We live our lives in groups…. 

Our inner world was shaped in groups ….  We become aware of our relational style and our self-expression in group settings. We can heal our interpersonal wounds through participating in groups of authentic relating.

Welcome to the exciting world of group therapy!

My office with the circle of chairs for group therapy

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What is a process group?

Our experiences in groups profoundly influence how we navigate the world. For most of us, life begins in a family – our first group. From there, we move through classrooms, communities, and workplaces, each shaping how we connect, collaborate, and find meaning.

Being in a process group is a kind of laboratory for exploring how we come together, how we communicate, and how we influence one another in real time. It is an opportunity to reflect, connect, and learn through experience.

A process group is a gathering of people who learn by paying attention to what happens between and within them as they interact. Different from a work group that accomplishes a task or a classroom group that focuses on a lesson, the process group’s subject matter is what unfolds from moment to moment – thoughts, feelings, silences, and connections – as we put our immediate experience into words.

Your group leader’s role is not to direct the conversation or solve problems, but to maintain a consistent, containing structure that allows participants to explore and risk becoming more known to themselves and others. Being in a group provides something deeper than learning or reading about it; it is experiential learning about how emotion, immediacy, resistance, and containment come alive in real time.

Come as you are, share your thoughts and feelings as they arise, both about yourself and towards others, take one portion of the talking time and have others do the same, keep what is shared in the group confidential.

Consider process group therapy a relational laboratory of mindful presence. You practice yoga to stay in the present moment and breathe through physical movement; you introduce Mindfulness to your daily life to experience your surroundings and yourself in a more present way. Participating in a process group gives you the opportunity to broaden the yogic and Mindful experience to the realm of interpersonal communications.

(Description of process groups based on the Modern analytic definition)

Interpersonal Process Groups

Tuesdays 5.30-7pm 

Wednesdays 5.30-7pm 

Thursdays 7.30-9PM 

Location: 1300 South Van Ness Ave, San Francisco CA 94110

My groups offer a brave space to examine your relating style, your actions and interactions with people.

People of all genders and sexual orientations are welcome. Once I meet with you for two assessment sessions, I will let you know if either of my groups would be a good match for you. If so, I will invite you to join one of the groups.

Contact me to see if there are any current openings in my groups!

Emotional Intimacy

An interpersonally oriented group for those who want to explore their relationship patterns and style of relating in a safe, nurturing environment. We will move from challenging old, unhelpful patterns, looking at their root causes to shifting to more fulfilling and balanced self expression, consistent with your inner strengths and capacity for intimacy.

I invite you on this journey of exploration of a more intimately relating you.

If you want to …

• shift out of isolation
• understand what is ineffective in your approach to being in relationships
• see how to balance attraction and self-reliance
• learn how to refine your capacity for authentic relating
• shift conflict into more understanding and closeness

this group is for you.

Three assessment sessions are required before entering the group. Please contact me to schedule your assessment sessions.

Fees: $190 per assessment session (50 min each) and $90 per group session (90 min each). Group is charged as a flat fee in monthly increments.

Location: 1300 South Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA

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Process Group for Mental Health Clinicians

Fridays 10.30am-12 noon

This group meets online weekly plus 4 times per year an in-person meeting on a Sunday

This group provides clinicians with a personally and professionally self-reflective space. Mental health clinicians are often isolated in their private practices or have no time to attend to their mental, emotional inner world in their busy lifestyle, dedicated to others.

This group is for you if you are noticing a need for this type of connection with others and open to processing your inner world in the presence of other clinicians of all different walks of life. We will focus on each person’s internal world and the interpersonal field we create together.

This is an ongoing, long term group, minimum commitment is 4 months of weekly sessions.

In sessions we consider each participant’s personal life and the parallels between the personal and professional. Based on my personal experience, I believe that paying attention to our internal and interpersonal world as these evolve and we mature (and sometimes get set in our ways) as clinicians, is an ongoing task for all of us. I am delighted to provide this unique space for fellow clinicians.

Process Group for Bay Area Psychiatrists

Mondays 7.30-9pm (in-person)

This group consists of psychiatrists who provide psychotherapy as well as other medical modalities to their patients, who come together to be in a personally and professionally self-reflective space. Very similar to a process group, this group provides the opportunity to find parallels between one’s personal and professional identities, reactions, feelings and experiences. Please inquire if you are interested in joining this group.

Please contact me for more details! I look forward to sharing this meaningful time with you,

Ildiko

“For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.”  Viktor Frankl

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Ildiko Gabor, MFT, CGP, AGPA-F