Intersectionality and Group Analysis: Explorations of Power, Privilege, and Position in Group Therapy

Drawing on clinical practice, this book explores how the Black feminist idea of intersectionality is vital to all group work practices, including group analysis.

Intersectionality enables exploration of power, position, and privilege in group work; this volume is an argument for the ‘decolonizing’ of therapeutic group training, practice, and institutional traditions. The wide range of contributors discuss the impact of intersectionality on their work within group analysis, from clinical examples to theoretical reflections. Chapters span topics such as leadership, racism, working with survivors of sexual violence, and the experience of being a political refugee. Intersectionality and Group Analysis provides a space to develop clinically relevant theory for the future and includes an accessible introduction to the concepts of intersectionality.

This essential text will be key reading for group analysts, other professionals working with and within groups, and readers looking to learn more about enhancing diversity within structures and organizations.

Suryia Nayak, PhD is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at University of Salford, UK. She is a group analyst and feminist activist and has over 40 years of experience applying intersectionality in her work to end violence against women and girls, the trauma of forced migration, and the impact of colonization.

Alasdair Forrest, MRCPsych is a Group Analyst. He is Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Medical Psychotherapist at the Royal Cornhill Hospital, Scotland, UK. He chairs the Faculty of Medical Psychotherapy of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland and the training committee of the Glasgow Foundation Course in Group Analysis.