Andre Marquis, Ph.D.

Group therapy is a treatment modality in which unrelated people meet together with a therapist, in contrast to individual therapy or conjoint family therapy. Groups are not a second-rate approach to helping people change. In fact, groups are often the treatment of choice - especially when a client’s problem has an interpersonal component (which is usually the case). Groups offer a natural laboratory in which people can experiment with new ways of being and receive feedback from numerous others. There is great power in groups: members actually experience their interpersonal dynamics playing out in the group. A group therapist can implement techniques from other modalities in a group format. However, there are dynamics, processes, and stages of groups that are not shared with individual approaches and which offer distinctive benefits. Because so many of the problems that people seek mental
health services for involve dysfunctional interactions between people, having group members actually interact with others in the group affords an opportunity for deep, experiential learning and development that is not possible in individual therapy. This seminar will emphasize how to facilitate such “here and now” interactions and processes in group work.

In the field of counseling/psychotherapy, there are few topics that are more pervasively misunderstood than the nature of emotions and their significance to human health. Even the founders of many influential approaches (i.e., Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis) believed that emotions are best controlled - rather than deeply experienced, reflected upon (processed), and communicated; fields such as affective neuroscience have demonstrated that this is simply false. Just as thoughts can be accurate/adaptive or inaccurate/maladaptive, emotions can be “on target” or “off-base”; they can also be primary or secondary (the latter is often an emotional defense of the primary emotion). Moreover, all human beings—and especially therapy clients—use defenses to avoid experiencing and dealing with their emotions. Most therapists are not taught basic knowledge of emotions and defenses. Rather, they are often taught to simply “follow the client’s feelings.” However, many feelings are actually defenses against the underlying (primary, true) feeling (i.e., sadness covering anger). If a therapist does not recognize which emotions are primary and which are defensive/secondary emotions, then one may be encouraging a client to heighten their defenses, which is almost always anti-therapeutic. Clients who defend against their emotions lose the important information that emotions can provide. This webinar will teach you how to bypass your clients’ defenses and to work directly with their emotions, because emotions are fundamental sources of information and knowledge about one’s self and the world around them.

Group therapy is a treatment modality in which unrelated people meet together with a therapist, in contrast to individual therapy or conjoint family therapy. Groups are not a second-rate approach to helping people change. In fact, groups are often the treatment of choice - especially when a client’s problem has an interpersonal component (which is usually the case). Groups offer a natural laboratory in which people can experiment with new ways of being and receive feedback from numerous others. There is great power in groups: members actually experience their interpersonal dynamics playing out in the group. A group therapist can implement techniques from other modalities in a group format. However, there are dynamics, processes, and stages of groups that are not shared with individual approaches and which offer distinctive benefits. Because so many of the problems that people seek mental
health services for involve dysfunctional interactions between people, having group members actually interact with others in the group affords an opportunity for deep, experiential learning and development that is not possible in individual therapy. This seminar will emphasize how to facilitate such “here and now” interactions and processes in group work.

In the field of counseling/psychotherapy, there are few topics that are more pervasively misunderstood than the nature of emotions and their significance to human health. Even the founders of many influential approaches (i.e., Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis) believed that emotions are best controlled - rather than deeply experienced, reflected upon (processed), and communicated; fields such as affective neuroscience have demonstrated that this is simply false. Just as thoughts can be accurate/adaptive or inaccurate/maladaptive, emotions can be “on target” or “off-base”; they can also be primary or secondary (the latter is often an emotional defense of the primary emotion). Moreover, all human beings—and especially therapy clients—use defenses to avoid experiencing and dealing with their emotions. Most therapists are not taught basic knowledge of emotions and defenses. Rather, they are often taught to simply “follow the client’s feelings.” However, many feelings are actually defenses against the underlying (primary, true) feeling (i.e., sadness covering anger). If a therapist does not recognize which emotions are primary and which are defensive/secondary emotions, then one may be encouraging a client to heighten their defenses, which is almost always anti-therapeutic. Clients who defend against their emotions lose the important information that emotions can provide. This webinar will teach you how to bypass your clients’ defenses and to work directly with their emotions, because emotions are fundamental sources of information and knowledge about one’s self and the world around them.

Group therapy is a treatment modality in which unrelated people meet together with a therapist, in contrast to individual therapy or conjoint family therapy. Groups are not a second-rate approach to helping people change. In fact, groups are often the treatment of choice - especially when a client’s problem has an interpersonal component (which is usually the case). Groups offer a natural laboratory in which people can experiment with new ways of being and receive feedback from numerous others. There is great power in groups: members actually experience their interpersonal dynamics playing out in the group. A group therapist can implement techniques from other modalities in a group format. However, there are dynamics, processes, and stages of groups that are not shared with individual approaches and which offer distinctive benefits. Because so many of the problems that people seek mental
health services for involve dysfunctional interactions between people, having group members actually interact with others in the group affords an opportunity for deep, experiential learning and development that is not possible in individual therapy. This seminar will emphasize how to facilitate such “here and now” interactions and processes in group work.

In the field of counseling/psychotherapy, there are few topics that are more pervasively misunderstood than the nature of emotions and their significance to human health. Even the founders of many influential approaches (i.e., Aaron Beck, Albert Ellis) believed that emotions are best controlled - rather than deeply experienced, reflected upon (processed), and communicated; fields such as affective neuroscience have demonstrated that this is simply false. Just as thoughts can be accurate/adaptive or inaccurate/maladaptive, emotions can be “on target” or “off-base”; they can also be primary or secondary (the latter is often an emotional defense of the primary emotion). Moreover, all human beings—and especially therapy clients—use defenses to avoid experiencing and dealing with their emotions. Most therapists are not taught basic knowledge of emotions and defenses. Rather, they are often taught to simply “follow the client’s feelings.” However, many feelings are actually defenses against the underlying (primary, true) feeling (i.e., sadness covering anger). If a therapist does not recognize which emotions are primary and which are defensive/secondary emotions, then one may be encouraging a client to heighten their defenses, which is almost always anti-therapeutic. Clients who defend against their emotions lose the important information that emotions can provide. This webinar will teach you how to bypass your clients’ defenses and to work directly with their emotions, because emotions are fundamental sources of information and knowledge about one’s self and the world around them.

Group therapy is a treatment modality in which unrelated people meet together with a therapist, in contrast to individual therapy or conjoint family therapy. Groups are not a second-rate approach to helping people change. In fact, groups are often the treatment of choice - especially when a client’s problem has an interpersonal component (which is usually the case). Groups offer a natural laboratory in which people can experiment with new ways of being and receive feedback from numerous others. There is great power in groups: members actually experience their interpersonal dynamics playing out in the group. A group therapist can implement techniques from other modalities in a group format. However, there are dynamics, processes, and stages of groups that are not shared with individual approaches and which offer distinctive benefits. Because so many of the problems that people seek mental
health services for involve dysfunctional interactions between people, having group members actually interact with others in the group affords an opportunity for deep, experiential learning and development that is not possible in individual therapy. This seminar will emphasize how to facilitate such “here and now” interactions and processes in group work.