I’d like the opinion of my blog readers. A prospective publisher has recommended that the chapters in my new book be written  in the format of a power point: Intervention, Example, Contraindictions. I think people prefer reading a story with the interventions written as an integral part. As a compromise solution, I have highlighted my interventions in red.  Does that work?  What do you think? Here’s a another sample chapter.

Chapter 32: What Kind of Silence Is This? 

At the beginning of each group members file in the room and take their seats. Unless I have a specific announcement like the addition of a new member or an upcoming group break, we wait for a member to begin speaking. If there is a prolonged silence and I notice that members are looking furtively around the room waiting for someone else to speak, I say: “Are we done here today? Shall we end early?”   This interrupts the silence and leads to a discussion of the group’s resistance to talking about anxiety provoking situations in their life.                                                               On one occasion, Stella said: “I don’t want to be in the spotlight, let someone else do it first”.  I said: “Who should speak? Pick someone.” Stella picked Sam, a particularly withholding member who was sitting with arms and legs tightly crossed.   Sam sat in stony silence until I directed him to talk. I barked: “SPEAK!!!”  That was all I said.  He looked startled but did begin to speak about why he didn’t want to speak. He felt furious with his wife for having humiliated him and was ashamed to share it.

All behavior has meaning and silence is no exception. There are anxious, angry, peaceful, contemplative silences in group. When a group silence seems to extend too long time, I’ll ask:” What kind of silence is this?”  Sometimes a member will break a peaceful or a contemplative group silence because they cannot tolerate sitting quietly with a feeling that the group has induced in them. On such occasions, I am reminded of a book title by Kundera:” The Unbearable Lightness of Being”.

There are also times that I’ll notice someone on the sidelines, listening as a lively group interaction takes place around them. In such times, I’ll draw these members into the flow indirectly by turning to another member and asking: “How do you think Carol feels about all this?”

The group rule is that each member is expected to use their equal share of the talking time. This is an ideal that rarely happens; it’s not a hard and fast law.  But I do expect everyone to speak, even for a short time, during each session.   When the session was drawing to a close and I realized that Seamus hadn’t said a word during the entire hour and a half, I turned to him and said:” You don’t seemed to be speaking.” He smiled sadly and said: “ I have nothing worthwhile to say”.  I said: “With an attitude like that, you’ll be in group therapy for a hundred years!”

Seamus began to spoke about his feelings of worthlessness. The group supported his nascent self-disclosure and as the time was up I said to him: “This is a good start. Keep talking about this. Will you start the session next time?”   Seamus replied: “That’s a definite maybe”.