1st Edition
Group Analytic Therapists at Work Everyday Group Analysis
Group Analytic Therapists at Work is an accessible introduction to the experience of being in group analytic psychotherapy from a wide range of perspectives.
Written by members of the Group Analytic Network London, the chapters explore the history of group analysis and span key areas, including the political and the social, diversity and difference, gender and norms, and isolation and the social sphere. Group Analytic Therapists at Work contains discussion of themes such as group work with differing age ranges and life stages, cultural considerations, normativity, inclusion and exclusion, isolation and the internet. Each chapter provides insight from an experienced group analyst into what happens in groups, what group analysts think about while running their groups and, fundamentally, what group analysis is about.
This book will be of great interest to psychotherapists in practice and in training, group therapists and group analysts and other professionals, as well as anyone else seeking to increase their understanding of group work.
Acknowledgements
About the Contributors
List of Abbreviations
Introduction What do we call what we do?
Amélie Noack, David Vincent
Part 1 Groups and group therapy
Chapter 1 Why groups are important and what they do
Amélie Noack
Chapter 2 History and Development of Group Analysis
David Vincent
Chapter 3 The Group Analytic Network London
Sue Einhorn, Amélie Noack
Part 2 The political and the social
Chapter 4 The Political and the Personal
Diane Rogan-Sofer
Chapter 5 In the Realm of the Political
Eugene Clerkin
Chapter 6 The Strange Phenomenon of being a Group Analyst
Sue Einhorn
Part 3 Diversity and difference
Chapter 7 A Turkish Speaking Women’s Group and the Cultural Considerations in everyday Group Analysis
Seda Sengun
Chapter 8 Finding Words for It – The Birth of Group Analytic Training in Rwanda
Justin Phipps
Chapter 9 The Dynamics of the Social Unconscious at Work in the Therapy Group
Sylvia Hutchison
Chapter 10 Who helps whom? A Group Analytic Approach to Working with Mothers and Babies in an NHS Perinatal Mental Health Service
Sheila Ritchie
Part 4 Gender and norms
Chapter 11 The Matrix as Container and Crucible
Amelie Noack
Chapter 12 The Father in the Group
David Vincent
Chapter 13 The Patrix – A new Concept for Group Analysis
Amelie Noack
Chapter 14 Normative Authority
Sarah Tucker
Part 5 Isolation and the social sphere
Chapter 15 Internet and Group Analysis
Neil Telfer
Chapter 16 Psychic and Social Isolation
Sylvia Hutchinson
Chapter 17 Teaching and Learning in Small Groups: Maximising learning and minimising anxiety in an Experiential Group
Sandra Evans
Chapter 18 Belonging: Inclusion and Exclusion – Who has the Power
Sue Einhorn
References
Index
Biography
Amélie Noack is a training group analyst and a Jungian psychoanalyst. She worked in private practice, as well as teaching and supervising in the UK and abroad, was Convenor of the London Qualifying Course and Foundation Course and served on the EGATIN Committee. She now works at GRAS in Germany.
David Vincent is a group analyst and psychoanalytic psychotherapist with a Professional Doctorate from the University of Essex and worked for many years in the NHS as Consultant Adult Psychotherapist. He has been Chair of Council for the IGA and Chair of Ethics for the BPC.
"This is an ambitious book and its aims - to provide a history of group analysis, to identify some of the key issues in contemporary practice and to say something about how groups might be expected to help people - are resoundingly well met. The authors expertly set out the many strands which arise in a multi-authored text of this kind and the breadth and the depth of the many well-chosen clinical examples shed light on how one might utilise that knowledge to promote insight and understanding. The contributors reflect on the original concepts and introduce some new ideas arising from their own valuable body of written work and practice illustrated with some well-chosen clinical examples. An absorbing read." - Ewa Wojciechowska, The Institute of Group Analysis
"This book is a declaration of love for groups and for group analysis. It tells us why groups are important, what kind of role they play in our lives and how we can use group analysis, as a specific psychotherapeutic method, to explore the inner dynamics of groups, thus helping to heal disturbed human beings. The book describes and focuses on many different aspects, thus being of great help to those, who always wanted to know, how group analysis cures and why group analysis is so efficient in doing this." - Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Rohr, Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany and International Group Analytic Consultant (GASI).
"This collaborative work from members of a leading group analytic network provides an invaluable exploration of how group analysis, with its understanding of the individual as a nodal point in a dynamic matrix of social, cultural, biological, and political forces, offers an effective model for a comprehensive intersectional understanding of groups and individuals in a complex, interdependent world. Covering both the underpinnings of the group analytic approach as well as contemporary developments in theory and practice, this book will engage clinicians, academics and anyone interested in the psychosocial world." - Peter Wilson, Fitzrovia Group Analytic Practice
