Group Therapy

In this form of therapy, we work together in a diverse group of adults of different ages, backgrounds, and reasons for pursuing therapy. The group setting is a wonderful place to understand yourself in the context of relationships. There’s a kind of synergy in the group setting that allows deep work to occur in a unique way. Here we get to work with the interplay of your individual experience and being an integral part of the collective. One of the greatest gifts of group work is that it provides a space to learn to be fully who you are while also being in relationship with others. Learning how to be simultaneously separate and connected.

There is also the opportunity to work with and refine all your feelings that emerge around differences between you and others, and to potentially experience the benefits of diversity in all its various forms. Although sharing similarities is an important part of the group experience, we’re cultivating diversity rather than homogeneity. Diversity of identity, thought, and your unique contribution to the whole. In order to authentically embrace diversity, you must first learn how to establish a solid sense of yourself. From there it’s possible to listen to perspectives different from your own, communicate your own perspective clearly, and transform conflict.

Some themes that you might come to group to work on:

• belonging and exclusion 

• interrelatedness versus enmeshment

• vulnerability/intimacy

• creating intact boundaries

• separateness and connection

• giving and receiving

• envy and competition

• similarities and differences

• hunger, need, desire

• navigating conflict

• deprivation and prosperity

My role in the group setting is to create an effective container for this work to occur. I may be in a more active role at times and at other times I will be more quiet, but my goal is to simultaneously hold your individual experience in the group and the collective experience of the group. I encourage and teach group members to listen to their body and notice their emotions as these interactions occur so we can gain more awareness into your relational patterns.  As we gain this knowledge through learning about these patterns over time, there is also space for significant healing to occur as you experience people being with you and being present to yourself in new ways.  

Group is often challenging as it stretches our capacity to tolerate a range of feelings that emerge in interacting with others, but it can be very rewarding work. It is where beautiful and lasting change can occur. I have spent many years in advanced study of group work because of how valuable it is as a therapy modality. Group therapy can be effective alone or in conjunction with individual therapy.

If you are interested in participating in group therapy, we will first schedule a series of one to three individual sessions to prepare you for entering the group setting.