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Abstract

In her discussion of Erskine’s (2013) “Relational Group Process: Developments in a Transactional Analysis Model of Group Psychotherapy,” the author reexamines the meaning of several key aspects of group work identified by Erskine, including safety, empathy, and attunement. A distinction is made between empathy and attunement and an argument is offered for the clinical need to create psychological space for enactments in groups. The author proposes that the type of culture developed in a group is influenced by the therapist’s consciousness of her or his early trauma, the extent of her or his psychological resilience, and the way theoretical influence has been integrated with practice. A theory of the third is considered as another perspective on the cocreation of respectful attitudes in groups.

Keywords

resilience attunement empathy shadow the cultural third the developmental third the relational third unconscious trauma

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Building Resilience

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