The questions that plague us — Who am I, Who do I want to be, How do I fit in or stand out, Who do I like and who likes me, and What is important to me — are some of the identity questions that our clients grapple with throughout their lives.

Clients may struggle with these questions because the answers they found as a child were maladaptive and unsatisfying. Clients may find their old beliefs insufficient to support them through the different stages and challenges of life. 

Group therapy provides a uniquely effective environment for client’s ongoing work regarding identity and living from their fullest self.  Helping clients explore their identities throughout their lifespan, encouraging them to embrace who they are now while also creating new possibilities for how they want to be, leads to greater flexibility and aliveness.

This workshop will demonstrate the power of group therapy to activate identity work through the use of mirroring, bridging, examining judgments and experiential learning.

We will start with a review of identity development and the value of ongoing identity work.  This discussion will include the impact of family of origin as well as larger cultural influences on identity formation.  

I’ll explain the many aspects of group therapy that activate identity work.  Models, mirroring, bridging, examining judgments and experiential learning will be explained and modeled.  We will learn how to work with judgment to increase cognitive flexibility and facilitate progression instead of regression.   

I will demonstrate a group therapy session so that volunteers and observers can experience the power of interactions that activate insights regarding self and others.  Following this experience we’ll evaluate what we’ve learned.

The training will include a discussion of the challenges that may arise to prevent exploring identity and how to use those challenges to deepen the work.  Anxiety, shame, and communication difficulties are examples of potential blocks that will be discussed.