The primary purpose of a long term interactive group is to provide a setting in which the issues of codependency emerge spontaneously ... Interactive group therapy works best when members discover themselves behaving inside the group much as they do in real life – being distrustful, controlling their feelings, sacrificing their own needs to ensure that others are taken care of, revealing only carefully chosen parts of themselves ... when they finally understand that those behaviours reflect habitual and unconscious patterns, the group can become a laboratory for experimenting with alternative behaviours ...
Dr Timmen Cermak: Diagnosing and Treating Co Dependency (pgs 88-89)
This is my first experience with a therapy group however it is not my first time at being a member or a group that is an intense close association of people to use as a sounding board, a sympathetic ear, or just friends to play. As I moved into my spousal relationship I left many of those groups behind in favour of stability. The downside of any group is that they will eventually cease. Hopefully parting from the group is a natural transition with purpose. My concern is my former experience is with large groups of a dozen to thirty members. We essentially became each others family as most of us were dysfunctional in our own way.
ReplyDelete