Workshops & Paper Presentations
Saturday 17.6.16
Paper PresentationsOP2
Chair: Pnina Rappaport Growth Through Doctors-Only Therapy Groups Clare Gerada The Workshop/Presentation will focus on ‘Groups of Belonging’ for medical practitioners; and how homogenous groups help redress the barriers to receiving treatment than many in the caring professions experience. Freidman (2015), talks of the Soldiers Matrix; Doctors also inhabit their own special matrix ‘The Doctors Matrix;’ invisible connections, created through the entanglement of two identities: core (personal) and the trained (professional) self – impossible to separate, even by abstraction. Doctors have a deep-rooted sense of being special, reinforced by societies view of the archetypal wounded-healer. They learn, play, work, live and love together. Their title ‘Dr’, institutionalises specialness, validated through contact with patients and via rituals, language, dress, interactions and gaze; their own special social unconscious. The persona of a ‘doctor’ is set in juxtaposition to not being a patient and when becoming one consultations become difficult to negotiate especially where mental ill-health is involved. As patients, status and role become confused seen against the status they have just left, that of the powerful doctor. To overcome internalised barriers, doctor-only therapy groups for those with mental health and/or addiction problems have been established. These groups provide the transitional space allowing for assimilation of differences and understanding of similarities, and for translucent connections to begin to be (re)made allowing for belonging, identity and healing. For professional carers making such an attachment validates their caring identity, paradoxically allowing them to let it go, and seek care for themselves allowing separation to happen and psychological growth to occur. Key words: Isolation: Medical-Self; Belonging; Doctors-Matrix; Attachment References Friedman R. A Soldier’s Matrix: A Group Analytic View of Societies in War Group Analysis September 2015 vol. 48 no. 3 239-257 In Search of a Good Enough Father Veronica Read This paper will be a personal account of the group analyst as trainee, attempting to integrate past familial involvement in the British Mandate of Palestine from 1938-48. It will be given by a group analyst whose father had direct involvement with the British administrative control of Palestine during the 2nd World War. Entitled ' In search of a Good Enough Father', the paper will explore how 'the mind is peopled by part objects and by subcultures of the past' (De Mare). It will discuss how through the processes of dialogue in the group there was growth from the authoritarian 'there and then' to the humanised and real 'here and now' of paternal authority. Key Words: Social Unconscious. Introjection. Family interpretations. Conflict. Veronica Read has worked in both Health and Education. She has published books for nursery staff caring for very young children in group daycare: ‘Developing Attachment in Early Years Settings- nurturing secure relationships from birth to five years’ David Fulton, Routledge 2009, 2ND Edition published May 2014, and ‘Building Positive Relationships with the Parents of Young Children- a guide to effective communication’ Veronica Read and Anita Hughes David Fulton, Routledge 2012 SV2
Supervision group: exchange our knowledge - feel the growth (session #2) We propose two co-supervised supervision meetings. During supervision groups, meaningful and valuable processes emerge, such as: Exchange, Resonance, Mirroring, etc. During the conference, the participants of the supervision groups will bring in to the meetings moments from their own therapy groups, in which the exchange relations were either possible or blocked. We will try and identify the possible elements and causes, allowing for or holding back, the evolution processes in the groups of "there and then" alongside the "here and now". We will explore the group therapists’ position, and his perception as a catalyst for the aforementioned processes. Zohn Hagit (M.S.W,), Psychotherapist, group analyst, supervisor Goren Nurit (M.S.W,), Psychotherapist, group analyst, supervisor Hagit Zohn. Psychotherapist (M.S.W.), group analyst, supervisor in the Israeli Institute of Groups Analysis. Head of the Group Conductors Program in Kibbutzim College and co-leading the conductors program in IDC Herzelia. A member of the academic board of the program for psychotherapy in Tel-Aviv University. Nurit Goren. Psychotherapist, (M.S.W.), group analyst, supervisor. One of the initiators and past convener of the Training Program for Group Analysts in Israel (2004-2012). A member of the Executive Committee of IIGA. Head of the Teaching Committee.She is a psychotherapy supervisor in "The Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program", in Bar-Ilan University and worked, for many years, as a lecturer and supervisor in training programs for leading groups in Tel-Aviv and Ben-Gurion Universities. |
WorkshopsWS7
Secrets and Lies in the Group Analytic Group Yael Doron and Liat Warhftig Aran The tendency to lie and hold secrets (known to the person and hidden from the group) is not an individual pathology, but a universal phenomenon, that can be considered as a Relational Disorder (Friedman2007). When a person shares a secret or reveals a lie in the group, an informative discourse can start, regarding the meaning of the content. In this workshop, however, we would like to stress the secret-telling as a transformative dimension – from feelings of shame, humiliation and isolation towards self-acceptance, belonging to the group, and even a new quality of courage and leadership. The unconscious material, according to Freud (1914), is remembered, repeated and worked through in the analytic session. Similarly, in the group, long before they find words and become conscious, the secrets and lies are already enacted and come to life in the group through the unique transpersonal interaction between the group members (Foulkes and Anthony, 1957). In the workshop we will practice together identifying the unconscious meaning of the secret that is revealed through the special timing of the secret telling, the motivation for telling and to whom it is told. We will also explore together the opportunity the group provides its participants to deal with lies and secrets. We understand secrets and lies as barriers to communication and intimacy but also as a whispering hope for a new beginning (Balint, 1968), by request for containment and demand for influence (Friedman, 2015). We will discuss the conductor's role in encouraging horizontal exploration of the transpersonal dimensions related to secrets and lies revealing through mirroring, resonance and exchange between the group members (Foulkes, 1964). We will also deal with the role of the conductor and the group as a container (Bion,1970), translating the unbearable and unconscious experiences that accompany the secret into meaningful communication. Key words: secrets, lies, relational disorders, informative-transformative, multiple self-states. References Balint, M. (1968) The Basic Fault. Evanston, III, Northwestern University Press. Bion, W.R. (1970) Container and contained. In: Attention and interpretation. London. Tavistock. Foulkes, S.H. (1964) Therapeutic Group Analysis. London: Karnac. Foulkes, S.H. and Anthony, A.J. (1957) Group Psychotherapy: The Psychoanalytic Approach. London; Karnac. Friedman, R. (2007) Where to Look? Supervising Group Analysis – A Relational Disorder Perspective, Group Analysis, 40(2): 251-268. Friedman, R. (2015) Using the Transpersonal in Dreamtelling and Conflict. Group Analysis, 48(1): 45-60. Bio- Liat Warhaftig Aran, clinical psychologist, private Practice, conducting an analytic group therapy and a candidate of the IIGA. Liat is supervising group conductors at the National Insurance Institute, teaching in Bar Ilan University, and a staff member at the Central School for social workers and at "Kivunim" center for psychodrama. Yael Doron, Psychologist and Group Analyst. On the Doctoral Program, Haifa University. Staff member at IIGA, at the School of Psychotherapy in Rambam Hospital, and at the Central School for Social Workers. Private practice. Co-editor of "Group Analysis in the Land of Milk and Honey". WS8 "Hall of Mirrors" Revisited: Presenting Psychotherapeutic Playback Theatre as Group analytic Drama Therapy Ronen Kowalsky, M.A., Playback Theatre is a form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on stage. (Fox, 1986). Playback Theater is also adapted for use in therapeutic settings by various psychotherapists as a form of group drama therapy (e.g. Salas, 2008). However, a unifying theory of psychotherapeutic playback theater was never presented. The present workshop will present and demonstrate such a theory initiated from a group analytic point of view. Thus, following McNeilly's (2006) presentation of "group analytic art therapy", the present workshop will present psychotherapeutic playback theater as "group analytic drama therapy". During sessions of psychotherapeutic playback theater group members switch continuously between "playing the other", examining the experience and practicing the ability to observe the situation from his/her perspective, and "allowing the other to play me", expanding the perspective of looking at self from the perspective of the other. This process will be examined as providing ongoing training in empathy, resonance and mirroring, working through the difficulties involve. A language of theatrical images is being created gradually through this process, which can be seen as reflecting condenser phenomenon. The theatrical enactment will be examined as a creative clarification and working through of the matrix and mirror reactions (Foulkes & Anthony, 1965). In addition, similar aspects of psychotherapeutic playback theater and group analytic dream work will be considered with an emphasis on storytelling as a request for containment (Friedman, 2002). Bibliography Foulkes , R. H., & Anthony, E. J., (1965). Group Psychotherapy: The Psychoanalytic Approach. London: Penguin Books. Fox,J., (1986). Acts Of Service: Spontaneity, Commitment, Tradition in the Nonscripted Theatre. New-York: Tusitala Publishing. Fridman, R., (2002). Dream Story as a request for containment in Group Therapy. In: C. Neri, M. Pines & R. Fridman (Eds.). Dreams in Group Psychotherapy. London: Jessica Kingsley. McNelly, G., (2006). Group Analytic Art Therapy. London: Jessica Kingsley. Salas, J., (2008). Do My Story, Sing My Song: Music therapy and Playback Theatre with troubled children. New-York: Tusitala Publishing. Lecturer: Ronen Kowalsky – Supervising clinical psychologist. Candidate at the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis. Founder and Head of the Israeli Institute of Psychotherapeutic Playback Theater. Supervisor & Lecturer at Winnicott Center, Magid Institute and The Academic College of Society and Art. Acted, wrote and directed in various theaters. Established "The Left Bank Theater Group", Tel - Aviv and "Third Generation" German-Israeli theater project. WS9 What does it give us to take part on the Israeli-German Group Analytic Conference 'Voices after Auschwitz'? One voice from Tel Aviv and one from Berlin. Kathrin Albert and Michal Eilon central themes to speak about and to discuss with the participants of the workshop: - who are the participants on the three conferences, who we are - the special things of the conference of Ginosar (small and large groups, music and films with discussion) - why we personally participated on the conferences, including our different familar history, what are our interests - which experiences we did with the small and the large groups in Nasholim and in Ginosar - how to describe the changes of large group process from the perspective of an Iraeli and from a German view, what changes in Tel Aviv and Berlin - what are preconditions to speak with each other about resentment, encroachment and exclusion and what this had done with us, personally - how we still speaking although strange feelings and (unconscius) prejudice WS10 Eyes Wide Shut Tammy Elad & Shulamit Geller Modern Society, being dynamic and complex, is practically a labyrinth of longing and desire for relationships as well as fears, secrets and misunderstandings. As psychotherapists we often deal with the never ending mystery of how people decide what to declare and what to hide, emphasized by human curiosity accompanied by anxiety, envy and shame present at the core of any human communication in general and in the analytic setting in particular. Eyes Wide Shut is about all the forces and influences, both internal and external that define this quest for knowing and relating, through explicit and subtle messages and symbols. It is about the eternal back-and-forth between reality and phantasy, old and new and between males and females principles in a confused modern world. Group analysis's concept of the ' matrix' as an operational basis of all relationships and communication may offer an arena in which desires and fears within oneself and regarding the other may be examined and reflected upon. The workshop will encourage free floating discussion and exchange as a tool for reaching out each other and oneself in the group, creating a space that holds sameness and otherness, intimacy and estrangement, while allowing the construction of an ever widening zone of mutual understanding (Foulkes, 1964) and knowledge. A limit of 12 participants is requested. Shulamit Geller, Ph.D., a supervising clinical psychologist, on faculty at the Graduate Program at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv, Yaffo. A member of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis, and in private practice in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Tammy Elad, MSW, Individual, couple and group therapist and supervisor, on faculty at the group therapy training program at Tel Aviv University. A member of the Israeli Institute of Group Analysis, and in private practice in Tel-Aviv, Israel. WS11 The presence of the body in the group matrix at the individual, inter-personal and Group-as-a-Whole levels, embodiment resonance, GroupBody Zahara Elias-Cohen "As to touch not too much not too little It is only then that you touch the chords of the universe" (Momentary Reflections on Movement / David Michaeli) Main themes:Structure: In the workshop we will work with movement while listening to the individual and group body. We will then process and reflect on both individual and collective experience. A key process in groups and in understanding the group matrix is resonance (Foulkes, 1964) that starts in the body, through innate somatic systems, like mirror neuron system and self and other regulation systems (Bucci, 2001; Beebe et al., 2003; Carroll, 2001(. Those systems operate mainly out of awareness, through perception of stimuli from others and the environment, and influence the somatic, emotional and mental (verbal) reactions of the participants and conductor. In other words, in order to fully understand the Matrix, in all levels – personal, inter-personal and Group as-a-Whole - one must also address the personal body, as well as the inter-personal body and GroupBody (Maoz, 2014). In our workshop, through experiencing movement and improvisation, we will experience our bodily presence as group participants, and focus on our bodily awareness in various situations within the group. Awareness to our bodily presence allows us to be more connected to ourselves, the others in the group and the Group-as-a-Whole. Paying attention to our somatic reactions in various situations within the group, in personal, inter-personal and Group-as-a-Whole encounters, allows us to enrich and deepen our somatic awareness - a tool through which we can better understand group processes, as both participants and group leaders. Bibliography: Beebe B., Ruskin J., Sorter, D., Knoblauch S., (2003). Introduction: A System View. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 13:743-775 Bucci, W., (2001). Pathways of Emotional Communication. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 21, 40- 70. Carroll, R., (2001). The New Anatomy: Is the Ego More than Skin Deep? A talk given at Springfield Hospital, 18th September 2001. http://www.thinkbody.co.uk/papers/is-the-ego-more.htm Foulkes, S.H., (1946). On Group Analysis. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 27:46-51. Maoz, M., (2014)/ GroupBody, The Non-Verbal Dimension of the Group-as-a-Whole, Dissertation, Professional School of Psychology, Sacramento, CA., USA. WS12 A Stage for the soul: exchange through psychodrama. orit mass- goldman In this 90 minutes workshop we will focus on the negative and blocking feelings that will come up spontanesously from the matrix of the group. Feelings of anger , envy, helplessness , embarrassment and so on, will be worked through psychodrama techniques. The inner feelings will turn into images that will be acted on the group stage. The assumption underlying this work is that this kind of process has the potential to cause change, and what threatnes to destroy, can turn to be creative and therapeuitic. Action is the essence of psychodrama. In this workshop we will act and play with what comes up in order to experience another option of process that can increase the potential space in the individual and also in the group as a hole. The conductor: orit mass- goldman: psychodramatist, group anlyst, senior lecturer at the college of arts and society. |