Chapter 6: Therapist – Working in the Here and Now The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy Irvin Yalom, Ph.D

Working in the Here and Now What is a major difference between a psycho educational group and process/psychotherapy group?

Working in the Here and Now The focus of the here and now requires two factors through out the process. 1. Focusing on the current moment which takes on a greater priority than the past and future. facilitates the emergence of each member’s social microcosm. 2. The Illumination of the Process - It reflects on recent here and now behaviors in order to add the cognitive understanding or component of what occurred.

Working in the Here and Now The directing the group to the here and now can be shared with the group members. self reflection remains the predominant responsibility of the therapist.

Working in the Here and Now In the reflection aspect, the clinician needs to focus on the Meta communicational level. Example p 132 The central route of communication or content (i.e. the data). The peripheral route of communication or the presentation (i.e. how, when and tone).

Working in the Here and Now The processing of the here and now is a very unique feature to the group therapy experience. USUALLY, this will differentiate it from a psychoeducational group. Additionally, a psychoeducational group will be more restricted to the assigned theme for that group. Where else are you able to comment about another’s behavior (positive or negative) without being seen as arrogant, condescending, neurotic, patronizing, etc. This process sometimes evokes early memories of parental criticism.

Working in the Here and Now Hence, it is associated with socialization anxiety. Additionally, if it occurred all the time society would become intolerably self conscious. Consider Freud and Jung correspondence. Another reason for the lack of here and now is the fear of retaliation.

Working in the Here and Now It also leads to power equalization, It is also this process of illumination that sets the therapist apart from the other group members. This makes the clinician an observer- participant. Group members can make process comments but it should not be out of defensive behaviors.

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