There’s been an explosion of conversation about bullying in the last few years, ignited further still in the past several months since the suicide of Phoebe Prince, a freshman at South Hadley High School in Massachusetts. Six of her teenage classmates were charged in court with a variety of legal offenses for what clearly representsRead more
Group: It’s how we live our lives
I get asked somewhat frequently why I’m drawn to practicing group therapy. Really, it’s groups of all kinds that I’m interested in. But that sort of begs the question. I’m interested in groups because I’m interested in people, and groups tend to be how people are organized. I’m not sure if this is a provocationRead more
Ourchestra: Shel Silverstein on group therapy (sort of)
I’m pretty crazy about Shel Silverstein, and this poem in particular. Ourchestra So you haven’t got a drum, just beat your belly. So I haven’t got a horn-I’ll play my nose. So we haven’t any cymbals- We’ll just slap our hands together, And though there may be orchestras That sound a little better With theirRead more
Group Therapy: Antidote for the reluctance to LOOK!
Spanish speakers say it beautifully: “Abre los ojos!” (Open your eyes!) We receive remarkable training, formal and otherwise, in thinking, interpreting and understanding. Not so much for looking. In fact, we receive a great deal of training in not-looking or looking the other way. How’s that, you ask? I’m reminded of a popular bumperRead more
Group therapy: More than a bad cliche?
I recently took a fresh look at the online conversation around group therapy. Sadly, it was much as I’d expected. It’s not hard to see where the cliches portrayed on sketch-comedy shows and in countless movies have come from. In fact, while surfing through videos on YouTube with the tag group therapy it was genuinelyRead more
Curiouser and curiouser
How doth the little crocodile Improve his shining tail, And pour the waters of the Nile On every golden scale! -Alice, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland It’s surely of little surprise that I place such tremendous value on curiosity. It’s what good therapists do: They get curious about their client’s lives. I also think it’sRead more
Group Therapy: Give up your expertise on you
Tambako the Jaguar / Foter / CC BY-ND It’s one of those beliefs so widely agreed on as to be beyond question: You are the exclusive expert on you. Being an expert tends to go along with not being so open to what other people have to say. And when it comes to ourselves, beingRead more