THIS THREE-PART SERIES presents scenes from a spontaneous, unscripted group that met for ten sessions with individuals willing to reveal themselves before a live camera. We (Vivian Nelson and Bill Roller) led the group together. We are experienced group psychotherapists in private practice in Berkeley, California, and are the founders of the Berkeley Group Therapy Education Foundation, the producer of the video series.

The six-hour series introduces a unique way to conceptualize small group process. As the group evolves, the videos demonstrate the phases of group therapy development and emergent leadership roles articulated by Ariadne P. Beck, founder of the Chicago Group Development Research Team and preeminent researcher in the field of group dynamics.

Throughout the series, we provide concise (and, we hope, incisive) commentary on the group, so that the viewer learns how object relations can be applied to the group therapy setting. The work of other systems theorists is also introduced, providing a practical method to contain conflict and intense affect by the skillful use of subgroups.

We try throughout to point out the mistakes that group therapists commonly make and the ways those mistakes can be employed in the service of the patients' progress. We also endeavor to show the ways a mature co-therapy team can advance the group's movement through the various phases of development.

Such basic concepts as projective identification, dissociation, part-object transference, and countertransference are clearly illustrated. In our commentary we try to elaborate the meaning of the group structure and demonstrate how it maybe used to facilitate the growth of each member.

This video series was created to assist practicing clinicians, professors in the field, and their students. We have designed these notes as a supplement to Out on-screen commentary. Some of the information we provide here has been taken from the literary companion to the video series, The Promise of Group Therapy, published by Jossey Bass of San Francisco and © Bill Roller, 1997.

Analytic Group Psychotherapy
in Berkeley, California
Intensive Training in Group Psychotherapy
& Group Consultation

Bill Roller will conduct a 12 session training group for people wanting to learn specialized skills and knowledge in psychotherapy. This will be a peer study group that will look at both the personal and professional development of group therapists, with a special focus on therapist-self knowledge and counter –transference issues. Our group will be a balance of the practical and theoretical, with time to discuss your current groups. Continuing Education credits and hours toward qualification as a Certified Group Psychotherapist will be offered. An on-going consultation group for clinicans wanting to pursue advanced theory and technique in the treatment of Borderline Personalities and the structure of their families is another option to consider.

Contact Bill Roller to discuss the time and date for the next training opportunity.

" I am currently teaching psychotherapy to the residents at Stanford and I have found these training videos to be truly excellent. I was impressed on several levels.One is that you chose to videotape a real group. Your group was amazing because of its fast paced development. The level of work that was accomplished was quite astonishing which I know owes a good deal to you and the co-therapist's skilled leadership. Once I started watching the tapes, I couldn't stop. It was very much like getting engrossed in a great novel."

Catherine Classen, Ph.D.
Department of Psychiatry
Stanford School of Medicine
Stanford, CA