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Chapter Five - A Beginning – Page 168
The beginning of the session – a researcher summary account resumes:
Next, Tom comes into the room and announces Nancy’s imminent arrival. Judi ignores
Tom (and Nancy), moves right on and asks Paula to continue. Nancy enters in the
middle of Paula talking, so finally all nine people due to be present are here (in order of
arrival, Bill and Judi, Paula, Ron, Kelly, Mary, Frances, Tom, and Nancy). Tom and
Frances are reluctant to agree with Paula.
Ron re-enters the discussion, and agrees with Paula. Then, Ron mentions David and
Ursula (the 10 th and 11 th members of the group, who left the nine remaining in this
group after the first year of teaching). Paula, Kelly and Frances come in to the
discussion too. Kelly says that the group has avoided talking about this. Paula and Kelly
then ‘chorus’ (as it were, supporting each other) about being flabbergasted by 2 people
just going (i.e. leaving the group) and not saying that they were going to do so prior to
their departure, which would be a usual expectation of any experiential or therapy
group. Judi does not know who left, not having taught the group prior to this semester.
Tom expresses the hope that the outcome of David and Ursula leaving is not so bad. Bill
steps in, and names ‘ricocheting ambivalence’, and consequential ‘acting out’ (see
below for a discussion of this). Paula and Frances make acknowledgements of their
actions in this.
Tom is critical of the group for its fragility, in apparently not being able to survive the
departure of two members. Ron steps up to support the group (“I don’t think we’ve been
that bad”), in an apparent reversal of his previous support for Paula’s criticism of the
group. There is laughter at this. Paula and Kelly chorus about the Reflective Group and
its ripple effect. Paula, Kelly and Frances talk in chorus about the previous Christmas
break, when a social meeting for the group was arranged to which only two people