Psychotherapy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Psychotherapy, including details on psychiatry, psychoanalysis, methods, outcomes.

What is a writing group? Dilemmas of the leader.

Grundy D

Grundyd4@aol.com

A writing group can serve to reinforce literary and therapeutic goals. The model outlined here assumes a leader with literary and clinical training, including expertise in group dynamics. The group format is adapted to support exploration of the writer's main problem, the absence of the reader at the moment of writing. The group modifies the writer's "mythical" reader through member interactions with writer and writing. Giving and receiving feedback are central to the group process. The leader's dilemma in a bifocal form like this is to know when and how far to interpret group members' psychological issues. The best rule is to interpret "toward" the group (i.e., to bring up material that can be safely and readily processed there), but to be cautious about interpretation of patterns of early character formation.

Published 10 April 2007 in Int J Group Psychother, 57(2): 133-51.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2005-2008 Psychotherapy Research Today. All Rights Reserved.