Saying the Unsaid

Vanessa + Sarah discuss the Aaron Black's 2017 article "On Attacking and Being Attacked in Group Psychotherapy" and the utility of expressed aggression in groups.

Sarah + Vanessa talk about one of many approaches to working with dreams, and gratitude for the composting/metabolizing function of the unconscious.  

Sarah shares with Vanessa some of the impact of psychoanalyst Dr. David Ramirez on the psychoanalytic community; David was the first to teach her that the highest form of psychoanalysis is Play.  

Vanessa and Sarah discuss maxims for a New Year.

At the close of the year, Vanessa + Sarah talk about group in relation to endings, and variations of ending well.  

Sarah + Vanessa share a conversation they recorded earlier this year but never published on: Process Group as Comparably Uncomfortable to Acting Game and/or Ecstatic Dance.

Vanessa + Sarah reflect on the idea of the longest day of the year, the dark invitations of group, a Gerald May quote on savoring life-juice, and a poem titled,  "Prayer at Winter Solstice" by acclaimed poet Dana Gioia.

Sarah + Vanessa talk about the value of exploring wishes and jealousy as a way to discover what we might be longing for. 

Vanessa + Sarah discuss Ronnie Levine's (2017) article, A Modern Psychoanalytic Perspective on Group Therapy.

Vanessa + Sarah share a few more thoughts about the invitations of exploring erotic transference in group and life.  (PART III.)

Sarah + Vanessa talk about the grief-side of longing.  

Sarah + Vanessa begin to describe some of the invitations of exploring erotic transference in therapy and in group.  

Sarah + Vanessa talk about their particular (though not unique) need to learn to say No. 

Sarah + Vanessa discuss their association to the (1981) article by Rutan and Rice: The Charismatic Leader: Asset or Liability?  

Sarah + Vanessa try to answer the question: how do you Say the Unsaid when the Other won't listen?  

Vanessa + Sarah reflect on one year of leading process groups, tolerating the aggression and gift of Slug Hugs, the invitation of faking it until you make it, and the imperative to make mountains out of molehills.

Sarah + Vanessa talk about leading with vulnerability, the etymology of the word vulnerability, and a few resonant ideas from Livington's 1999 article on Vulnerability and Tenderness in Group Psychotherapy.

Sarah + Vanessa talk about how in group you can talk about everything, even when it feels "too late," or "the moment has passed."  

Sarah + Vanessa discuss group as an opportunity to develop richer emotional connections with others by simultaneously owning what is going on within us while considering what is going on within the Other. 

Vanessa + Sarah revisit the Operating Room situation, and what went Right.  They talk about how a sense of creative agency and having a voice mitigates against the potentially traumatic impact of scary situations.  

Vanessa + Sarah talk about the use of consulting the "felt sense" as a way of listening to what is beneath the surface.  

Vanessa + Sarah discuss group work through the lens of Jungian concepts of the problem of opposites, the transcendent function, individuation, and fairytales.  

Vanessa + Sarah share some examples of how process group relating is leaking into their outside lives, including Vanessa's experience of her first follow-up surgery this week removing the screws from the metal plates in her jaw.    

Sarah + Vanessa talk about the concept of Negation as a clue to the unconscious, and the practice of playing Opposite Day in process groups as a way to wonder how sometimes what we say or deny might hide a less-tolerable or intolerable opposite thought that might also be true. 

Vanessa + Sarah share associations to Margaret Crastnopol's article, "The Analyst's Achilles Heels: Owning and Offsetting the Clinical Impact of Our Intrinsic Flaws" (2019).