On this episode, you'll hear from Dr Robert Pepper, author of Some People Don’t Want What They Say They Want, and a therapist who’s been running groups for over twenty-five years and has a special gift in helping member’s resolve conflicts with relationships, both personal and professional. In group therapy, members learn to resolve obstacles to developing healthy relationships through interactions between members of the group. Listen now to learn more about what group therapy can do to support healthy relationships.

Reach out to Rob at drpepperphd.com.

Bonus thoughts from Dr. Pepper around the topic of using your friends to replace therapy:

There are at least two reasons why friends and family can’t replace group therapy. Frankly, I believe it's quite psychologically naive to think that group therapy is unnecessary if a person has good friends and family. Good friends and family complement group therapy; they don’t replace it. For one thing, good friends and relatives usually aren’t objective. They have their own biases and opinions about what is best for us. And as "Dear Abby" has so brilliantly observed: "Unsolicited advice is always self-serving". Group members in a secure group environment, are in a better position to see our needs and foibles more clearly.

Second, and to my mind more importantly, social relationships are not designed to absorb the full impact of our own, nor friends, family and a life partner’s feelings. In group therapy the directive to members is: "Say everything." That is clearly not a wise thing to do in non-therapy relationships. That is because there are some powerful, “dark” feelings that are better left unsaid in close, intense, personal relationships. They are better said in the safe context of a secure group. To share every thought and feeling with a loved one can be hurtful and damaging to the relationship. In group therapy it’s different. At the same time, our closest friends and relatives are there to provide TLC when we need it, while group members are there for us only weekly at a specific time and place. The restrictions prohibiting outside contact and physical contact in the group, plus the contract, ensure that there will be no real-life consequences to group interactions and that group is a safe place where members’ words can’t come back to haunt them in their personal or professional relationships.

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