I was recently asked by one of my clients "why should I leave my personal and join the team?" And my spontaneous first answer was "Why is it in itself an experience so absurd and special." Going through an era where so much individuality and diversity is emphasized and at the same time isolation and avoidance of socializing have been strengthened, participation in any type of group seems unreal. However, the individual's need to relate, to interact, to feel a companion in all that he lives and tries to accomplish, is not going to change. On the contrary the person undoubtedly has the need to feel the company and the sense of belonging and that he is not alone. Working within a treatment team happens on multiple levels at the same time. The individual develops many abilities at the same time, without always realizing it. Apart from what is happening in the team at that moment, on the obvious level, there are other things that happen symbolically or indirectly. Each person brings their own issue, common or not with the other. A sense of trust and security needs to be created and by learning to have all the members of the group together, to listen to each other, to develop the ability to include what they hear, to "fit" them, not to rush to respond or to they conclude. The group lures you into a spontaneity, one that the story of the other somewhere "goes" to you and something "touches" you. You learn to express yourself, your truth in the most appropriate way at the right time, without censorship and without hiding or being discouraged above all. Sometimes in the team, you will need to claim your "space", therefore to be heard in order to be able to speak, to come forward, to take this step and therefore to learn to come forward. You learn that accepting is as important as giving, that being the center of attention of other people is a skill that you learn in a healthy way. Even if sometimes in the group you do not speak, you always work on yourself, through others, through what they share, through the connections that are made, through the emotions that are experienced. The most important of all is that everything that is learned in the group, the analysand can bring it into his life, to practice it in his reality, observing how all these affect him, change him and form new, more functional behaviors. As something magical, it creates and unites all the individuals in a healing group, accompanies them and allows them to grow, develop, transform into functional adults with heart and logic in harmony!
