Group Therapy
Coming Soon in September 2023!
- Training group for therapists & graduate students of psychotherapy
- A general psychotherapy process group for adults
TELL ME MORE ABOUT A PROCESS GROUP:
Here-And-Now
One component of a process group is the intention to try and stay focused on the here-and-now. How am I feeling in this group right now? Who am I feeling most connected to in this group? Why am I wanting to disconnect from this group of people? What do I want from this group of people? What am I needing/craving right now?
Some group member backstory and history is shared for context and understanding, but overall this new experience of being with our current experiences in a safe, supported way is unique. Many times, in life, we save those moments of awareness for when we’re alone or with one trusted person or maybe never. To pay attention to the here-and-now in a group of people can sometimes feel like a lot, but people who tend to join groups are willing to take that risk. Ideally, the group facilitator is working to foster a sense of safety so that we can feel comfortable enough to approach those experiences that feel intense. That’s what we’re after, are we not? To feel. To understand our feelings. To be able to find the words. To articulate ourselves. To understand what impacts us. To grasp who impacts us. To be seen.
Patterns and Connections
When we’re paying attention to what’s happening in the moment inside of ourselves in the context of a group, we naturally also start to think of the ways we have felt this way before. People who made us feel comforted. People who angered us. People in our lives who we were curious about, but never really knew. People we felt disconnected from and didn’t know why. Group is a microcosm of our world. What happens in group, happens in the world . . . this time we’re paying attention and learning.
Feeling and Voicing
As someone who has been in group myself, it can been an intense experience to feel your feelings and try to articulate them and in a group of people. You know what? That’s okay to struggle with it. That means you’re doing some new work. Group isn’t neat and orderly where everyone can express themselves clearly and succinctly. Sometimes, as a group member, we might struggle to know what we’re feeling. Sometimes we might struggle to know the word that captures it. All of this is okay. All of this is expected.
The Development of a Process Group
Just like any organism or living thing, there is a developmental growth of a group. Initially, and typically, everyone is anxious when the group is new and just warming up. Everyone is in anticipation about everyone else and what this experience might be like. After a while, assuming we do our jobs as group co-facilitators, there is connection, safety, a sense of looking forward to being together as a group. Later, as with any normal relationship, there can be tension, worry, anger, jealousy and other intense feelings. That’s where things get good! Seriously. Because unlike the outside world where we might push away, disconnect, or run from the discomfort, here we explore it with gentle curiosity. We name (or at least try to name) these difficult feelings. We work to allow them to have a voice, to explore them with openness and willingness, so that group members have a deeper understanding of themselves and each other. This is a powerful skill that can translate to your life outside of group.