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Chapter 18 - Psychodynamic Reflective Practice Groups

from Beyond 1:1 Therapy: Working Psychodynamically with Clinicians, Teams, and Organisations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 August 2023

Adam Polnay ,
Rhiannon Pugh ,
Victoria Barker ,
David Bell ,
Allan Beveridge ,
Adam Burley ,
Allyson Lumsden ,
C. Susan Mizen  and
Lauren Wilson
Foreword by
Nancy McWilliams
Adam Polnay
Affiliation:
The State Hospital, Carstairs and Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
Victoria Barker
Affiliation:
East London NHS Foundation Trust, London
David Bell
Affiliation:
British Psychoanalytic Society
Allan Beveridge
Affiliation:
Royal College of Psychiatrists, London
Adam Burley
Affiliation:
Rivers Centre, Edinburgh
Allyson Lumsden
Affiliation:
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
C. Susan Mizen
Affiliation:
Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, Exeter
Lauren Wilson
Affiliation:
Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh
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Summary

Staff in the caring professions often have to contain troubling and unpredictable communications (projections) from those they work with. It is usual and expected for staff to have feelings in response to these communications – this is part of the process of emotional containment. If reflected on, the professional’s feelings and inner responses (countertransference) can be a vital source of information about the relational dynamics the service user carries with them and how the staff member is responding to these. However, if staff members do not reflect on and process their countertransference, there is the potential for increased stress for the staff member, and to inadvertently re-enact the patient’s relational difficulties rather than provide containment for them. A reflective practice (RP) group brings a whole clinical team together with the primary task being to reflect on and process staff-patient, teamm and organisational dynamics, to sustain caring relationships with patients and reduce the stresses of the work for staff. This chapter offers an introduction to psychodynamic RP groups, aimed at both participants and group facilitators. We discuss the theory of RP groups and their intended purpose, outline a process of starting a group, and consider what is expected for both participants and facilitators.

Keywords

reflective practicegroupspsychodynamicre-enactmentcontainmentcountertransferenceBalint groupsapplied psychodynamic work
Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Guide to Psychodynamic Psychotherapy , pp. 269 - 277
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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