Group Therapy

I'm taking the LAST CLASS OF MY LIFE this summer and it's group therapy. What a great course to end on! The class is 3 hours a day and the first half of it consists of all of us students forming a group with the instructor being the group therapist (he is in private practice and IS a group therapist so it's all kosher) and the second half of the class is lecture.

Being in a group is AMAZING! I recommend it to any and all! Now, granted, some of it may have to do with the fact that we're all therapists already so we kind of 'get it' as to how this whole therapy thing works, but I have to imagine that with a good leader all groups could eventually get to this place.

I've learned things about total strangers that have taken my close friends years to reveal. I've also learned that I have more in common with total strangers than I ever could've imagined! Finally, I learned that someone I had already known before the group (and did not care for) was actually quite similar to me and much of my distaste for this person probably comes from that very fact. When people display our least favorite traits in ourselves it tends to hit a chord.

The book we are reading for the class is called "The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy," and it's written by the guru of group psych, Irvin Yalom. He comes of as an intellectual snob, but he's a psychiatrist so what do you expect? :) Just check out this picture and you'll see what I mean.