I have an invitation for you. One I hope you will consider.

We have been working together for some time now. You and I have a strong alliance. You have gained some insight into your inner life and have gained some skill at accepting your life as it is and committing to your values. Symptoms and conflicts have improved or you feel you are beginning to turn the corner.

Despite these gains you may still be feeling as if more could be done. Now part of these feeling are driven by normal feelings of inferiority and the also normal feeling of striving to overcome and thrive. Another part could also be a recognition that more needs to be done in order to overcome the concerns that first brought you to my office.

I am inviting you to join my new Wednesday Night Therapy Group. This group is intended only for people that have been in individual psychotherapy with me for at least 6 months. New people will be added to the group only after a careful screening process.) I have also chosen people who I think would be a good fit.

In our individual therapy work the healing takes place when the two of us meet and you bring up some outside issue or some aspect of your inner life and together we explore ways to overcome and transform these issues. In group therapy the healing takes place in a similar way except there are other people, fellow travelers, who encourage deeper healing.

It is the presence of fellow travelers that make the group such a potent vehicle for healing and transformation. Most of the problems that drive us to psychotherapy are relational in nature. Someone in our life either did something or didn’t do something that was discouraging or even damaging to us. Often this someone is a parent but it could also be a sibling, a teacher, kids on the playground, boyfriend/girlfriend, illness, and so on.

By experiencing the relational healing that comes from participating in a group of supportive and encouraging people our sense of feeling connected to others expands. We can recover or discover our natural strivings to cooperate and contribute to others. While neither individual nor group therapy can replace the relationships we could have had in our past we can learn that we really do belong and have value to contribute to the world.

Other problems could be related to the all too human tendency to avoid accepting life as it is and not as we wish it to be with the corresponding difficulty of choosing and committing to values that affirm who we are and striving to become.

Our initial efforts in group will be to focus on building skills of acceptance, mindfulness, choosing values, and committing to our goals that flow from our values. This will be done to build vital skills and prepare the group for the deeper work to come- relationships and the unmet needs of childhood.

Once we are comfortable with one another we will begin to explore the deeper issues of our relational problems and our unresolved conflicts from our childhood experiences. Our efforts are to overcome psychological defenses that we erected long ago to protect us from harm and that now have become barriers to connecting with others and living authentically.

Many of us do not have positive memories of groups. Classrooms, sports teams, work teams, church groups, PT A, and others are competitive, intrusive, and even abusive. The WNTG will not be like those groups. In fact a member engaging in such behavior will be warned and if the behavior continues may be asked to leave.

I will be actively guiding the group to act in a compassionate and encouraging manner. Often we are not sure how to do this as we have not had others act this way toward us. This is our chance to learn these vital attitudinal and behavioral skills. It goes without saying that these skills will be important in your daily life.

If interested in group psychotherapy please contact me or call 516-256-1740 for more information.