Day-Long General Psychodynamic Experience Group (8 years of experience +)

At this year’s conference the Day-Long General Psychodynamic Experience Group for experienced clinicians (8 years of group therapy experience or longer) is facilitated by Joe Shay PhD, CGP, FAGPA who is known to his colleagues for his energy and creativity.

One of the Joe’s most recent creative endeavors in the group therapy field is moderating a 4-session teleconference that features eight renowned group therapists commenting on a video tape of one specific group session, looking at it from multiple perspectives. Two of the therapists are NSGP’s very own Scott Rutan and Eleanor Counselman.  The other six are Walt Stone, Molyn Leszcz, Earl Hopper, Richard Billow, Priscilla Kauff, and Phil Flores. All the actors on the video tape are current NSGP members. The teleconference is offered through the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) and offers CEUs (for more information, go to http://member.agpa.org/).

Participating in this teleconference can be a good “warm up” before the NSGP Annual Conference in June. It can give you a flavor of the work done by the participating therapists, some of whom also plan to present at the NSGP Annual Conference (please check the NSGP Annual Conference Brochure for more information). 

In Joe’s interview for the NSGP Conference Blog, he shared some of his thoughts on the importance of utilizing training opportunities such as the above teleconference or the NSGP Annual Conference for professional and personal growth.

According to Joe, he, like many therapists, has recognized that there are many perspectives from which to approach the same group and he tried to illuminate those by creating a video of the demo group that, as in famous Gloria tapes, can be analyzed by different clinicians through various theoretical lenses. Joe expects some overlaps in the analyses, as well as differences. He anticipates most differences among the experts to be on where they put their focus in the session – e.g., on the “here and now” of group dynamics at the moment they unfold in the group, or on the “there and then,” connecting group members’ prior life experiences to how they respond to each other in the group as the session progresses.

Having received his initial training as a psychodynamic group therapist, Joe does not consider himself married to any particular model and values the group therapist’s adaptability over his or her capacity to apply theory to technique. As an experienced clinician, he is able to work in an integrative manner and tailor his approach to what is happening in the group and who he is working with in the moment. He views the group therapy session as a “convergence of projections,” in which group members bring into the group narratives and templates from the past. If the group therapist creates a safe enough environment and helps group members develop a strong enough alliance, they are then able to examine those old templates, own their projections and relate to one another more in the present. In Joe’s opinion, this allows group members more freedom to interact authentically with each other.

The day-long experience group is a great opportunity to see in action some of the things Joe is talking about. As training first and foremost, the day-long experience group aims at providing not therapy, but a learning opportunity for its group participants. In Joe’s experience, most members find participating in a day-long group an energizing and fascinating adventure in which they learn about themselves more than they initially might have anticipated. According to him, people in later years may have forgotten the content but not the experience itself.

In leading an experience group for seasoned clinicians (defined at this Conference as having 8 years of experience or more) the leader can often move more quickly through the preliminaries and enter the active phase more quickly. In addition, in a didactic portion of the day-long group, Joe might focus more on complex group dynamics skipping some more rudimentary observations. In any group, Joe expects to be challenged as a leader. His approach to that is helping each group figure out what is driving the challenge, e.g., a mistake the group leader might have made, personal aspects of the group member,  specific group dynamics, or a combination of some or all of the above.

As a group facilitator, Joe enjoys the “extremely intimate” atmosphere of a day-long group where people create trust for each other through personal sharing. He admits that he sometimes would like  to just take off his “leader hat” and become a member when he feels particularly moved by what is happening in the group. He tries to keep a professionally appropriate distance with those who choose to participate in his day-long experience group, at the same time noting the often occurring deepening of the interpersonal relationship between colleagues who share this unique experience with each other.

Joe Shay, PhD, CGP, FAGPA, is in private practice in Cambridge. He is on the staff of the joint McLean Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital training program, and is an Instructor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. He is on the faculty of the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy, the Psychoanalytic Couple and Family Institute of New England, and the MGH Center of Psychodynamic Therapy and Research. He has co-edited Odysseys in Psychotherapy and Complex Dilemmas in Group Therapy (with Lise Motherwell).  Joe has also co-authored the 4th edition of Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy (with Scott Rutan and Walter Stone), and has presented nationally and internationally on topics related to individual, couples, and group psychotherapy.