GROUPS

Groups are powerful.  With assistance from a safe and supportive environment, individuals have a rare opportunity to work amongst their peers and receive honest, helpful, and challenging feedback.  By paying close attention to developing trust amongst the group members and leader, and by speaking outloud about the level of trust each person feels, the stage is set for a more intimate working environment.  What can be uniquely helpful about group is that people tend to listen to peers and take in their feedback more successfully than authority figures. And groups are certainly about peer interactions.

The five groups that I currently lead are based on two primary principles.  The first is what is called Family Systems Theory.  This theory suggests our unique family of origin has imprinted upon us very specific ways of dealing with the world, and we find our family dynamics recreated in numerous environments, including group therapy.  By paying close attention to understanding family dynamics, help may be offered to repair and re-work original hurts and injuries that continue to impact one’s current relationships, and to understand more clearly what actually an individual is needing, instead of what is the more familiar (and often dysfunctional) family dynamic.

The second principle is called the “here and now” dynamic.  In groups, participants bring their issues to the group and find in the group, some of the same dynamics and issues that exist outside of the group room.  For example, an individual whom is isolated in his life will find some degree of isolation in the group.  When this isolation is addressed and worked with, a better understanding of this dynamic is highlighted.

Current groups offered are:

San Francisco  (three groups)
Long-term groups for gay men, running between eight and eleven years.  Ongoing, with no parameters other than initial nine-month commitment. 

Menlo Park  (two groups)
Two short-term (sixteen weeks) groups; initial commitment sixteen weeks, which can be renewed. 

New Group Forming
Beginning in the fall of 2006, I will be offering a new long-term psychotherapy group for gay male therapists/mental health professionals.  This long-term closed group will offer a unique opportunity for gay male mental health professionals to be together, offer support addressing the challenges inherent in our profession and focus on personal needs and concerns. 

All groups require a screening interview(s); the short-term group requires a one hour interview; the longer term groups require a 2 to 3 hour interview (split into one hour segments).