You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The group therapist has to be a dynamic administrator responsible for creating and maintaining the setting, monitoring and protecting the boundaries and, simultaneously, has to undertake a therapeutic role, leadership, analysis, interpretation. The first session is a critical time in any group. The early developmental or formative process, dealing with issues of being together, who's who, what resources are there, what is the task, what are the rules, and so on, is uppermost in the group therapist's mind. The task at this stage is to observe members' entry into the group, to establish ground-rules and boundaries and to provide a good container for whatever feelings may surface, at the same time allowing room for movement and flexibility whilst maintaining boundaries. This is the time to listen carefully, to learn, to wait, to hold and to let things emerge whilst learning the group language (and each group has its own). Containing one's own anxiety, always there at the beginning of a new group, and dealing with the new group's anxiety is a formidable and exacting task.
It is good preparation to see each member a few times before the start. Although we have little detail about the background of the individuals and even less about the therapist's own feelings before and during the session, early anxiety is evident. For example, the therapist stating his/her name and the group times presumably is an indication of this as the patients have already met the therapist. I have always found Foulkes' dictum of ‘go in, sit down and keep quiet’ very useful. The therapist's comments start off the group and set it on a similar route: ‘Are we supposed to introduce ourselves?’ Might the group evolve in another direction if the therapist had said nothing?