Sounds like a truly transformational and conceptual blog post, especially for a number one entry into this new blog domain. Allow me to narrow the frame. In my effort to teach and introduce my clients and supervisees about why I would recommend ‘group psychotherapy’ I typically will do several things including the following: 1) articulate how an event/interaction in individual psychotherapy might be addressed in a group session; 2) state that we all already have had and continue to have many, many group experiences and that group psychotherapy will help us to navigate our existing groups; 3) that I myself have had a long, long stint in several groups one of which was 13 years long; and, 4) that a well functioning group will provide insulation from isolation and it will, if you invest, help you grow, mature and evolve in all of your life relationships. That said, I have not stated clearly to any of my clients my earliest introduction into the therapy group experience.
Here we go.....Picture a handsome young man of 21, terribly heart-broken as his first girlfriend of 9 months just went off for a year abroad to that bastion of heathenism and carnal delights, FRANCE! That was me. Heart- broken and very, very anxious. It was a critical event that led me to seek psychotherapy with a wonderful priest, named Levi, who helped me cope with my panic attacks and depression at the time of the loss of my lovely, Michelle (tremendous kisser and beautiful skin). While the individual psychotherapy was going really well, a good buddy of mine, lets call him ‘Horse’, was simultaneously having a disastrous set of similar panic attacks (unbeknownst to me), in part, due to his girlfriend of several years either cheating on him or breaking up or some stuff of that nature. Levi, good hearted and loving, took Horse into therapy as well. Then, Levi said....”Hey, lets all of three of us meet together.” I must of said something like, “Sure’”. There in, my dear reader, lay/lie?...”The Origins of MY Group Psychotherapy’!
Having not known what I was experiencing (panic attacks and depression) subsequent to a very deep attachment, Levi helped comfort, educate and explain the symptom set to me via the individual sessions. The ‘attachment’ to him was warm and supportive, life-altering. Through this connection with Levi, I realized that I was having a very rough time, but I was not certifiably ‘crazy’. Heart - broken, yes! Grieving the early losses of my family relationships, yes! Crazy.....? NO! Life - altering! Yes!
With Levi and Horse in our fledgling group, (a young man of my same age and very handsome to boot), we embarked on quite a different healing endeavor. You see, Horse was a friend of mine and we shared many, many classes in college, but I had no idea of his troubles, nor he of mine. We were isolated in panicked despair. After we began meeting, I learned of his despair, and he, mine. Connection in the pain was as healing. However, the comfort that some ‘other’ of my own age whom I identified with outside the power differential of the therapist-patient dyad was liberating. I was not alone and it became easier to believe and see that what Levi was stating regarding the prevalence of the panic attacks in my age-cohort was not off- base. Horse and I additionally learned that we shared similar qualities. We were: 1) both working class; 2) both had fathers who were employed and mothers who stayed at home; 3) both first generation in college; 4) both lost our first major loves; and, 5) both, had mom’s who went to the Polish Mothers School!
Horse took on an immense and deeply more personal presence in my life. We remain friends until this day, though I do not see him as nearly as often as I would like. We attended each others weddings and we stand as witnesses to the growth we nurtured in each other with the guidance of Levi at that critical time in our lives. The trajectory of each of our lives was altered through this most simplest of groups. These memories and their significance hold true and are testament to the fact that this occurred about 38 years ago.
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