The Interactive Group Experience
Abridged Version

Jay Earley, Ph.D.

Interactive Groups provide an exciting and powerful journey into psychological healing and personal growth. Though they can be either long-term or short-term, I will focus on long-term groups in this paper. Interactive Groups focus on growth through relationship, specifically through your relationships with the other group members. This is an intense and very effective learning environment, because instead of just talking about how you relate to others, you learn from your interactions with the other group members, right in the moment. At another level, an Interactive Group is a vehicle for an aspect of spiritual development, because it is an exercise in the creation and expression of love--acceptance, compassion, appreciation, and intimacy. Interactive Groups also have social relevance, because they provide that deep sense of bonding with a group, that sense of community which is often missing in our fragmented, alienated world.

This paper describes what it is like to be in an Interactive Group, from your first few weeks in the group to the stage when you are an old-timer with close relationships. It is an abridged version of a larger 50 page paper. It is intended to give prospective group members an understanding of the group experience so you can decide if you want to pursue it.

The Initial Call

The first step is to call the leader to get more information about what the groups are like and to find out which groups have openings. This initial call is an important statement to yourself that you are ready for more growth. However, it doesn’t commit you to joining a group. In fact, each additional step--the interview, the first weeks in the group--can be done as an experiment to see if the group is right for you. You can decide to discontinue at any time.

The Interview

If you want to carry the process further, the next step is a pre-group interview or interviews. During this time, you and the leader get to know each other better, the leader tells you more about how the group functions, and you share more about who you are and what you want to get from a group. If you decide you want to join a group, there is a discussion of which group might be best for you. The leader also helps to prepare you for group by discussing any fears or reservations you may have.

The Entrance Stage

I have divided this paper according to the stages of development of a group, which are also the stages each person goes through when they join an existing group. There are five stages: (1) Entrance, (2) Inclusion, (3) Mutuality, (4) Intimacy. I will describe what a person’s experience might be who joins an existing group as he or she goes through each of the stages.

Checking Out the Group

The Entrance Stage begins when you join the group and is usually brief. During this stage you will probably check the group out to see if it is right for you. You may check out the leader to see if you feel he or she is competent and caring. You may check out the Interactive mode to see if this style of group can help you make the changes you want. You will also be checking out the group members to see if you want to get close to them. During this stage you will probably be observing for the most part and only occasionally making small forays out into the group. You may be tentative until you decide that the group is right for you and you begin taking the risk to do significant interactive work.

Beginning to Participate

Your first participation might be to talk about what it feels like to be in the group. Most people feel a fair amount of anxiety at their first meeting. Some are also excited. It can be a relief to talk about whatever you are feeling.

For example, one person introduced himself as follows: "Hi, my name is Willie. I joined this group because I want to learn to be assertive without getting into so many fights with people. I also want to figure out what I’m doing wrong so that my love relationships don’t work out.... Boy am I nervous right now. This is hard talking to a group of strangers, especially about stuff like this."

You also can begin by giving feedback to other people who have worked.

For example, after Jill finished interacting with another group member, you might say, "Jill, I really identified with your struggle to speak your mind instead of smoothing things over. That’s a big problem of mine. I appreciate the way you hung in there with what you believe instead of giving in."

At the beginning it is important to let the other group members know who you are. When you feel safe enough, you will want to tell them about the important issues in your life and why you have come to the group. You may need to share some pain with the group. You may need to let them know about what really troubles you and what isn’t working for you in your life. This isn’t always easy to do with a new group of people because you need to develop trust that they will care about you and not judge you. However, the sooner you can share yourself with the group, the sooner you will get something out of it.

Almost everyone feels nervous and uneasy at the beginning of a group. At times you may also feel excited, connected, curious, cautious, or many other things. It is very helpful to simply express these feelings to the group when they come up. Invariably there will be other people who are feeling similarly. This is a valuable way for the group to work with its process and for you to begin to learn how to be aware of your experience in the moment, which is an important skill for getting the most out of an Interactive Group.

The Interactive Format

We make a clear distinction between "interactive work" and "outside issues." Interactive work doesn’t just mean people in group talking to each other. It means people talking to each other about their feelings toward each other or about their relationships. It can also mean one person talking to the group about his or her feelings in the group. "Outside issues" refers to sharing what is happening in your life or what your psychological issues are or any other general discussion. The focus of the group is on interactive work. Outside issues need to be brought up occasionally, but they are secondary to the interactive work. However, during the Entrance and Inclusion Stages, outside issues play a more important part in the group because people are still getting to know each other and developing trust.

The assumption is that you will learn about how you function in your life by participating in the group. The group becomes a microcosm of your life, and since you are the same person, almost all the issues you have in your life will come out in group sooner or later. You can learn about them in a much more direct and accurate way through your own awareness in group and through feedback from others. You can also experiment with new behavior right in the moment during group. This is a much more effective growth situation than just talking about your problems.

This focus on interactive work means that there isn’t a lot of free floating discussion unless it is about what is happening in the group. Sometimes there are even silences in the group. During these, members think about what work they have to do, or perhaps get up their courage to begin some difficult work. The group usually doesn’t focus on one person exclusively for a long period of time, unless that person is dealing with their feelings about group. Even then, the work will probably expand to include other group members. The leader doesn’t structure the group much by setting up topics or doing exercises. The group members initiate the work they need to do. Once a piece of work is initiated, however, the leader is often active in facilitating the work.

In the beginning stages of a group, outside work is more important, because you are just getting to know each other, but as the group progresses we most more and more toward interactive work.

Your First Interaction

At some point the leader will encourage you to begin doing some interactive work. You will be encouraged to pick someone in the group whom you have initial impressions of and reactions toward. Actually you probably have them toward everyone. After a fairly short period of being around anyone, we all have initial reactions to a person, so its just a matter of picking someone in the group to start with, probably someone that you feel safe talking to. The reactions can be positive or negative, big or little. Many people start out with positive reactions because they find these less threatening. This also helps to build initial trust and safety.

For example, you might say, "Mary, I really like the way you come across. You seem really honest, and not afraid to say exactly what you are feeling. And you say it in a way that doesn’t offend people." Then the leader might ask you to tell her how that makes you feel toward her. "I feel warmly toward you and I feel like I can trust you." Mary would then respond with her reaction to what you said. For example, "Thank you. That makes me feel really good. I’ve been working on that for a long time. It’s nice to be recognized. I like you, too."

Your first interaction might begin with someone in the group telling you their initial impressions of you. For example, someone might say, "It seems like you’re a nice person, but I’m not sure you would ever say anything negative even if you were feeling it. So far it seems like you’re mainly trying to please people." It would then be your turn to respond. You might feel embarrassed or hurt or angry in response to what she said. If so, it would be important to say that. Or you might just respond to the content of her perception of you, by saying whether you think you have been trying to please people in group. The dialogue between you would continue until it came to a conclusion which was satisfactory for both of you. In the Entrance Stage, these interactions are usually brief.

One of your first interactions might involve receiving positive feedback. For example, Betty says, "I really like what I’ve seen of you so far. You seem warm and caring and really perceptive, especially for someone so new to the group. I feel like you’ve been really understanding and supportive with me, you know, especially last week." You might take in her feedback, allowing it to make you feel good about yourself, and respond to Betty in a warm way. Or you might get embarrassed or deflect the compliment. In that case, the leader would encourage you to examine why it was hard for you to take it in. For example, you might not feel worthy, or you might feel afraid of the contact with Betty. You would then experiment with taking in Betty’s feelings, and then you would respond with your feelings toward her. A short dialogue might ensue.

Moving On

After a while, you may decide that the group seems right for you. You decide that you like the interactive format. The group feels relatively safe and you decide that you want to be there. You are ready to begin taking some greater interactive risks. When you do this, you have moved ahead to the Inclusion Stage.

The Inclusion Stage

This stage deals with acceptance and power and commitment. It deals with the question of whether you are included in the group or not. You also learn how the group operates--the group norms and the group culture. You learn about how people function psychologically and you learn awareness and communication skills.

Initiating Interactive Work

There are two ways to initiate interactive work in group. One is to allow yourself to respond in the moment when you have a reaction to something which happens in group. When something happens which generates feelings in you, I encourage you to speak up, to let your feelings be known, so that you can benefit from processing them at the moment they happen. These will often be feelings toward another person in group, so an interaction often follows.

The second way to initiate interactive work is to plan it before group. You can think through your feelings toward each person in group and notice where there are feelings toward someone which you haven’t expressed or feedback which you haven’t asked for. These don’t have to be strong feelings. They can be positive or negative feelings. You can bring up these feelings without waiting for something to trigger them in group. At the beginning of group, or when there is a pause, simply say that you have some work to do, and begin by telling the person your feelings. An interaction will follow.

Awareness

"Awareness" is the ability to notice and label what you are feeling and experiencing at the moment it is happening. In most instances, this is no easy accomplishment! Of course if you are experiencing a very strong emotion, you will be aware of it. However, most of the feelings that are important are much more subtle and hard to grasp. It is especially hard to be aware of your feelings when you are in the middle of an intense interaction with someone, yet this is the time when it is most needed. Awareness is a skill to be developed over time. Some people have it highly developed when they first join group, but most have to learn it gradually. There are many levels of awareness; the first feeling you notice in a situation is only the beginning. As you become more adept at awareness, you will begin to be aware of subtler and deeper aspects of your experience.

For example, suppose Sandy tells Mike that she thinks he talks from his head too much and is out of touch with his feelings. At first he thinks about whether this is true or not. He is focusing on the content of what she said, not his awareness of feelings. The leader suggests that he talk about his feeling response to Sandy. Then Mike becomes aware of feeling resentful or angry about what she said. At the leader’s suggestion he looks further and becomes aware that he also feels hurt by Sandy. As he explores deeper he discovers that he feels hurt because he likes Sandy and he wants her to like him, so he is especially vulnerable to hearing something negative from her. Even deeper, he might realize that he was criticized a lot during his childhood, so hearing any criticism now makes him feel bad about himself. Notice how many levels of awareness are possible.

If Mike tells Sandy that he is angry at her, he might get an angry response back and then the two of them would work on resolving the conflict. If he tells Sandy he is hurt because he wants her to like him, she might explain that she does like him, and that she was just telling him about one thing that gave her trouble. Mike would then have to decide if he believes her--if he thinks she really meant it when she said she liked him, or if he thinks she was just smoothing things over. If he tells Sandy he feels bad about himself because of old messages, she might be sympathetic and caring. No matter which feeling Mike expresses, he and Sandy will then engage in a dialogue to see if they can work things out between them.

In addition to working out his feelings with Sandy, Mike might also decide that he is interested in the issue of his being too intellectual. He asks Sandy to give him examples so he can understand what she means. He asks the other group members if they also think he is too much in his head and if they can give examples. If Mike decides that it’s true and he would like to change, he might ask Sandy or the group to let him know the next time it happens. Then he could practice expressing himself in a more feelingful way.

Self-Revealing and Acceptance

Notice that part of Mike’s interaction with Sandy dealt with learning about himself and part of it dealt with acceptance. Now that Sandy has told him something she doesn’t like, does it mean that she doesn’t accept him? Acceptance is the number one issue in the Inclusion Stage. You want to reveal yourself, but only if you are going to be accepted by the group. You want to tell the group about yourself, especially about your problems and your pain. You also want to be able to be yourself. You want to show your anger or your insecurity, your tears or your fears, your strength or your neediness. But it is critical that you be accepted as you are.

An important part of most people’s work in group is to share things about yourself that are important to you and which you have strong feelings about. Perhaps you need to talk about how you were abused as a child. Perhaps you are gay, or you are going through a painful divorce, or having anxiety attacks. Even though this is not officially "interactive work," it is very important work, especially in the beginning stages of group.

As you feel ready, you will probably take the risk to reveal more and more of yourself, especially parts of yourself which you feel ashamed of. These are the hardest things to reveal, because you expect to be judged and rejected. But they are also the most urgent because you really need to be accepted with these shameful parts. You will discover that when you reveal these parts of yourself in an open way, not only are you accepted by the group, but people actually appreciate you more, because of your courage and vulnerability.

This is one of the magic things that happens in an Interactive Group. There is actually something beautiful about a person when they are being very open and vulnerable, whether this is because they are showing some deep pain or insecurity or because they are being open and loving toward someone they feel close to. Everyone has a great need to show these vulnerable parts of themselves and be accepted, and in fact the group atmosphere makes if easy for this to happen. People want to be able to love each other if only they are in the right environment to bring this out. Most people in group find it natural to be loving and compassionate toward someone who reveals pain or weakness. The pain is experienced as something precious and beautiful, and most people in the group welcome this kind of sharing, especially from new group members. It makes them feel closer to the one sharing the pain. It’s one of those poignant, special moments in group that everyone cherishes.

Negative Feelings and Conflict

One of the big challenges for many people at this stage in the group is the expression of negative feelings. It is valuable in an Interactive Group to express all of your feelings, not just good feelings which won’t get you in trouble. It is important to say when something bothers you. It is valuable to be able to express annoyance, disagreement, hurt, or discomfort. It’s also important to express stronger feelings such as fear, anger, and jealousy, but these can be put off until the Mutuality Stage when you feel safer in group.

Some people find it hard to believe that expressing negative feelings of any kind will be helpful to anyone. "It will just hurt him unnecessarily, and it’s not a big deal anyway." "It’s probably just my own material anyway. I should just work it out myself." "It’s not something she can change. Why make her feel bad?" This is usually because you are afraid of hurting her and feeling guilty about it, or because you are afraid of her being angry or rejecting toward you.

In fact there are a number of reasons for expressing negative feelings. It gives you a chance to practice asserting yourself. Many people are afraid to bring up difficult things, and this is an ideal way to learn how to do it. It also gives you a chance to learn how to work through any hard feelings that come up by doing this. In addition, it gives the other person some useful feedback about how they affect others. When you react to someone, it’s usually not all their fault, and it’s usually not all your fault either. In fact it’s not necessarily anyone’s fault, but it’s usually a combination of something real about the other person and some issue of yours. So both of you have something to learn from the interaction.

For example, Carole says, "Jan, when you had that interaction with Max last week, I didn’t like the way you treated him. I felt you were being defensive and controlling. You didn’t really give him a chance to explain himself before you attacked him." The leader asks Carole if she was feeling protective of Max. "Maybe a little, but I was more just scared for myself. I wouldn’t want Jan to do that to me." Jan responds, "I don’t see what was wrong with what I did. I was just standing up for myself." The leader explores with Jan how she is reacting to Carole, and she discovers that she is feeling defensive. She even realizes that she is responding to Carole the same way she did to Max. This helps Jan to recognize a pattern of hers which involves defensiveness, and she decides she’d like to change it.

In the midst of this, the leader asks how Carole is reacting emotionally to Jan. She discovers that she is feeling frightened of Jan’s anger. They check this out with Jan and find out that she is feeling a little angry at Carole, but she also appreciates Carole’s taking the chance to confront her because it gave her an opportunity to learn something about herself. This gives Carole a chance to begin dealing with her fear of other people’s anger. Here she finds that she can tolerate Jan being a little angry at her.

Asking for Feedback

Like many people, you may join an Interactive Group partly to learn more about how other people react to you and to learn what you may be doing to keep your relationships from working out the way you would like. You will get plenty of information of this kind through the ordinary working of the group, as people express their feelings toward you. However, if you want to make sure you get it, and make sure it’s relevant to your concerns, you can ask for it explicitly. You can also ask for general feedback or for feedback about something specific that you are concerned about.

For example, Lilly said to the group, "I’m concerned that I may be pushing away people whom I’d like to be close to without even realizing I’m doing it. I end up alone so much when I really want people around, and I never knew why. Recently someone suggested that I was unconsciously pushing people away. I’d like to know if any of you think I’ve been doing that." In response a man said that she discounted the good things he said to her. A woman said that Lilly acted sour and complaining even when they had nice contact. The group helped Lilly to sort out what she was doing and how she might want to change.

Consultations

Each group member consults with the leader individually on a regular basis to help you get the most out of the group. The consultations have a number of purposes: (1) To help you learn how to initiate interactive work in the group. (2) To help you get in touch with subtle but important reactions you have in group but don’t bring up. (3) To talk about feelings from group which you don’t feel safe to explore in group. This gets you ready to deal with them in group. (4) Sometimes you have a specific issue you want to work on, but you don’t know how to do this in an interactive way. In a consultation you and the leader can strategize about the best way to make this work happen in group.

Commitment

It is a big emotional step to commit yourself to an Interactive Group. You’re not just committing yourself to come each week and work on yourself in this environment. You’re also committing yourself to be involved emotionally with the people in the group--to care about them and to let them care about you and be important to you. In fact, if you have no emotional room in your life to get close to people, an Interactive Group will not work very well for you. You may get something out of it for six months or so, but then you must be willing to get involved emotionally or not much more will happen.

The commitment issue usually comes up during the Inclusion Stage. People ask themselves questions such as: Do I really want to get involved with these people? Are they good enough for me? Am I good enough for them? Will they accept me? If I commit, will I have to give myself up? Can I really be myself and still be close to these people?

These are the kind of questions which also come up for people in love relationships. People who have commitment problems in love relationships often have commitment problems with group at this stage. So this can be an excellent opportunity to work through your commitment problems in your life by working on them as they come up with respect to the group.

Moving On

At some point you feel ready to really commit yourself to the group. You have probably revealed most of who you are--especially parts of yourself which you may be ashamed of--and discovered that you are really accepted by the group as you are. You probably have confronted people and have been confronted by people, and you’ve worked through these confrontations to strengthen your relationships with these people. You have probably asserted some power in the group to make it operate in ways which you need.

All this combines to allow you to feel safe to be yourself in the group and to feel that the group is really yours. You are entering the Mutuality Stage.

Mutuality Stage

In this stage, the preliminaries are over and you move fully into the major work of the group. Not that you haven’t been doing significant work already, but now you probably feel safe enough to let out all the stops. So your work deepens.

Growing Edge

You can think about your work in group in terms of the question: What is my growing edge (or edges)? In other words what are the areas where I need to grow and where I am now ready to take the step. We all function within a certain circumscribed area of behavior and feeling which is safe and comfortable for us. Your growing edge is that part of the boundary which you are ready to push back, the place where you are ready to take a risk to try new ways of being.

For example, if you usually fight to defend yourself in ways which keep people from being close to you, your growing edge might be to allow yourself to be vulnerable. If you usually are self-effacing, your growing edge might be to speak up with your opinions and feelings. If you usually take care of people instead of expressing your needs, your growing edge might be to ask for support. If you usually control yourself and your environment so that you avoid feeling uncertain, your growing edge might be to initiate work without a plan about where it is going and allow yourself to be spontaneous in the moment.

There are hundreds of possible growing edges. At any one time you might be working on just one, or perhaps two or three.

How Growth Transfers to Outside Life

There are three ways that learning and growth from the group transfer to your outside life.

Communication Skills. In the group you learn various communication and awareness skills. You learn how to confront people directly without judgment. You learn how to be open and vulnerable. You learn how to be aware of and express your emotional reactions. These skills can be valuable in any of your outside relationships--friends, family, spouse, work relationships, acquaintances, and strangers.

Awareness and Choice. Many of our interpersonal issues go beyond just communication skills. They require that we change some of our deeper interpersonal patterns--our growing edges. In group you learn to become aware of these patterns, not only in the abstract, but also in the moment. For instance, suppose you have a pattern of saying "Yes" to everyone who asks for help, no matter what the cost to yourself. You will not only learn that this is a pattern of yours; you will also learn to become aware of it at the moment it happens. You will learn to notice when you are about to give in to a request when if wouldn’t be good for you.

Once you have learned to do this in group, you can start noticing it outside as well. Then you can choose to act differently. Even though you may still have the urge to say "Yes," you can say instead, "Let me think about that. I’ll get back to you." Then if it is something that really isn’t good for you, you can tell the person "No." You can use awareness and choice to change your behavior.

Deeper Change. The major learning in an Interactive Group goes even deeper than this. Through becoming aware and trying new behavior in group and getting positive responses, you grow. As this happens repeatedly, you change at a deep level. Your natural responses begin to be healthy. For example, suppose you are afraid of being close to people because you fear you will lose yourself in trying to please them. In group, you will have many opportunities to practice being assertive rather than pleasing. You will also have many opportunities to practice opening yourself to being close to people, and then working on not losing yourself. Eventually, you will know at a deep level that you can hold your own. You will know that you can be close without giving yourself up. Closeness won’t feel so frightening. You will find yourself just naturally opening to closeness rather than closing down or running away.

Relationships Outside Group

Unlike some therapy groups, there are no rules against having contact with other group members outside of group. In fact, I think that it enhances the value of the group if people develop relationships with each other outside of the group. In the later stages of the group, it adds depth and intensity to people’s relationships, which provokes work which goes deeper into the psyche and is therefore more potent for healing and change. It also brings the group experience closer to "real life" and helps people to transfer learnings from group to their regular lives. Usually during the Mutuality Stage, some people begin to reach out to each other to make contact outside group--calling to ask for or offer help and support, getting together for lunch, etc.

Weekend Retreats

Each group periodically goes away together for a weekend retreat. These weekends are very powerful, in the depth of the work people are able to do, in the openness and vulnerability people achieve, and especially in the bonding which happens among the group members.

The extra contact between group members is very important to encouraging bonding at a deep level. Driving out in car pools, cooking and eating meals together, sleeping in the same house, playing together, hanging out, taking walks--all these add to the sense of being a caring family. And this sense of healthy family, of being with a group of people who really know you and care for you, is incredibly valuable for the level of work which people can do in group and the depth of healing which happens.

The intensity of the weekend experience also contributes to bonding, but more important, it leads to more potent work which goes deeper into the psyche and therefore is more healing. The commitment of going away for the weekend and devoting all that time to personal growth adds to the intensity. By working frequently during the weekend, you have time to open up gradually throughout the weekend and to open at deeper and deeper levels as you go. You don’t have to leave group after two hours and go back to your ordinary life, which may require you to close down again. People are stimulated to get in touch with deeper material by watching others work, and often on a weekend, one person triggers another who triggers still another, as the depth and intensity build throughout the time together. The weekends seem like an amazing, magical time because so many wonderful things happen. People often come away with a sense of having had an almost spiritual experience.

After the weekend, the bonding which happened now feeds back into the ongoing group. People trust each other to continue working at deeper levels. The intensity, of course, can’t continue, but the group connection does, and it changes the whole complexion of the group. Because of the potency of the weekends, I see them as an integral part of the whole group experience, almost as important as the weekly meetings.

Moving On

As your relationships with the other members deepen, some of them may become genuinely important to you as friends in your life, not just as companions in therapy. This means that you are moving on to the Intimacy Stage.

The Intimacy Stage

The Intimacy Stage continues the work of the Mutuality Stage, but at a deeper level. Time-limited groups usually don’t reach this stage. Some of your relationships have deepened to an intimate level, and therefore, the issues and growing edges which come up for you reflect that depth and intensity.

Deeper Work

As your relationships in group become more important to you, many issues which were resolved before come up again because of the deeper intimacy. This is also true in outside life. You will often find that when you first enter a love relationship (or when you end the honeymoon phase) old feelings and issues crop up which you thought were resolved. This doesn’t really mean that the growth you made wasn’t real. You had resolved your issues at that level, but now the increased intimacy has brought you to a new depth, and the old issues must be worked through at this level.

Group as Healthy Family

By the time a group enters the Intimacy Stage, there are not only close relationships between certain pairs of people in the group, there is also a profound sense of group connection. This is partially based on all the strong relationships between pairs of group members, but it goes beyond that. By this time, you’ve been through a lot together. You’ve challenged each other and fought each other. You’ve helped each other and cared for each other. You’ve revealed some of your darkest secrets and been accepted and appreciated. You’ve shown your pain and also your strength and joy. The group has become a unit, a community, a healthy family, in which each person is valued and loved and in which each person can be autonomous and powerful. This bonding is already strong in the Mutuality Stage, and it becomes even clearer and stronger in the Intimacy Stage.

This gives the group enormous power for healing. The reason for this becomes apparent when you look at the origins of our psychological problems. Most of them come from the way we were treated as children, primarily by our parents, but also by other important people in our lives. We are very dependent and vulnerable as children, so the relationships we have with our caretakers shape our psyches to such a large extent, in both positive and negative ways. This is why individual therapy so often focuses on childhood issues, and why "inner child" work is so popular these days.

If the origins of many of our problems are in our early relationships, then our healing will also be through relationships. In individual therapy this often happens through the relationship with your therapist. In an Interactive Group it happens through your relationships with all the group members. The group becomes like the healthy family you always wanted and needed. When you open yourself to pain (which often comes from childhood) and are then offered a healing response from someone in group (or from the whole group), you are able to take it in fully and let it truly change you. You can do this because you trust your group. You have a sense of coming home.

This also happens, of course, in individual therapy, but it’s sometimes easy to feel that your therapist is the only person who understands and accepts you. In a group you know it’s the whole "family," and this gives it a greater sense of reality, a stronger feeling that you actually deserve it. You also participate in other people’s healing and growth, and this promotes a recognition of your own value and worth. You have the experience of feeling yourself as part of a larger whole which is loving and growthful.

Conclusion

I have been leading Interactive Groups since 1978, and I love the process. I love the excitement and the intensity. I love the genuineness of people’s responses and the depths to which people go. Most of all, I love the deep caring and love which people share. I hope that this paper gives you some idea of the richness and possibility of these groups.