The Fall 2012 From the President Group Kathleen Ulman, PhD, CGP, FAGPA s the leaves start to Afall and the days grow shorter, I remember my excite- Circle ment and anticipation The Newsletter of the of new challenges American Group Psychotherapy Association with the onset of and the International Board for Certification of the new school year that marked the Group Psychotherapists beginning of the rhythm of the coming academic year. AGPA also has its own Group Therapy Through the Lens of Attachment Theory: yearly rhythm. For me, the fall brings thoughts of scheduling Board meetings, An Interview with David Wallin, PhD encouraging scholarship applications, Paul Kaye, PhD, CGP, FAGPA, Co-Chair, Annual Meeting Committee beginning preparations for the Annual Meeting, anticipation of Distance David Wallin, PhD, is a clinical experience; we’re just defined by it. Learning participation, and the start of psychologist in private practice in In contrast, I’ve referred to mentalizing and mindful- many goings-on outside of the aware- Albany and Mill Valley, California. ness as “the double helix of psychological liberation.” ness of many AGPA members. I would Dr. Wallin has been practicing, Why? Because each of these stances fosters the dis-embed- like to take this opportunity to share with you the activities that have been teaching, and writing about psy- ding that loosens the grip of automatic response patterns. taking place on behalf of AGPA over the chotherapy for nearly three decades. Each stance is also affect-regulating, contributes to insight summer while most of us have been on His most recent book, Attachment and empathy, and helps promote the integration of dissoci- vacation, as well as more recently. in Psychotherapy (©2007, The ated experience that’s key to therapeutic change. The Annual Meeting Program is Guilford Press), has been translated In working with our patients, it is critical to gauge completed, the Special Institute and into nine languages. He is also co-author (with Stephen the patient’s capacity to mentalize. We often make this Two-Day Institute Programs can be Goldbart, PhD,) of Mapping the Terrain of the Heart: assessment on the fly, and sometimes it shifts on a dime. viewed on the website, and the rest Passion, Tenderness, and The Capacity to Love (©1996, The extent to which patients can mentalize helps us of the program will soon be available. Jason Aronson). He has lectured on attachment and psy- choose our interventions. For assessment purposes, three This is the time of year to encourage trainees and new professionals to apply chotherapy in Australia, Europe, Canada, and through- questions are key: a) At any particular moment, can the for scholarships. Your help is essential. out the United States. Dr. Wallin will present the Anne patient see that reality might be other than he thinks The Scholarship Program has been and Ramon Alonso Plenary Address at the AGPA Annual or feels it is? b) Can he see that different people might a vital source of new attendees and Meeting in New Orleans on March 1, 2013. legitimately regard the same reality in different ways? members. In June, the Board approved and c) Can he appreciate that his own estimate of what a pilot to simulcast a limited number PK: In your book, Attachment in Psychotherapy, he now regards as reality might well change? The idea of Annual Meeting events. This is an you state, “…. the stance of the self toward expe- here is that mentalizing involves the capacity to consider exciting innovation that means that rience predicts attachment security better than multiple perspectives on experience, rather than being group therapists around the world will the facts of personal history themselves.” Could trapped in the presumed reality of a single view. Because be able to observe in real time these events, as well as interact and ask you define what the stance of the self toward mentalizing capability is both developmentally deter- questions. These simulcasts will also experience refers to and describe how a clinician mined and context-dependent, its strength varies; hence, be stored and available following the would go about assessing it? the importance of keeping in mind the inverse relation- Annual Meeting. ship between the intensity of feelings—or the rigidity of The Annual Meeting Committee sur- DW: The stance of the self toward experience refers to defenses against feeling—and the degree to which we’re veyed the 2011 attendees who did not the ways in which we respond to and process our own able to take a step back from experience in order to make return in 2012 to the Annual Meeting experience and that of others. In my book, I describe sense of it. The more freaked out we are, or the more rig- in New York City. The results showed three such stances, suggesting that we can be embedded idly detached, the less we’re able to mentalize. that the major reason for not returning was determined by considerations of in experience, we can be reflective (in other words, we can If you think of a hierarchy of interventions with empa- time and money and was not related mentalize), or we can be mindful. When embedded in our thy and support at the top and interpretations of motiva- to satisfaction with attendees’ experi- experience, we simply believe everything we think and tional dynamics (especially as these involve transference- ences. The Annual Meeting Committee (especially) feel. When we reflect or mentalize, we make countertransference) at the bottom, then it’s the intensity of has also been using participant evalu- sense of experience and behavior in light of the underly- the patient’s emotion, or defenses against same, that should ations to help guide them in designing ing mental states that shape them. When we’re mindful, determine the depth of our intervention: The more mental continued on page 2 we’re deliberately present and fully aware of whatever space available to the patient, the deeper the intervention experience arises in the immediacy of the moment. should be. On the other hand, there’s also a kind of hori- I want to make sure I give the concept embedded- zontal differentiation to be made between highly emotional What’s Inside ness its due. This stance is probably just what’s called for patients with a hyper-activating attachment strategy and when we’re immersed in the pleasures of music, or skiing, emotionally detached patients with a de-activating strategy. Call for Nominations 2 or making love. On the other hand, embeddedness is a The former may need more in the way of ongoing empathy Annual Meeting Survey Results 3 problem when it’s regularly our only option. Then we’re and support from the therapist, while the latter may need Making of a Group Therapist 4 on autopilot—prisoners of our own internal world—with the therapist to show some emotion, to lead the way, to offer Group Assets Insert little ability to regulate our emotions, or to understand more in the way of confrontation and self-disclosure. Group As an Object of Desire 5 ourselves or others. With such a stance we can’t interpret continued on page 6 Consultation, Please 7 Affiliate Society News 8 The Group Circle is President organization that began this summer and published four times a year by the continued from page 1 will continue to be through the fall and From the American Group Psychotherapy this year’s and future meetings. winter. The design is drawing on both Association, Inc. and the International I am pleased to announce that the Board member input and the expertise of many Board for Certification of Group Editor approved Boston as the site for our 2014 branches of the organization; we have Psychotherapists. Steven Van Wagoner, PhD, CGP, FAGPA Annual Meeting. A contract has been been using the results of the membership Editor signed with the Westin Copley Place for survey and the input developed at the Tri- Steven Van Wagoner, PhD, CGP, FAGPA March 3-8, 2014. Organizational Board Meeting in March always love the Fall edition because In August, the American Psychological for overall website development. The Editorial Staff current and past Special Interest Group for me, and I hope for many of you, Tammy Brown, MSSW, CGP Association cited AGPA’s Practice Guide- it stirs excitement and anticipation Hank Fallon, PhD, CGP, FAGPA lines for Group Psychotherapy several Task Force Co-Chairs and AGPA Secretary I for the Annual Meeting, which is only Michael Hegener, MA, LCP, FAGPA times in their new Resolution on the have been reviewing new software as an Jennifer Johnson, PhD a few months away. Reading the fine Effectiveness of Psychotherapy. It was alternative to E-Communities. The Annual interviews with David Wallin, PhD, Managing Editor very good news, and satisfying to see Meeting Committee undertook the time- consuming task of developing the tax- Morris Nitsun, PhD, and Jerry Gans, Marsha Block, CAE, CFRE AGPA’s Practice Guidelines, developed by PhD, CGP, DFAGPA, is like getting a the Science to Services Task Force, rec- onomy for tagging Annual Meeting and taste of the menu before making my Editorial/Production Managers ognized. Distance Learning presentations so that choices. At times, I could imagine Nicole Millman-Falk, CAE Now that we have a new Editor— continuing education will be searchable myself in dialogue with each of them, Angela Stephens, CAE Dominick Grundy, PhD, CGP—for the on the website. The Science to Services generating my own questions in International Journal of Group Psycho- Task Force is taking a final look at the AGPA anticipation of rich responses. 25 East 21st Street, 6th floor therapy, the Journal Search Committee taxonomy to make sure it reflects the As is occasionally the case in New York, NY 10010 has sent out separate surveys to the state of the art in group psychotherapy.