Thursday, March 8

Afternoon Workshops

2:45 P.M.-6:00 P.M.

Workshop 27

The Immersion Reflection Cycle of Group Experience

Chairs:         

Sheila Cummings, Ph.D., CGP, Associate Professor, University of Rochester Counseling Center, Rochester, New York

Lisa Lindsay, Ph.D., CGP, Staff Psychologist, University of Rochester Counseling Center, Rochester, New York

Lisa Willis, Ph.D., CGP, Director, University of Rochester Counseling Center, Rochester, New York

This workshop will demonstrate how the immersion-reflection cycle of learning is maximized in groups.  We will form two groups:  an inner-immersion group (individuals willing to share a dilemma with a patient, group, colleague, boss) and a surrounding reflective group, who will periodically share their emotional reactions to the inner group.  Utilizing a parallel process model in the here-and-now of our group, we will demonstrate how the containment and input of the surrounding-reflective group helps the inner group to re-enact and re-own their dilemmas.

experiential, demonstration, sharing of work experiences, didactic

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:

1. Gain a better understanding of how the two major curative factors (immersion and reflection) interact in group therapy.

2. Identify how split-off affect travels across boundaries and how to enable members to re-own their feelings.

3. Define the ways in which a group therapist holds, contains and "gives back" split-off affect.

Course References:

1. Bion, W. (1961).  Experiences in Groups. London: Tavistock.

2. Shapiro, E. (1997). The Inner World and the Outer World: Psychoanalytic perspectives. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

3. Billow, R. (2003). Relational Group Psychotherapy:  From basic assumptions to passion.  Jessica Kingsley Publishers.