What is the MAMAL Consultation Process?
RPT (Relational Psychodynamic Therapy) consultation groups are oriented differently than traditional models. Unlike traditional consultation models, MAMAL invites participants into a deeply collaborative and experiential process. Its name is derived from an acronym that represents the key components of the process—Muse, Affect, Metabolization, Articulation, and Learning. Below, we’ll explore each step of the MAMAL consultation process, showcasing the profound potential this model holds for enriching therapeutic work.
There is so much complexity not captured in these descriptions but I will provide a general outline nonetheless. I want to ensure credit is given to Tyson Connor’s text “MAMAL Grimoire: a practical handbook for running a MAMAL group” as much of what goes into these descriptions come from his writing.
The Steps of the MAMAL Process
1. Muse (15-20 Minutes)
The muse is the person or persons (individual/couple/family) that the presenter has chosen to bring to the consultation. The presenter will bring the case in a similar fashion as traditional models by sharing what comes to mind for this client, stuck spots or confusion, and why they believe they have brought them. However, two primary elements are specifically asked to not be left out which are: the therapist’s subjective experience sitting in session with the muse and a brief example dialogue of what the back and forth may sound like.
The primary difference in the MAMAL process lies in how the participants, including the leader, engage with the muse. The focus is on what it is like for them to encounter the muse. The muse is something to be experienced. Their job is not to give advice or supervise the presenting therapist. It is to hold a posture of, “This muse is my client, what is my experience as I encounter them? What comes up for me as I sit with them?”
In Tyson’s words, “We are having a relational encounter and paying attention to our whole therapeutic instrument (self of the therapist) while we do so”.
This posture when hearing the muse sets the step for a deeper exploration in the next phase, Affect.
2. Affect (10-15 Minutes)
Within this model, Affect is the starting point of understanding the client or getting a sense of “what the hell is happening” in the clinical encounter. Affect here can be defined as encompassing subjective experience prior to meaning-making or conscious/unconscious processing.
Examples of Affect Expression:
- Bodily sensations (“I feel a tightness in my chest.”)
- Emotional reactions (“I feel a strange mix of sadness and frustration.”)
- Creative imagery or metaphors (“I see the muse standing in the rain, reluctant to move forward.”)
- Pop culture associations like song lyrics or movie scenes.
- What you just want to say to the client
- What your gut is saying to you
When sharing our affect with the group, we do so “without apology, couching, or contextualizing”. If we feel a kinship to the muse, we share it. If we feel crazy with the therapist, we share that. What matters is not whether the affect is “right” but that the participant is “in” whatever they are bringing. In other words, the participant has connected to something happening for them and is bringing it to be metabolized and played with in the group.
The assumption is not that any and all affect is connected to the muse. But the guiding ethic is, “maybe”, and participants are asked to stay as open as they can to what has emerged for them and its potential connection to the story of the muse, the therapeutic relationship, or within the group process.
This deeply felt exploration provides the raw material for the subsequent step, Metabolization.
3. Metabolization (15-20 Minutes)
The focus of this section is to build links between the emerging affects individually and collectively in the group with the drama of the muse’s life and the therapeutic relationship. It’s more of a free flowing discussion where participants are encouraged to build off of each other’s minds around orienting questions such as:
Key Questions for Reflection:
- Why do I think I felt that way at that moment?
- Where is the muse catching me in my story (defenses, trauma’s, ways of dealing with unwanted self-states) and how is that organizing how I am showing up?
- What patterns from the muse’s life are connected to our affect?
- What are we caught up in as a group and how does this connect to the muse?
- Who am I to the muse?
- Who is the muse to me?
This step is less about intellectualizing and more about linking emotional and relational patterns. The facilitator ensures that the process balances thoughtful analysis with emotional engagement, preventing the group from distancing itself from the lived reality of the muse.
I liken this to floating on a lazy river. As the muse takes you wherever it takes you and stirs up whatever it stirs up in you, Metabolization is a time to say, “Wait, this looks familiar.” The key tension throughout the process of linking our thinking with our affect is to not let our thinking brains take over so much so that the affect from the muse is lost and we have fallen into analyzing the case from an intellectual distance.
4. Articulation (15-20 Minutes)
At this point, affects have been shared and the group has begun to make links to the muse and it’s all pretty neutral until the facilitator says…
“Okay, great! Articulate it.”
This “oh, shit” moment captures the risk, vulnerability, but also power of the participants’ attempt to face the muse and put into language their experience of them, their mind about what it may be linked to and then to play with however the muse responds.
It is common here for a role play to occur in which the facilitator asks one person to play the muse and have another member offer their articulation to the muse while the group observes and attends to the affects stirred in them while watching the encounter.
Articulation is the Relational Psychodynamic intervention.
Articulations are offered as invitations to observe the relationship and its repetitions together as co-creators and co-participants to those relational repetitions. It is the belief of RPT that an articulation invites the client into a genuine encounter where deep relational contact can be made between client and therapist.
The model is oriented around the group working together to find an articulation that feels most honest, powerful, and deepening to the encounter. But the idea is not to identify “the one” articulation, because as one articulation and role play comes to a close, the process starts over back to Affect again.
As in the words of C.S. Lewis, the group attempts to go, “further up and further in” to more of what that is there in the case through the A-M-A (Affect, Metabolization, Articulation) loop.
5. Learning (10 Minutes)
This final section of the process serves as a way to step out of the case and to begin making meaning of the consultation and what learning occurred for them. This learning can be “organic” with statements like, “I realized I get practical and talky when the emotional heat rises”. But there tends to be a focus on connecting the experience of the consult with the theoretical underpinnings of the model such as Dr. Barness’s Core Competencies in Relational Psychoanalysis: A Guide to Practice, Study, and Research or other relational publications. With that said, participants are also encouraged to bring learnings that come from their own theoretical bent and background as the diversity in perspectives enriches the process.
Conclusion
This post doesn’t capture the full complexity of what occurs in these consultations but I hope this gives you a small glimpse into how meaningful these groups can be. What’s interesting is that being in my own MAMAL group, I have found the learning to be deeply enriching in my work but what ultimately keeps me coming back are the people I have come to love in my group.
It has not always been sunshine and rainbows, it’s been bloody at times, but after a couple of years into meeting, I feel we are more like a family now than a consult group.
If you or someone you know may be interested in joining me this fall, please fill out a contact form on my website. You can also learn more about my upcoming MAMAL group here.
Hoping you each find your own ‘relational home’ and keep up the great work out there!
Warmly,
Alex