Relational Psychodynamic Therapy (RPT) Consultation Groups

You are exhausted. You entered this profession to help people and yet you wonder if what you are doing is making any kind of meaningful difference. And even if it is, you look out into the sea of people and their suffering and feel so insignificant in your ability to make any kind of dent in the hurt all around you.

You also feel utterly alone in knowing that no one else felt what you just did with that client of yours. And surely to tell your colleagues and supervisors about this, especially the thoughts and feelings you feel most ashamed of, would also mean exposing more of your own vulnerabilities which you fear will only end up in you being told to do more of your own therapy…which you can hardly afford as it is.

And you’re bored. There’s a sense in which you know the steps in the dance of being a therapist but a deeper part of you wonders:

“In my familiarity with the “steps”, have I lost my courage to take more risks and actually play a little more in my work?”

“If I allowed more of my experience with my clients to be seen, would they all leave, or worse, get in conflict with me?”

Supervision and consultation continues to be a vital aspect of your development and growth. However, these spaces rarely feel like ones where you can be truly honest about your feelings in your work. And if you do, it is often treated as “your stuff” to be kept out of the therapy room.

So you analyze, you conceptualize, and you “figure out what to do” but beneath the surface you stay hidden. The most honest feelings and senses you have, in all their ugliness and beauty, are often unspoken and held in your body and mind…alone. And this is slowly but surely killing you.

What are RPT Groups?

Relational Psychodynamic Therapy (RPT) consultation groups, as outlined in Dr. Roy Barsness’ book Psychodynamic Supervision Therapy and Practice: In A New Key, seeks to address this need for a relational home. Clinicians are encouraged to be “radically open” to what they experience with their clients, make links between their felt experience and the client’s story, and then to “play” with the other group members with how they could bring this information directly into the therapeutic relationship.

RPT consult groups are on the cutting edge of the intersection of relational theory, interpersonal neurobiology, and the philosophy of dialogue and how they inform transformative ways of being in our work as therapists. They are deeply experiential and focus primarily on the development of the therapists capacity for self-reflection to enrich the therapeutic relationship and foster meaningful client progress.

Put another way, RPT consult groups help therapists:

• Have a space where they can be open with what they experience in their cases.
• Feel welcomed and expanded as the other group members engage their cases with their affects first and then their minds.
• Gain inspiration, understanding, and practice speaking relationally to what is happening in the therapeutic relationship.
• Expand their clinical mind, regardless of whether they are presenter or participant, as each member is responsible for engaging their own affect, linking to the clients narrative, and playing together with articulating these aspects to the client.
• Be inspired by the consultation to continue to read and learn outside the meeting time based on their own and fellow members’ cases and what transpires in the consultation.

FAQ’s

Where will we meet?

In my office at 8575 West 110th Street, Suite 304, Overland Park, Kansas 66210
OR
Via Google Meet

When does the group meet?

Bi-weekly on Wednesdays from 11a.m.-1240p.m. CST

Fee for Consultation:

$80 per consultation that will be billed at the end of each consultation. Payment will be captured via debit or credit card held on file.

What length of commitment is asked?

Participants are asked to make a 9-month commitment as consult groups will run from September through May.

What if I decide I would like to discontinue being in the consultation group?

Your decision to stay in or leave group is very important and will be respected. With that said, these consult groups are still a group and meaningful bonds are formed during the time. Participants are asked to share the desire to leave openly with the group and be willing to have this be explored as it is common for what has transpired in the cases worked to have a “parallel process” with dynamics within the group.

If after exploration and discussion with the group you are still desiring to leave the group, specific group time will be given for participants to say goodbye to each other and reminisce together about what the group has meant to them to ensure the process of closure is given to all participants, including whoever has decided to leave.

Do I need previous experience in psychodynamic therapy or training?

No, the consult groups are designed to be experiential and practical in nature where participants will learn relational theoretical concepts through the group experience and in their learning outside of the meeting times.

Can I ask more general clinical questions in these groups?

The primary purpose of the group is to develop the therapist’s self-reflective skills through the working of cases together. More general questions are to be brought to one’s individual supervisor or to the consultant outside of group time.

If interested, please fill out an inquiry form on my Contact page and I will respond to your inquiry.