Virtual Interpersonal Process Group Therapy for Therapists
Understand your patterns and parts by gaining insight from others.
We say we want closeness, but do we know what makes others feel close to us?
“Too often, we therapists neglect our personal relationships. Our work becomes our life.” - Irvin Yalom
As a therapist, it can feel much easier to see something in your clients than it is in your own life. Interpersonal process groups focus on helping you understand your relational patterns by gaining insight into how others perceive and receive you, which you don’t typically get in individual therapy, supervision, or training programs.
The main benefit of group work is that you actually get to hear feedback from others. You can ask them how close or far they feel to you, in a space where all your emotional experiences are welcome.
Designed for therapists
The process groups I lead are specifically therapy for the therapist because I realized that the field doesn’t prioritize the mental health of the people who are doing the work of holding space for others.
The industry is focused on theories and their millions of acronyms, supervision, and acquisition of clinical skills. Meanwhile, there are so few spaces for therapists to go to understand their own experiences.These process groups provide a space for you to feel safe and understood as a therapist and a person.
An experiential approach to group therapy
In process groups, we focus more on how something is said and what is left out, rather than the actual content of what you say. We work on helping you understand your relational patterns by gaining insight into how others perceive you.
As the group progresses, we lean into exploration of how past attachment patterns and engagement with emotions have led us to move towards or away from interpersonal interactions.
Supervision focuses on how you help OTHER people.
Process groups make it about YOU and your needs.
Through process group work, you can:
Identify your own emotions, experiences, and needs, and express them in ways that move you closer to others.
It starts by trying it out in group. Over time, you will feel more confident to try the same skills outside of group. The group serves as your personal cheerleaders and conflict excavators because you’re all working towards the same goal of learning about yourselves in social settings.
Decrease chances of burnout by having a space where you can be your authentic self — without having to hide behind a veil of “competent clinician.”
You don’t have anything to prove (to yourself or anyone else) in these groups. The more you’re able to come face-to-face with challenging emotional experiences, the less you shy away from those areas in your clinical work with clients.
Identify blind spots by being open to hearing feedback about yourself.
It can feel scary to hear how others perceive you. Yet hearing how you are received by others gives you the opportunity to move in alignment with your goals and values. Professionally speaking, knowing our blind spots and triggers is critical so we don’t unknowingly put onto our clients something that belongs to us.
Peel yourself away from over-identifying with your profession.
You’re so much more than what you do for work. When was the last time you checked in with yourself about what you crave in other areas of life? What wakes you up? What sparks your creativity? Learn more about these parts of yourself that you may not have explored yet.
Challenge your perfectionistic patterns.
Show up even when you don’t have all the answers, feel uncertain about the outcome, and explore what it means to sit in the depths of the unknown territories. We gain confidence in ourselves and our abilities by showing up and doing something we usually wouldn’t dare to.
I know, I know…process group therapy can sound quite overwhelming at first
If you haven’t done this type of work before, you may be holding your breath as you read about it.
It can be nerve-racking to picture yourself in an online meeting with people you don’t know, trying to move yourself out of your comfort zone, yet unsure what to say or when to say it. That’s a natural reaction.
As time goes on and you get familiar with other members. You start to take risks that allow others to do the same. It becomes a chain reaction.
The outcome is depth, curiosity about emotional experiences, and re-shaping of your nervous system so you feel more comfortable speaking up about your emotional and somatic needs. You experience what it’s like to be attuned to in the present moment.
Fees, frequency and format
Fee: $70 per session, paid after each session (80 minutes) and $100 for the intake session.
Insurance: Group therapy may be covered under your private insurance. It is your responsibility to check with your insurance provider. I provide you with a receipt after each session that you can submit to your insurance for reimbursement if applicable.
Frequency and duration: groups are held weekly, for 12 weeks. After the initial 12 weeks, the group as a whole has an opportunity to extend for another 12 weeks.
As with all therapy, it’s consensual, meaning you can leave at any point in time. However, because your departure will have an impact on the other group members, I ask that you dedicate 2 sessions to process your decision with the group. This is a great opportunity for yourself and the group members to try on a different way of navigating endings…something that inevitably happens in life.
Format: All group sessions are held virtually over Doxy.me, so you can join from the comfort of your own home.
Screening procedures: All group members are required to join a free 20-minute group screening to determine fit and answer any questions, followed by an intake session ($100 for 45 mins) closer to the group start date.
Currently enrolling for these process groups:
Process groups are on Mondays at the following times:
9:30 am - 10:50 am
11:30 am - 12:50 pm
1:30 pm - 2:50 pm
3:30 pm - 4:50 pm
Open to Ontario residents.
Enrollment is open until 5 group members are recruited.
Curious about how this would actually play out?
Let me paint you a picture.
I've designed my groups to create a space where therapists feel comfortable discussing their own mental health, emotional, and social experiences in the here-and-now.
I want my groups to feel like a place where you don't feel like you are in the driver's seat as the therapist. A space where you can really allow yourself to get in touch with your emotional experiences, which can be much harder to access when in professional settings like supervision or training where we may feel like we’re being graded.
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You join a virtual process group, and as you’re getting comfortable, you scooch yourself to the back of your seat. When you see everyone else, they’re seated closer to the screen, but you think nothing of it.
When it’s your turn to speak, you state that speaking up in groups is challenging to begin with. Then, someone expresses that seeing you so far back in your seat makes them feel distant from you.
In that moment, you start realizing how, even subconsciously, you may be creating distance before you even speak. Even though you want to feel close and seen by others, your past attachment patterns show up and speak louder than your words ever could.
It’s not something you’ve ever thought about, and you immediately tear up because you so badly just want to belong.
You sign off the call, and that night you lie in bed thinking, “Was I unconsciously engaging in ways that reinforced my belief that no one cared what I had to say?” This is where it becomes a choose-your-own-adventure: will you lean into the feedback and try on something new, or let the fear and sadness take center stage?
This is the power of process groups that individual therapy and supervision can’t match.
Not only do you gain feedback on your blind spots, but you also learn how to express to others what is happening in you — rather than keeping it all in.
You take risks to be vulnerable, and you witness others do the same.
Through the process, you learn that you’re not too much, messy, or undesirable.
This all builds trust in yourself. It challenges the narratives you have of yourself and others around you.
Professionally speaking, since our instrument is ourselves, it's our responsibility to “be as reliable and accurate as possible” (Yalom & Leszcz, 2005). Process groups help you fine tune this.
FAQs
Q: Do I have to share things I don’t want to?
A: Absolutely not, you can share at whatever pace and however much you feel comfortable with. Part of group work is being able to witness others’ sharing, which over time can make it feel easier to share yourself.
Q: Who may not be a good fit for the group?
A: Group therapy may not be recommended if you: are in a current crisis, have severe cognitive impairments or severe social anxiety, are not comfortable sharing about your attachment patterns or childhood upbringing, want to find solutions to ongoing problems, or don’t have the ability to meet weekly.
Q: What if I can’t make a session?
A: I give everyone one freebie on missing one group meeting. Otherwise, you will be charged for the missed session. If you know that you will likely miss more than 3 out of 12 meetings, it is recommended that you do not join the group or wait until another group that aligns better with your availability.
Q: How does a process group differ from other types of groups (psychoeducational, skills, or support)?
A: The main difference is that a process group is non-structured, focuses on the here-and-now interactions of the group members, and can be longer in duration than other types of groups.
Q: Why is it 12 weeks? That seems like a long time to commit to.
A: I have found that shorter term groups (6 to 8 weeks) are not as conducive to the interpersonal group work that process groups aim to accomplish. Whether in virtual group therapy or making friends IRL, getting to know others takes time. There is simply no way around rushing this stage as group members need to feel safe in order to share openly and honestly. That’s when everyone gets the most out of it. Additionally, the longer I run groups, the more I have found that it usually takes about 6 to 8 sessions for group members to start getting comfortable with each other enough to show up vulnerably and lean into the experiential nature of the group. This is why I say that after 12 weeks, the group can decide to continue for another 12 weeks.
Q: Why specifically for therapists?
A: I have found that in my own personal experience being a therapist, a supervisor, and colleague, there are fears that clinicians are wanting to talk about, but may be too scared to bring it up with colleagues, friends, or families. Another main reason is that although this is NOT supervision, we may discuss cases where you have experienced countertransference with a client, and for such reasons, confidentiality is important.
Lastly, many providers experience symptoms of burnout, anxiety, depression, suicidality, and much more that they may not feel comfortable talking about their mental health with people who are not in the same profession.
Q: Can I still join if I’m not a therapy provider?
A: At this time, the process groups are only open to therapy providers. If you’re interested, you can still reach out and I will gladly put you on a waitlist for when I open up groups for other groups of individuals or provide you with a referral to someone who also leads process groups.
Q: Will we learn how to run a process group through this experience/ be able to lead a group after this experience?
A: There is undeniably a huge benefit to being in a process group yourself before (or while) you run a group (of any kind) so you can truly experience what it’s like to be a member. However, my process groups are not training groups. If you’re looking for group therapy trainingsI can recommend some wonderful individuals who lead groups tailored for this. My groups are tailored to providing therapists a space where they can be fully human and explore their relational blocks to connection. It’s also my personal belief that training opportunities provide distance from our emotional experiences, and to decrease the chances of us putting up our guards, we will be purely focused on the here-and-now.
Q: How much do group sessions cost and how long do I need to commit for?
A: Sessions are $70 per session (80 minute sessions). Groups are held weekly, with commitment required for a minimum of 12 weeks. After the 12 weeks, the group as a whole has an opportunity to extend for another 12 weeks.
If you’ve ever questioned whether you “fit in” somewhere, process groups can help you explore what it feels like to belong.
Looking to understand yourself relationally in the here-and-now?
Join a process group and see what you can discover!