Analytic Group Consultation for Intermediate Beginners: What I Wish I Knew When I Started to Run Groups

Analytic Group Consultation for Intermediate Beginners provides a complete, accessible guide to running groups, and addresses the gaps in training and the challenges that emerge in the group therapy experience.

Presented in bite-size sections that follow the rhythm of weekly consultation sessions, the book offers an experienced perspective on facilitating groups, addressing specific questions, challenges, and dynamics that may emerge during the process. It begins with common issues in starting a group―introducing it, demystifying the experience, translating symptoms into therapeutic goals, and clarifying its value in complementing individual treatment. Byk outlines key theories that inform his work, including object relations theory, systems theory, and ego psychology, providing a solid theoretical foundation for purposeful interventions. The book explores working with depression, boredom, projective identification, scapegoating, role locks, flooding, and enactments, and addresses difficult dynamics such as the "elephant in the room," guilt, shame, and the power of witnessing repair in group settings. Providing a solid base for practitioners to work from, the book compellingly explains how group therapy can help patients, and how to communicate its benefits to them.

Analytic Group Consultation for Intermediate Beginners will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and mental health practitioners in training, and those starting in group work. It will also be of interest to academics and students of psychology, psychiatry, and social work.

Arthur C. Byk, LCSW, is a New York based, analytically oriented psychotherapist in private practice, focused on individual, group, and couples therapy. He has five therapy groups that have been meeting for over 35 years. In his career he has led more than 8,500 group therapy and group consultation sessions.