4. Group Therapy - Encounter Groups

Expand your interpersonal communication skills, your ability to express emotions as well as the ability to receive and give feedback.

What is group therapy and why would one join a group?
Group therapy, in contrast to individual therapy, takes attention from the person and puts it on the person as part of the group. The group environment process quickly brings our awareness and attention to our needs, existential worries, projections, and fears. The commitment to engage in the group and explore feelings and attitudes towards oneself and other members will promote a rich process for reflection, insight, and change in action. The group becomes 'an organism' with its own dynamics that is highly malleable when individuals maintain conditions of understanding, honest respectful feedback, and acceptance. The degree to which individuals create a safe space by holding these conditions, individuals will experience increasing freedom to express positive and negative emotions as well as the ability to receive and give feedback.

What could I expect from group therapy?
The process of every group is unique and the psychological benefits and growth that will come as a result of being part of it will be different for each individual. Some global experiential observations however include a reduction in defensive rigidity, an increased ability to listen and learn from each other, awareness about how you appear to others and the impact your attitudes and behaviors have in your relationships, as well as a movement towards greater acceptance of the totality of one's being.

What's the focus of these groups?
The focus of each groups is varied and the content is decided between the members of the groups and is open for discussion in every session. The self-awareness encounter group is an open group that aims at fostering a safe space for free emotional expression, peer-to-peer support, development of interpersonal skills and personal growth through authentic communication. There are no criteria for joining this group. In the Couples' therapy group the criteria is that both partner's in the relationships want to enter the therapy group, which aims at creating a space for exploring relationship issues while also bring personal issues which interferes with open and constructive communication between the partners. The group will foster a environment where couples will receive feedback and be able to discuss openly issues in the relationship.

How do I join one of this groups?
To become a member in a group please contact me either by completing the form below, by email or via phone call. For more information about each group, such as meeting times, regularity of sessions, and other updates, press at the hyperlinked group you are interested in.