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In my experience group therapy can be a much faster route to emotional growth and development; a much more healing environment; a serious challenge to being "in our heads"; an antidote to isolation which was so prevalent during the pandemic lockdown; and a powerful solution to what ails us. You may not feel "ready" or "interested" in this method, and, if you are willing to try group therapy, the things you are challenged by in life will shift more quickly.

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In group therapy we can learn to listen with an openness that is rare in other situations. We can listen in new ways in order to create, not to evaluate, assess or negate. People often listen selectively to what others are saying—to hear something they agree or disagree with, to assess the “truth” of what is said, to size up the speaker, or to hear the pause that signals “it’s my turn now.” Learning to listen as part of caring about others it can significantly shift how we feel and act in the world.

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Building community is critical to human development and learning. Humans are social beings. We are relational and frequently we are part of something larger than ourselves. We - and the world we live in - are continuously growing, changing, and developing. Humans can transform ourselves and our communities. Through relational work and relationships—our connectedness, and the collaborative nature of human activity – we grow and things get done. Group therapy is a microcosm of this.

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The language of theatre does a wonderful job of capturing how people are socially connected and how we create things together than psychological terminology/jargon does. Envisioning life itself as a series of stages - upon which people in ensembles, groups, and teams create the  "scenes" of our lives. These "life scenes" can be created through the use of performance, playing and improvising in group therapy.

 

The use of performance—being who we are, and also at the same time “other” than who we are—is at the core of engaging and responding to our emotional, social and intellectual environments in new ways. It taps into our human capacity to work and to play, and to create with others. Performance in this setting is not the same as performative, an entirely different term used to judge the actions of others.

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​​Human beings are both determined by existing circumstances (what is) and, very importantly, have the capacity to transform our selves and our circumstances into something new (what is becoming). Group therapy is one of the many ways in which we can use collective experiences to inform how we relate to ourselves and others.

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