.

Shaifila Ladhani is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist working in Delhi, India. Her work is informed by psychoanalytic thinking, lived experience, and a sustained interest in how cultural and political landscapes shape inner life. She has worked with clients across continents, both in-person and virtually, and is particularly drawn to questions of group process, unconscious communication, and experiences of emptiness, dread, and retreat within relational spaces. Her writing explores the intimate terrain where personal and collective histories meet. When not in session (or trying to write), she can be found tending to mismatched furniture, playing word games, and making bad art. Prakriti Pandia is a psychotherapist and PhD scholar based in Delhi, India, with over seven years of clinical experience. She is a trainee group analyst and works across community mental health and private practice, with interests in psychoanalytic thought, clinical group work, and supervision. Her work engages deeply with themes of trauma, gender, shame, and relational dynamics, with a focus on how social and cultural contexts shape psychological experience. She is particularly interested in reflective practice and the dialogue between theory, research, and therapeutic work.

Programme

09.30   Registration 

10.00   Large group

11.30   Break

11.50   Creative workshop

13.15   Notices

13.30   Lunch

14.30   Large Group

16.00   End 

Future Dates 

12^th June 2026 

4^th September 2026 

4^th December 2026 

QMMAC offers an enjoyable and supportive space for thinking, dialogue and learning The regular meetings aim to reduce feelings of professional isolation, stimulate creative discussion and develop a sense of community among those involved in psychodynamic work.

Through shared learning and dialogue, we grow stronger and more confident about our work and its place in the psychotherapeutic milieu. 

QMMAC is suitable for past and present trainees in group analysis, at any level, group analysts, individual analysts and colleagues in other fields with an interest in groups.

IGA SCOTLAND 

Part of the Institute of Group Analysis 

Register here

The Zoom link will be sent out a few days before the meeting.