I was thinking about the top skills I would teach anyone who wanted to start running process groups, at least from a Modern Analytic perspective.
So over the past few weeks I've put them together and made a video for each.
What Is A Process Group? Most of us trained to run individual therapy, th...
by Oliver Drakeford LMFT CGP —
Jul 08, 2026
skills
I want to share something I did during my first group session that still makes me cringe when I remember it.
At the time, I thought being a good group leader meant spotting patterns and saying them out loud. If someone interrupted, avoided, or blamed, I would call it out and mention what others w...
If you’ve ever run a process group, you’ve probably had a member who doesn’t want to share or join in. This can be frustrating or worrying for both therapists and other group members. Modern Group Analysis offers a helpful way to understand and support these members.
There are two types of withdr...
I have a few Monopolizers in my practice. Luckily, they’re in individual therapy, not group, because they could easily talk for almost the entire session if I let them.
This pattern is especially challenging and even harmful in a group setting. When I started leading my first group at an agenc...
Silence in a group therapy session is not the most pleasant of experiences, but here’s something to consider: what if not all silence is the same?
A room that has gone quiet after one member disclosed something painful is doing something different from a room that has gone quiet because someone i...
If you've read Yalom in Grad School, or just for fun, you probably have a sense of what the 'Here and Now' aspect of group therapy is all about, but how to you actually get more of it in your group?
The Modern Group Analytic equivalent to the Here and Now is 'Immediacy' and what I love most about...
by Oliver Drakeford LMFT CGP —
Jun 02, 2026
immediacy
You might have heard people say that ‘group becomes your family’. It means that each member of your group reminds someone else of their father, mother, or sibling.
Most people don’t talk about these family associations, but they are still present in everyone’s mind. This transference quietly affe...
When you’re a group therapist, you’re often faced with eight people sitting in a room who joined the group to connect with others, and yet, in the first few sessions, sit awrkwardly staring at you with expectations that you’ll magically do it for them.
They’re in the room but not really talking, ...
