How Group Therapy Helps You Grow

I vividly remember my first group therapy training weekend three years ago at the Center for Group Studies in NYC. It was held at the Warwick, a hotel that comes across as glamorous, almost magical, with pictures of famous actors and actresses adorning the walls. There were twenty other people in my process group, a number that seemed overwhelming and exciting. I may not have not have literally been the youngest person in the room, but I felt like it. My process group leader, Sally Henry, struck me as a sage-like librarian-grandma, a woman of power, wisdom, great love, zest and tremendous skill. 

I was a mess that a weekend, much in the way a new puppy is a mess. My longing for attention and inability to make room for an Other was apparent. So was my immediate and intense love for that kind of experience. Such honesty! Such vulnerability! Such courage. I made many friends and some opposite-of-friends. I felt like I found my professional family, a place I would return to over and over again, each time metaphorically marking my place on the wall as I grew as a clinician and a person. I continue to attend, each time coming home with my arms filled with treasures. There is something unique and almost ineffable about the weekend experience. I take what I've learned with me into the ongoing training group I attend and my individual therapy. I take it into my work with clients and my sense of confidence and empowerment in building my practice. I take it into my friendships, my family and my romantic life. It is a source of deep satisfaction, self-care and nourishment in my life.