READING/Process group

Exploring “The Group Therapy Experience” by Lou Ormont, Ph.D. and “Group” with Elliot Ziesel, Ph.D.

A 12-week reading/process group for therapists and people Interested in group process 

***12 APA CEUs AVAILABLE***

Led by Zach Bryant, Ph.D., CGP

Mondays 8:15-9:45 a.m.

(8/24, 8/31, 9/14, 9/21, 9/28, 10/5, 10/12, 10/19, 10/26, 11/2, 11/9, 11/16)

Green Hills, TN | $80 session | Initial 3 month commitment | Limited to 10 participants

This group is for anyone interested in diving deeper into the world of group process—whether you’re a therapist looking to learn or enrich your skills or someone curious about how group dynamics can foster growth.

During each of the 12 meetings, participants will meet as a working process group for the first 75 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of questions/answers along with didactic instruction. During the process portion of the groups, members will be encouraged to share their thoughts and feelings about the readings and videos as well as about the dynamics unfolding in the group.

Participants will read Lou Ormont’s book “The Group Therapy Experience” over the first 8 weeks, which is a useful book about the practical applications of modern analytic group techniques.  Ormont offers guidance on forming groups, deepening emotional engagement, resolving resistances and transference, and fostering transformative connections unique to group work. Many of the techniques and dynamic conceptualizations are useful for individual therapy as well.  

In the last 4 weeks, participants will watch “Group,” a dramatization inspired by Irvin Yalom’s book The Schopenhauer Cure where the group therapist in the series (“Ezra”) is actually played by one of Lou Ormont’s students, Elliot Ziesel, Ph.D.. It is an interesting fictional depiction of a working group.

Each participant must purchase the book and schedule one individual session to review the group agreement and discuss fit and goals for joining the group. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR THE TRAINING INCLUDE:

• Describe the group agreement in modern analytic group psychotherapy.
• Identify key elements of group process, including here-and-now interactions, emotional engagement, and interpersonal feedback.
• Recognize common forms of resistance in group therapy and describe strategies for addressing them constructively.
• Explain how transference and countertransference emerge within group settings and how these dynamics influence group development.
• Apply interventions that deepen emotional engagement among group members and increase therapeutic impact.
• Differentiate between leader-centered interventions and member-to-member process work in psychotherapy groups.
• Identify moments when group leaders can facilitate exploration of interpersonal dynamics occurring in the here-and-now.
• Describe how group cohesion develops and explain its role as a therapeutic factor in group therapy.
• Recognize patterns of communication, avoidance, and alliance formation that commonly emerge in psychotherapy groups.
• Evaluate fictional portrayals of group therapy dynamics in the series Group and compare them to real clinical group processes.
• Demonstrate increased capacity to observe and reflect on group dynamics through participation in a live interpersonal process group.
• Integrate insights from group process into individual psychotherapy practice, including the use of immediacy, emotional engagement, and relational feedback.

THIS EXPERIENCE IS AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE OF ALL LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE