Letter of recommendation for the Harold S. Bernard Group Therapy Award

Dear Committee,

I am writing in support of Dr Robert S. Pepper’s nomination for the Harold S. Bernard Therapy Award.

I work as a group counsellor for Corrective Services here in Sydney, Australia, using group therapy as a means of deepening interpersonal relationships between prisoners and first came across Dr Pepper through his invaluable publication, Some People Don’t Want What They Say They Want (2017), an extraordinary contribution to the continuation of group psychotherapy training as it challenges us to explore interpersonal relationships in the group setting from an unconventional perspective. Along with Emotional Incest in Group Psychotherapy (2014) which tackles in a courageous way the dangerous and harmful effects of boundary violations in group therapy, Dr Pepper has in my opinion significantly contributed to setting a standard of training and awareness that will continue to enjoy deep and lasting ramifications in the group therapy world far into the future.

From a personal perspective, I was fortunate to attend a training with him at the recent AGPA Connect conference in New York in which he demonstrated his passion, knowledge and skills in group facilitation. Further, I am fortunate to be now enjoying an ongoing mentorship with him in which he elucidates group therapy skills in an inspiring and challenging way. He brings an untiring passion and love to this work and its ongoing development and training which he has maintained for over 30 years. Just as human beings are constantly evolving, so is the work of group facilitation under the careful guidance and expertise of Dr Robert Pepper who I feel is also a continuing ‘work in progress’. It is a personal honour to have encountered him and to be working with him and seeing the fruits of his labour being so profoundly celebrated in the groups he runs, in the neophyte leaders that he so selflessly encourages and in his continuing significant contributions to group therapy literature and education.

I wholeheartedly endorse his nomination for the Harold S Bernard Award in acknowledgement of his outstanding contribution to the field of group psychotherapy and unequivocally support him taking his place amongst the alumni of past recipients.

I wanted to share with my Facebook friends this phenomenal letter of recommendation from Dr. Jerome Gans, M.D. Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Associationand the American Psychiatric Association
Dear Committee:
I am very pleased to write in support of Robert Pepper’s nomination for the prestigious Harold S. Bernard Award, given yearly to an AGPA member who has made a significant contribution to the training and teaching of neophyte group therapists.
Out of all the dictums that the discipline of medicine could have embraced, it is telling that it selected “Primum non nocere” – Above all do no harm. Although not a physician, Dr. Pepper has heeded Medicine’s warning and dedicated his career to researching, lecturing, writing on this important topic as it applies to the training, teaching and supervising of group therapists. I got to appreciate the scope of his contributions by reading his many articles on this subject, and reviewing his book, Emotional Incest in Group Psychotherapy: A Conspiracy of Silence for the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy. I’ve read few books in our field that treat frame alterations and boundary violations in as helpful and compelling way as Dr. Pepper has in his courageous book.
He has been a leading figure in inviting training institutes to take a critical look at some of their harmful practices, something that takes guts to do. Early in his career he was harmed by teachers, therapists and supervisors, often in dual relationships, who introduced boundary violations in their teaching, supervision and treatment. Rather than looking the other way, or protecting these authority figures from their often unwitting but harmful behaviors, he decided to make rectifying this blind spot in our field his personal mission. And he has done so with refreshing honesty, including acknowledging that his longing to find an all-loving, all-caring, and all-knowing father figures contributed to their betrayal and violation of him. By owning his own contribution to being harmed, he encourages his readers, students and patients to do the same.
While I don’t have data to prove it, I believe his work has helped many young – and not so young – group therapists avoid being harmed or harming others who have put their trust in them. It is difficult to think of a more significant contribution to our field. An inspiration to many of us, receiving the Harold S. Bernard Award would be fitting recognition of Robert Pepper’s major contributions to the field of group psychotherapy and its many practitioners.

Les R. Greene Ph.D., CGP, AGPA-DLF

35 Laurel Road

Hamden, CT  06517

To: Misha Bogomaz, PsyD, ABPP,CGP, Clinical Professional Relations Committee Chair

Re: The Harold S. Bernard Group Therapy Award

Date: November 4, 2023

cc: dfeirman@agpa.org

Dear Misha

I am pleased to be writing to you in support of the nomination of Dr. Robert Pepper for receiving the Harold S Bernard Group Psychotherapy Training Award.  I have known Rob now for many years, primarily through our mutual involvement in AGPA and have come to know and deeply respect his work on ethical issues in group psychotherapy and thus feel qualified to offer my endorsement.

Rob is, above all, a clinical scholar who has demonstrated an abiding and deep passion for examining a number of ethical issues pertaining to the enactment of dual relationships and occurrence of boundary violations in the context of group psychotherapy training.  Through his many publications, lectures and workshops, all illuminated with his own personal experiences in training situations that have given rise to serious ethical concerns, Rob has carried the torch for the crucial importance of maintaining integrity and firm boundaries, both at individual and systemic levels, in matters of training group psychotherapists.  Virtually singlehandedly, Rob has documented the destructive consequences that arise in training situations when boundaries are not consciously and conscientiously reinforced.

I am certain that my late colleague and friend Harold would be most pleased to offer Rob this prestigious award as an acknowledgement of the value of his ongoing work and dedication to maintain the integrity of group psychotherapy training.

Sincerely,

Les R. Greene PhD

Past President, American Group Psychotherapy Association

Clinical Faculty, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine

Fellow, American Psychological Association Divisions, 12, 29, 39 and 49