Transcript Chapter 6: Therapist – Working in the Here and Now

Chapter 6: Therapist –
Working in the Here and
Now
The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy
Irvin Yalom, Ph.D
Working in the Here and Now
• What is a major difference between a psycho educational group and
process/psychotherapy group?
Working in the Here and Now
• The focus of the here and now requires two factors through out the process.
• 1. Focusing on the current moment which takes on a greater priority than the past
and future.
– facilitates the emergence of each member’s social microcosm.
2. The Illumination of the Process
- It reflects on recent here and now behaviors in order to add the cognitive
understanding or component of what occurred.
Working in the Here and Now
• The directing the group to the here and now can be shared with the
group members.
• self reflection remains the predominant responsibility of the therapist.
Working in the Here and Now
• In the reflection aspect, the clinician needs to focus on the Meta
communicational level. Example p 132
• The central route of communication or content (i.e. the data).
• The peripheral route of communication or the presentation (i.e. how,
when and tone).
Working in the Here and Now
• The processing of the here and now is a very unique feature to the
group therapy experience.
– USUALLY, this will differentiate it from a psychoeducational group.
– Additionally, a psychoeducational group will be more restricted to the assigned
theme for that group.
• Where else are you able to comment about another’s behavior (positive
or negative) without being seen as arrogant, condescending, neurotic,
patronizing, etc.
• This process sometimes evokes early memories of parental criticism.
Working in the Here and Now
• Hence, it is associated with socialization anxiety.
• Additionally, if it occurred all the time society would become
intolerably self conscious. Consider Freud and Jung correspondence.
• Another reason for the lack of here and now is the fear of retaliation.
Working in the Here and Now
• It also leads to power equalization,
– It is also this process of illumination that sets the therapist apart from the other group
members.
– This makes the clinician an observer- participant.
– Group members can make process comments but it should not be out of defensive
behaviors.
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