Just as we are ourselves communities of cells, I believe humans are by
nature community and group oriented. 
I want to love you without clutching appreciate you without judging
join you without invading invite you without demanding leave you without guilt
criticize you without blaming and help you without insulting.
- Virginia Satir
Group therapy is often the most valuable experience of therapy we can have.
We are born into a group
and our early experience of family, school or other group will influence
us all our lives. The nature of the bond between members of a therapeutic
group allows us to experiment with our social behaviour. It is a place
to grow interpersonally, to express feelings with spontaneity and immediacy,
a forum for self-disclosure, for trust, for honest feedback and for staying
in the here and now. This can mean discovering our social acceptability and
disassembling the defences we have put up in response to past hurts.
In a therapy group we learn to take greater individual responsibility, so
that we ask ourselves "What am I learning about this person?"
I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live
up to your expectations and you are not in this world to live up to
mine. You are you and I am I, and if by chance we find each other
it's beautiful. If not, it can't be helped.
- Virginia Satir
rather than
"What is this person doing to me?" We can learn greater respect for others
without diminishing ourselves: "I'm not a copy of you, my characteristics
are right for me and you may even come to value the ways in which I'm
different from you."
Even if we have not had a personal history that included a really healthy,
nurturing family, the therapy group
In a way all the things you have done up to the present
if you are still around have worked. The question is:
What is the price and could it have been lower?
- Virginia Satir
can give us a reparative and healing
experience.
By a 'healthy' family, I mean one in which every member has
self-worth, there is a sense of safety and
effective communication, rules that are explicit, defined and age-appropriate,
and plentiful links to the outside world and the community.
Groups can be short-term or long-term, and may be themed or unthemed.
Follow these links for information about worskhop groups which I currently
run.
Finding Our Path Home
- Boarding School Group with Marcus Gottlieb
Coming Home
- Workshop for ex-boarders
Self-Assertiveness
Body Image
- Workshop for gay men
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