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Chapter Five - A Beginning – Page 163
another, the most important work might
have been to explore this in some depth. I
wonder if moving on is a way of protecting
the group, and indeed myself and ourselves
from my rage and our rage respectively.
The beginning of the session – a researcher summary account
All beginnings of sessions are a bit like this, in that we invite people as we re-form as a
group to, ‘bring back anything they are left with’. This means that they agree to report
to the group aspects of their experience of learning whilst on the course. This is a
common standing invitation in psychoanalytic group psychotherapy, and is intended
there to privilege the group in terms of how and where members account for their
experience. Here, it is consciously aimed to connect the members of the group, with
each other and the task.
Perhaps you can sense, feel or imagine the atmosphere as the session begins. We are in
the upstairs child psychotherapy clinic, set up as a playroom. This is part of a large
house dating from about 1910, with the rather leafy surroundings of a residential city
suburb outside the window. It is late afternoon. This session has a familiarity for this
group of late arrival, but this must be the worst instance yet, starting with only three of
the nine students present (not including the presenter), four absent un-notified, and two
absent having given prior notice. The two staff members are on time, but initially they
are silent as the absent people continue to arrive.