Time and time again I have seen that there is a wide range of interpersonal behaviors that push the other person to react unfavorably to us when our intent is connection and closeness. In a process group we draw attention to the …
Read MoreMonth: September 2016
Brene Brown
I am receiving Brené Brown’s “weekly dose of daring” emails. One of the recent ones had this inspirational quote: “When we value being cool and in control over granting ourselves the freedom to unleash the passionate, goofy, heartfelt, and soulful expressions …
Read MoreNew York Times Article
Here is the link to this convincing personal account of a successful group therapy treatment. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/why-group-therapy-worked/?_r=0 “… I’d started to focus less on my wife’s sins and errors and to take a harder look at my own. The person I …
Read MoreHow my clients see me
Sometimes clients ask me questions directly addressing me, some personal questions. It can be either about my thoughts, feelings or facts about me. There are many ways a therapist can respond to that. I always want to hold my clients’ needs …
Read MoreAnxiety and excitement
Fritz Perls, the co-founder of gestalt therapy is known to have said that anxiety is excitement without support. I find this statement a very grounding idea for what we can do in therapy. As a therapist, I feel honored to be …
Read MoreFerenczi and group therapy
Scott Rutan, PhD, inspiring group therapist has written an article about Ferenczi (Freud’s contemporary Hungarian psychoanalyst), highlighting his contributions to the groundwork of group therapy. “Ferenczi focused on many aspects of the therapeutic encounter that are highlighted in the practice …
Read MoreNo way to explain the experience
It is maintained by many advocates of experiential orientations in psychotherapy that you will not have lasting shifts in your perception of yourself and of the world with mere cognitive understanding of the problem or even of the solution. You need to …
Read MoreWhen I feel a familiar feeling relating to someone…
“A relationship can force us to revisit every feeling and memory in the legend of ourselves” – says David Richo in his book “How to be an Adult in Relationships” Relationships we create in the therapy room are intentional. We …
Read MoreThe discoveries of therapy
“It is I who create the very experience I thought was happening to me, and I who can transform it.” (Ecker, Hulley) This quote comes from a book that talks about individual therapy but I think it is a good …
Read MoreHow group brings us individual change
Group therapy uses the group as the vehicle for transformation and therapeutic effect, but the eventual healing happens in the individual. When you engage in a process group or a therapy group, you learn about yourself in an experiential way …
Read More