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When I first started running Reflective Practice Groups (RPG) in 2006, I was naive but enthusiastic. Concerned about the growing neo-liberal agenda in health care, with its increasing focus on economic rationalism and corporate risk management, I wanted to promote a more humanistic agenda. My goal in setting up RPGs was to provide support for nurses and midwives whilst creating an opportunity to explore, maintain and develop the interpersonal aspects of care giving. The trouble was that the qualitative processes and perspectives promoted in RPG didn’t fit with the priorities of that dominant paradigm. In addition, evidence of any beneficial outcomes from the groups was sparse. The challenge became to explore and explain the processes and impacts involved with RPG in a clear and meaningful way. I have been evaluating and researching RPGs ever since, attempting to define and position the RPG model within the broader field of clinical supervision (Dawber & O’Brien, 2013; Sundgren et al., 2021).
I believe Arabella Kurtz’s book, How to Run Reflective Practice Groups: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals, makes a considerable contribution to this cause. Dr Kurtz, a clinical psychologist, psychoanalytic psychotherapist and educator with an interest in staff health and wellbeing, has been able to explicate clearly and convincingly many of the key principles and theories that underpin RPG. The book provides helpful tips and anecdotes from her own practice in a way that makes it both readable and practical.
Kurtz draws on established models of reflection and adult learning, psychoanalytical groupwork concepts, attachment theory, and a range of other existential, psychodynamic and phenomenological frameworks, to provide insights into what comes across as a truly integrative model. By acknowledging and incorporating contributions from multiple theoretical models and perspectives, the book honours and parallels the underpinning philosophy of an RPG model that values diversity and