More and more people have come to psychotherapists for help in improving their lives in a wide variety of ways. People who don’t have severe enough symptoms to warrant an official diagnosis are seeking help with their marriages or problems at work, or want to overcome social alienation or find more aliveness and meaning in life. In addition, many people who initially came to therapy with specific symptoms have stayed to make deeper changes in their personalities and lives. In other words, psychotherapy has evolved into much more than just a way to treat psychopathology.

A relatively new way of perceiving therapy clients as involved in personal growth aimed not only at resolving conflict and pain, but also enhancing their ability to relate to others, connect with themselves, and be alive, spontaneous, creative, and spiritual. Human growth is conceptualized as a path with limitless possibilities.

Group Therapy
Being part of an interactive therapy group can improve your ability to relate:

• In love relationships
• In your family
• With Friends
• On the job
• In social settings

• Develop your capacity for intimacy and learn how to make a love relationship work
• Become more assertive
• Become more outgoing and socially comfortable
• Understand and trust people of the opposite sex, or of the same sex
• Learn how to deal with anger and conflict constructively
• Become part of a loving community of people
• Raise your self-esteem
• Get in touch with your personal power

• Being in touch with your feelings and expressing them
• Reaching out to others confidently
• Saying ”No”assertively
• Allowing yourself to be open and vulnerable
• Expressing yourself forcefully and spontaneously
• Being comfortable relating to a group of people
• Asking for what you really want
• Having the courage to bring up difficult issues

The group process embodies the concept of healing through meeting. You can find your own and other people’s heart here. The group provides a safe, therapeutic climate which gives one an opportunity to increase self-awareness and refine interpersonal relationship skills.

• You work directly on how you are relating to the other group members in the moment. Instead of just talking about how you relate in your life, you practice interacting with others right in the group and get help as you do.


• You get direct and honest feedback on how people are reacting to you. We provide a safe place for you to try out new and risky behavior.


• You learn how to get in touch with your subtle emotional responses when you are interacting with someone and so discover greater choice in your behavior toward another.


• Everyone has certain patterns of relating to others. We help you to uncover those patterns that aren’t working for you, so you can experiment with changing them, right on the spot. We also help you identify those patterns that do work, so you can validate and expand on them.


• You see other people struggling with problems which may be similar to yours, and through this you learn about yourself and others.


• There is a strong sense of support for each person and a warm feeling of community in the group. You gradually learn to risk showing the group all of yourself, even those parts that you feel sure are bad, and discover that you are not only accepted, but appreciated for your vulnerability and courage.

Format
These are long-term, ongoing groups. You join when the group starts or when there is an opening, and you stay until you have achieved your goals for yourself. People get the most from group by staying for a year or two, or even longer. The groups are useful as an adjunct to individual therapy or on their own.