Videos

These recorded group sessions demonstrate the consultation method described in the book, “Opening Hearts, Opening Minds: Therapeutic Group Consultation.” They have been selected to illustrate training that emphasizes experiential learning in developing the person of the therapist, as the primary source of power in therapy and secondarily on clinical strategies for therapy. Four therapists at the beginning of their careers as psychotherapists come together to form this consultation group. These recordings provide many rich and lively demonstrations of many of the principles described in the book including the following:

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  • Alex and the Help-Rejecting Patient

    Alex and the Help-Rejecting Patient

    TGC carefully examines the patient-therapist relationship. In this video, a group member is asked to describe himself through the eyes of his patient. Then the discussion moves into the potential benefits of a therapist opening up to a patient as a way of getting past an impasse in therapy. But there are risks, too: what if the patient, especially one with abandonment issues, attaches too completely?

  • Jim and the Going-Nowhere Patient

    Jim and the Going-Nowhere Patient

    How does a therapist relate to a patient with a borderline pathology? The push and pull of a patient who experiences both fear of abandonment and fear of engulfment can be a particular challenge for therapists working to both incorporate and honor themselves in the therapeutic process. As this video shows, one key to understanding how to do this is to explore the question of whether we, as therapists, might have borderline tendencies ourselves.

  • Char and the Blameless Autopsy

    Char and the Blameless Autopsy

    In this discussion of a patient with narcissistic personality disorder, we see how a patient’s boundary issues can create real challenges for a therapist who may want to open up and build empathy. How do therapists set boundaries? And how do they know when they’ve done enough?