Group Guidelines for Therapy Group – May 2024

This topic can be intense and painful at times and so I ask that all pay particular attention to the boundaries necessary for safe, therapeutic work.

Group Agreements
1 RESPECT for yourself. Pace your involvement in activities for yourself. This includes the depth to which you take yourself, what you disclose, as well as the amount of time you spend.
2 RESPECT for others. This includes their privacy and dignity. So no screen shots, gossiping or discussing others. AT ALL. If you need to let off steam do it in your journal. Be kind – you don’t know the whole story ever. Don’t ask others to be responsible for you.
3 RESPECT for me as your therapist. I’d appreciate you coming directly to me with any problems about the course or my behaviour, or the behaviour of others if it is infringing upon these agreements.
This is an invitation for us to be our most respectful selves and to include respect for ourselves.

 

RESPECT FOR SELF:

• Allow enough time for daily reflection and journalling, for arriving at the sessions and for reflection afterwards.

• Consider who your support team are and check in with them regularly.

• During group sessions make sure you are not overheard or interrupted by your household and that you have water / non alcoholic refreshment, and tissues available.

• Decide ahead of time what you do and don’t want to share in the group. If you need help with this, please speak to Miriam privately.

• Do not use alcohol or drugs before or during a therapy session and it is advisable to reflect carefully if you wish to use after the session. If post-session may be difficult for you, pre-plan your support and your wind-down to be a healthy as possible.

• Miriam is a qualified and experienced therapist, you’re paying for her to support you, so please be honest with her and feedback as you go along. The structure for this will be a weekly email exchange so promise yourself the self care of communication.

RESPECT FOR OTHERS:

• This is can be a vulnerable situation for some and may contain raw emotions, please engage your most wise and mature self when connecting with others.

• Please attend all meetings punctually and for the duration. Please arrive in the waiting room a few minutes before the meeting so as not to interrupt. Please leave your camera on and prevent others in your household from overhearing. Never attend under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

• Never discuss anyone else’s personal material outside the group. You may talk about your stuff with friends but there is no need to discuss anyone else’s story. This confidentiality continues BEYOND April, forever. Just as coming out about sexuality is an individual preference, so is coming out about one’s life history and circumstances. It should not be in anyone else’s hands.

• It is more likely that interrupting and speaking over others will happen on Zoom than face to face. Forgive yourself and each other while we all try to minimise this but also feel free to use the raised hand icon if you feel you can’t get space to speak. If you are finding it hard to stay in the meeting then use the chat box to tell Miriam you need help.

• Do not hold conversations with other members of the group for the next 2 months, except in our Wednesday meeting. This undermines the psychological safety of others. Once the group is over, by all means ‘friend’ each other but during the life of the group remember that some of the group work is dealing with processes formed in childhood and that participants may be ‘under-age’ at times – so bluntly speaking it is inappropriate to approach anyone romantically or sexually because you are meeting each other’s ‘inner child’ as well as their wounded adult. Intense resonance with others in the group is possible and needs firm boundaries to keep the process safe. Hopefully by the end of the group you will all feel in possession of your own boundaries once more and can then take responsibility for your own chosen interactions.

• Please maintain respect for difference, this may include being aware of unconscious bias around race, disability, sexuality or gender. We will be looking at our prejudice including against ourselves and it’s normal and OK to hold prejudice, to explore it and to address it. In the group we aim not to deny it or to let it affect our treatment of others. We will discuss more how we can’t help our feelings but we most certainly can help our behaviour during the course.

• Aim to use the words “I feel…” rather than “You are…”. We will discuss the difference between saying how we feel and making judgements and assumptions about others. It’s a new concept to most people so don’t over censor yourself, just improve with practice.

• You can participate in reviewing these guidelines as we go along.

 

RESPECT FOR YOUR THERAPIST:

• Please make sure you pay for your sessions and have completed and submitted a REGISTRATION FORM.

• If you have questions or concerns please direct these to Miriam as soon as possible. miriam@blue-skies.org.uk

• You can find out about Miriam’s qualifications and experience here and also here.

• The Digital Policy is here.

• You can participate in reviewing these guidelines as we go along.