Group analysis

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Foulkesian long-term, slow-open small "stranger" group as taught in the Institute of Group Analysis / Group Analytic Society tradition (Foulkes 1948, 1964, 1975; Foulkes & Anthony 1957), with Steinar Lorentzen's time-limited variant (short-term / focused group analytic psychotherapy, STGAP/FGAP, 20 sessions; Lorentzen 2014, 2020) given where it differs. Robin Skynner's extension of group analysis to families and couples is described only as far as the sources allow (see 4.25).

Group analysis is a psychoanalytically based form of group psychotherapy founded by S. H. Foulkes (1898-1976), who developed it in Britain from the 1940s; his followers founded the Group Analytic Practice (1959, Skynner among them) and the Institute of Group Analysis. It is a method and a theory, not a manualised protocol: no session-by-session manual exists for the long-term form. [source: Wikipedia, Robin Skynner; Hengstberger 2025]

Core idea of change: the individual is a nodal point in a network of relationships, and disturbance is located between people rather than inside one person. In a small group of strangers meeting over time, members form a shared communicational web, the group matrix. Change happens through "analysis of the group, by the group, including the conductor" (Foulkes 1975, p. 3, cited by Hengstberger): members see themselves in others (mirroring), meet difference (exchange), relieve isolation (socialisation), find unconscious themes amplified in the group (resonance, condenser phenomena), and learn to speak and bear the feelings aroused (ego training in action). The conductor's main work is to found and maintain the group (dynamic administration) and to help the group bring its unconscious configurations into words (location, translation, interpretation). [source: Location page; Mass-Goldman, Exchange; Pisani; Hengstberger 2025]

2. Framework

Two formats. Group analysis has no fixed phase protocol in its classic form; phases are those of the group's life and of each member's career within it. The time-limited STGAP/FGAP variant does have a defined frame. [source: GAN; Lorentzen review; Zahl 2022]

	Long-term slow-open group (classic)	Short-term focused group (Lorentzen)
Membership	Up to 8, mixed gender (single-sex groups exist); slowly changing membership: members leave and new ones join while the group continues	7-8 patients, closed: all start and end together
Conductors	One conductor (co-conducting also used)	1-2 conductors
Frequency/length	Usually weekly, sometimes twice weekly; about 90 minutes	20 weekly sessions of 90 minutes (about 6 months)
Duration for a member	Expect more than a year [the usual 2-3 years is uncertain: not stated in the sources]	20 sessions; Lorentzen's RCT compared this with a 2-year long-term group
Seating	Small circle of chairs, face to face, no table	Same [synthesis]
Ground rules	Confidentiality; members do not meet outside the group	Same, plus boundaries differentiated from ordinary social life

[source: GAN; Thomas 1997; Lorentzen review; Pisani]

Phase A. Assessment and selection. Goal: decide whether a group, and which group, suits the person. Individual assessment interview(s); if no place is free the person may wait, with individual sessions offered meanwhile or as preparation. In the Lorentzen variant, several individual pre-therapy sessions evaluate problems and resources; the 2020 version adds the STIPO-R structured interview and the IIP-C self-report to build a case formulation (instruments described, items not reproduced). Move on when: indication confirmed, a focus or at least a shared understanding of why a group is being tried, and a vacancy. [source: GAN; Lorentzen review; Zahl 2022]

Phase B. Preparation and contract. Goal: realistic expectations and agreement to the frame (time, fee, attendance, confidentiality, no outside contact). In STGAP the conductor and patient negotiate a focus, preferably a dysfunctional interpersonal pattern. Move on when the person agrees to the frame and has a start date. [source: GAN; Lorentzen review] Explicit agreement about notice before leaving is standard practice but is not stated in the sources [synthesis].

Phase C. Entry. Goal: the newcomer joins and the group digests the arrival. In a new group the first meeting often begins with silence, then introductions, the formation of likes and dislikes and gradual development into a group (Thomas's account of an IGA course group); in STGAP members take turns introducing themselves and the issue they agreed to work on. In a slow-open group the arrival of a new member and the departure of an old one are themselves material (see 4.21). [source: Thomas 1997; Lorentzen review; Mass-Goldman, Exchange]

Phase D. Working phase. Goal: free-floating discussion develops the matrix; members' patterns appear in the here-and-now, are located, translated and interpreted, and are tried out differently. In STGAP Lorentzen uses MacKenzie's (1997) group phases (engagement, differentiation, interpersonal work, termination), each with tasks for members, the group and the therapist that must be resolved before the group moves on; the conductor uses them as a backdrop for understanding events and choosing interventions. [source: Lorentzen review]

Phase E. Leaving / termination. Goal: an ending that is worked through rather than acted out. STGAP: the therapist actively reminds the group of the approaching end; Lorentzen does not expect patients to be symptom-free but aims to start a change process that continues after therapy. Long-term: a member leaves when change is established and can be sustained, after working the decision through in the group [synthesis: leaving criteria and notice period not given in primary sources] [uncertain].

Moving between phases. Criteria in the long-term group are clinical judgement, not checklists. Practical markers [synthesis]: the newcomer speaks spontaneously and is referred to by others (end of entry); members address each other more than the conductor and themes are carried across sessions (working phase); the original difficulty shows up less in the group and the member can notice and comment on it themselves (readiness to leave).

3. Guiding principles

The group is the therapeutic agent. Therapy is "of the group, by the group, including the conductor" (Foulkes 1975 via Hengstberger). Practical meaning: let members do the work for each other; the conductor is one participant in the matrix with a special role. [source: Hengstberger 2025]
Disturbance is located in the network, not the individual. Practical meaning: when one person shows a symptom in the group, ask what it expresses for the whole group and the relationships in it. [source: Location page]
The matrix. The group develops a dynamic matrix (its own web of communication) out of members' personal matrices and a shared foundation matrix (what members share biologically and culturally). Practical meaning: read every communication as also a statement of where the group is. [source: Hengstberger 2025; Pisani; Thomas 1997]
The conductor as "guardian and guide", not leader. Foulkes warned against suggestion and against becoming the group's leader rather than leading it. Practical meaning: avoid advice and directives; gradually hand functions to the group. [source: Access to Unconscious Processes]
The conductor shapes the group culture. Foulkes saw the conductor as perhaps the most important variable in the group's culture; what you attend to (e.g. early object relations, transference) is what the group will start talking about. Practical meaning: choose your focus deliberately and watch for members conforming to your theory. [source: Access to Unconscious Processes]
Elucidate, don't hunt. The task is to bring unconscious processes to light as they arise, not to hunt for hidden meanings; transference may itself serve as resistance, so time and frame interpretations with care. [source: Access to Unconscious Processes, citing Foulkes 1971]
Dynamic administration is the conductor's lasting responsibility. All the thinking and tasks that conceive, establish and maintain the group's bounded space. Leadership shifts progressively toward the group, but the conductor never fully gives this up. Practical meaning: you own the frame (room, time, membership, communications between sessions) even when a mature group starts handling lateness or absence itself. [source: Hengstberger 2025; Schlapobersky 2016 ch. 9 title]
Bifocal attention: individual and group-as-a-whole. Free-floating attention goes mainly to the group as a whole, with each member seen as figure against the group ground. Practical meaning: before intervening, ask "what is this for the group?" and "what is this for this person?" [source: Thomas 1997; Lorentzen review; Location page]
Free-floating discussion. Members talk about whatever comes up; the conductor and group jointly explore meaning in it. [source: Lorentzen review] Its framing as the group equivalent of free association is standard teaching but not stated in the sources [uncertain].
Comparative silence and restraint. The conductor stays relatively quiet, does not do for members what they can do for themselves, but is highly attentive and empathic when called on. [source: Thomas 1997]
Protection. Intervene when a member is attacked or especially vulnerable. [source: Thomas 1997]
Balance mirroring and exchange. Sameness lets members identify; difference brings change; exchange needs some sameness, and tolerance of difference grows as the group matures. [source: Mass-Goldman, Exchange]
Here-and-now with reality-testing. Transference is addressed by comparing present with past, using differences to test reality and try new ways of relating; interpretation is used but insight is not the sole aim. [source: Thomas 1997; Lorentzen review]
Ego training in action. Members learn by speaking and dealing with the emotions this arouses in the group. Practical meaning: encourage direct talk to each other, then help members bear what follows. [source: Pisani]
The conductor locates his or her own disturbance. The conductor is inside and outside both the group and themselves ("one foot inside and one foot outside", as Pisani puts it); Foulkes called this point difficult and most important. Practical meaning: treat your counter-reactions as data about the group and work them through. [source: Location page; Pisani]
Positionality and inclusion. The conductor's own identity, privilege and personal matrix enter the group; failure to notice racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and other exclusions harms members. Practical meaning: scrutinise who is heard and who is othered or scapegoated, including through your own silences. [source: Hengstberger 2025, citing Stevenson 2020]
The "non-problem" is the work. Groups spend little time on stated problems and talk about many other things; this is seen as the foundation of individual change (Garland, quoted by Thomas). Practical meaning: do not drag the group back to symptoms. [source: Thomas 1997]
Destructive forces are signals. Avoidance, hostility, scapegoating and non-attendance (the "anti-group") are read as forces that need attention, not as failure. [source: Thomas 1997]
In time-limited work, be more active. STGAP conductors are more active, keep the focus, speed cohesion and model interpersonal skills, while still putting the group's interest first. [source: Lorentzen review; Zahl 2022]

4. Intervention inventory

Group analysis works through the conductor's stance and a small set of named operations (dynamic administration, location, translation, interpretation) plus the fostering of group-specific factors. It has no exercises or homework. Items 4.1-4.6 are frame-setting; 4.7-4.20 are in-session; 4.21-4.25 cover membership change, endings, co-conducting, larger groups and Skynner's family application. Example language is illustrative throughout.

4.1 Assessment and selection

Purpose / when: before any placement; decides indication and which group.
Steps: (1) Hold one or more individual interviews on the presenting problem, relationships, history and previous help. (2) Explore how the person behaves with others and how they imagine being in a group; anxieties about groups are expected, not a contraindication in themselves [synthesis]. (3) For a time-limited focused group apply Lorentzen's indications: circumscribed problems with an agreed focus (ideally interpersonal), motivation, moderate-to-high structural integration with mainly mature defences, moderate psychological mindedness; mild to moderate personality pathology and some acting out are acceptable if discussed and acknowledged, possibly as the focus. Not recommended for STGAP (evidence scarce): psychotic disorders, severe personality disorders, addictions, organically based disorders. (4) In the 2020 FGAP version add the STIPO-R interview and IIP-C self-report to rate personality organisation and interpersonal problems and build a written case formulation. (5) Tell the person what happens next: wait list, preparation sessions, start date. [source: Lorentzen review; Zahl 2022; GAN]
Example language (illustrative): "In the group, what usually goes wrong for you with people is likely to show up in the room. That's what makes it useful. How does that sound to you?"
Watch for: active psychosis, acute suicidality, or a crisis that needs individual containment first [synthesis]; a person who can describe no relationship difficulties may struggle with the group's here-and-now work [synthesis].

4.2 Composition

Purpose / when: when forming a group or filling a vacancy.
Steps: (1) Balance similarity and difference so members can identify with each other (mirroring) and also meet difference (exchange). Schlapobersky (2016, ch. 9) sets out composition principles based on "similarity and difference"; their detail is not drawn on here [uncertain]. (2) Prefer strangers: in the IGA course groups described by Thomas, membership was arranged so members did not know each other beforehand. (3) Mixed-gender groups are usual; single-sex groups are an option. (4) Avoid a single member who is isolated by an obvious difference that the group may scapegoat (e.g. the only person of a given age band, ethnicity or diagnosis) unless you are prepared to work with it [synthesis; links to Stevenson's positionality point via Hengstberger]. [source: Academia excerpt of Schlapobersky 2016; Thomas 1997; GAN; Mass-Goldman]
Example language: none (conductor's private task).
Watch for: early drop-out of a member who feels too different; a group too alike to generate exchange.

4.3 Individual preparation and focus

Purpose / when: after selection, before entry; in STGAP mandatory.
Steps: (1) Give information about format, length, attendance, confidentiality and no outside contact. (2) Clarify mutual expectations, including that the conductor will be comparatively quiet and members talk freely [source for silence: Thomas 1997]. (3) In STGAP negotiate a written or spoken focus: an internal conflict, a set of symptoms, or preferably a dysfunctional interpersonal pattern. (4) Agree that the member will bring this focus in the first session. [source: Lorentzen review; GAN]
Example language (illustrative): "So the focus we've agreed is how you go quiet and then resentful when others take the lead. In the group, see if you can notice when that starts."
Watch for: a focus that is only a symptom with no interpersonal link; the client expecting turn-taking or advice.

4.4 Dynamic administration

Purpose / when: continuously, from conception of the group onward. All the thinking and tasks that create the group and maintain its bounded space; the source of the conductor's authority alongside training and skill.
Steps: (1) Secure a stable room, a circle of the right number of chairs, the same time each week, a door that closes. (2) Arrive first, set out chairs, start and end on time [synthesis: specific practices; principle from Hengstberger]. (3) Handle communications outside the session (messages about absence, letters, fees) and bring them back into the group as group material [synthesis]. (4) Leave empty chairs of absent members in place, so the absence is visible [synthesis; common teaching not stated in the sources] [uncertain]. (5) Manage membership: vacancies, new members, leavers. (6) As the group matures, let members take on some tasks (e.g. challenging lateness or non-attendance), but keep final responsibility. Schlapobersky (2016, Table 9.2) reproduces Behr and Hearst's twelve principles of dynamic administration; not drawn on here [uncertain]. [source: Hengstberger 2025; Thomas 1997; Schlapobersky 2016 TOC]
Example language (illustrative): "Before we start: Sam has let me know he can't come today, and Jo will be away for the next two weeks."
Watch for: your own slippage (starting late, changing rooms) shows up as group anxiety; Behr's anecdote of walking into the wrong room is a reminder to check the setting first. [source: Behr, Gags and Gaffes]

4.5 Ground rules and the frame

Purpose / when: stated in preparation and restated when tested.
Steps: (1) Confidentiality: what is said in the group stays there. (2) Members do not meet outside the group; if they meet by chance or socially, they bring it back to the group [first half: GAN; second half: synthesis]. (3) Regular attendance; let the conductor know of absences [synthesis]. (4) Talk, don't act: feelings are put into words in the group rather than acted on [synthesis]. (5) Agree that leaving is discussed in the group before it happens [synthesis]. [source: GAN; Thomas 1997 on the conductor holding boundaries about purpose, role, leaving and what the conductor will discuss]
Example language (illustrative): "The group works because what happens here stays here, and because what happens between you comes back here rather than being sorted out in the car park."
Watch for: sub-groups forming outside; boundary tests, which are treated as material (4.17).

4.6 Starting a new group / the first session

Purpose / when: first meeting of a new group or a new STGAP cohort.
Steps (classic): (1) Welcome briefly, restate time and ending, then wait. (2) Allow an initial silence; members typically move to introductions, likes and dislikes and gradual group formation. (3) Intervene only if anxiety is mounting to the point of paralysis, with a group-level comment. Steps (STGAP): (1) Invite members to take turns introducing themselves and the issue they agreed with the therapist. (2) Link themes between members to speed cohesion. [source: Thomas 1997; Lorentzen review]
Example language (illustrative): classic: "We have ninety minutes. It's up to you how we begin." STGAP: "It might help to start with each of you saying a little about what you hope to work on."
Watch for: one member rushing to fill the silence on behalf of everyone; note it later as a group function rather than an individual trait.

4.7 Fostering free-floating discussion

Purpose / when: the default mode of every session.
Steps: (1) Do not set topics. (2) Keep free-floating attention mainly on the group as a whole. (3) Let conversation run through apparently unrelated topics; treat the sequence as associative (what follows what). (4) Hold back from answering questions directed at you; turn them back to the group, as in Foulkes's line "I cannot answer your question by myself" (quoted by Behr). (5) Intervene when a pattern is visible enough for location (4.8) or when someone needs protecting (4.18). [source: Lorentzen review; Thomas 1997; Behr, Gags and Gaffes]
Example language (illustrative): "Several of you have asked me what I think. I wonder what the group makes of it first."
Watch for: discussion becoming a series of individual therapies with the conductor; members waiting for you to speak (dependence on the conductor).

4.8 Location

Purpose / when: whenever you notice a configuration: a theme, a disturbance, or a member's behaviour that may belong to the group. Foulkes called location "the work which brings this configuration in the group to light" (1964, p. 81, cited in the Location page).
Steps: (1) Notice the pattern of observable phenomena across members (who speaks, who falls silent, recurring images, shifts in mood). (2) Ask where the disturbance sits: in one member, between particular members, in the group as a whole, or in relation to you. (3) See the theme as figure against the ground of the group's current situation (recent absences, a newcomer, a break). (4) Check your own reactions, since part of the disturbance may be located in you. (5) Respond "in the same key" as the group, in its own language, rather than in theory. (6) Location can unfold within one session or over many; the group or a member may find it before you. [source: Location page]
Example language (illustrative): "While Anna was crying, I kept talking to her, and the group seemed to be telling me she needed something else. Maybe the group has been needing comfort more than explanation tonight."
Watch for: relief in the room after an accurate location (the Location page's vignette of the crying member); in Foulkes and Anthony's military-band example, the anxiety was located in the shared dread of being sent to the front, not in one man.

4.9 Translation

Purpose / when: after location, to bring what is repressed or unspoken into shared words, so it becomes part of the group's conscious matrix (Foulkes 1964, p. 111, cited via Schlapobersky 2016).
Steps: (1) Take a symptom, an action or an indirect communication (a story about someone outside, a joke, a recurrent image). (2) Put it into plain words that refer to the group's here-and-now relationships. (3) Leave room for members to extend or correct it; translation is a joint making of meaning, and members do it as much as the conductor. [source: Location page; Pisani; Lorentzen review]
Example language (illustrative): "We've had three stories tonight about bosses who don't listen. Maybe it's also about whether anyone in here, me included, really listens."
Watch for: members picking up the translation and adding their own versions (working); intellectual agreement without change in tone (not yet working).

4.10 Interpretation

Purpose / when: a deliberate, conscious tool the conductor uses sparingly; all members also interpret (Foulkes 1975, p. 113, cited via Schlapobersky 2016). In the Location-page model the movement runs from location, through translation, to interpretation.
Steps: (1) Decide the level: group-as-a-whole, between members, or for one member in the group context. (2) Time it for when the group is near the material; Foulkes treated timing and framing as central and noted transference can serve resistance. (3) Prefer interpretations that link here-and-now with past and test reality ("is that how it is here?"). (4) Keep it short and offer it tentatively; then stop talking. (5) Remember that your focus shapes the group culture (if you always interpret transference to you, the group will talk transference). Schlapobersky gives ten tenets for conductor interpretation (Table 17.3); not drawn on here [uncertain]. [source: Location page; Access to Unconscious Processes; Thomas 1997]
Example language (illustrative): "Since I announced the August break, the group has been talking about people who abandon others. I think some of that might be about me."
Watch for: members conforming to your theory (Foulkes's warning about suggestion); an interpretation to one person that leaves the rest as audience.

4.11 Working with mirroring

Purpose / when: when members recognise themselves in each other (sameness), including early mechanisms such as projection, denial, splitting and identification.
Steps: (1) Notice when a member reacts strongly to another's behaviour that resembles their own. (2) Invite the member to look at what they see in the other. (3) Use mirroring to build identification early in a group; later, help members take back what they project. [source: Mass-Goldman, Exchange; Pisani]
Example language (illustrative): "Mark, you were very hard on Lena for apologising all the time. I wonder if that's something you recognise."
Watch for: mirroring turning into fusion, where difference cannot be tolerated; move toward exchange (4.12).

4.12 Working with exchange

Purpose / when: when difference appears; Foulkes named "the element of exchange" as what alters the emotional situation (1964, p. 34, cited by Mass-Goldman).
Steps: (1) Help members give and receive perspectives in both directions, not one-way advice. (2) Let private material become shared group property through disclosure. (3) Attend to unspoken exchange: members respond without words, and a remark may return weeks later. (4) Watch for unequal exchange that exploits a less aware or less willing member and name it. [source: Mass-Goldman, Exchange, citing Zinkin 1994, Zinkin & Haynes 1998, Thornton 2004]
Example language (illustrative): "You and Priya see this completely differently. Can you tell each other more about that, without either of you having to be right?"
Watch for: greater tolerance of difference as the group matures; one member always being the giver.

4.13 Working with resonance and condenser phenomena

Purpose / when: when a theme suddenly grips several members at once, or members react at a depth out of proportion to the trigger. Foulkes listed activation of the collective unconscious / condenser phenomena among his group-specific factors (1964, p. 34) and described processes interlocking to produce "resonances at unconscious levels" (Foulkes 1990, cited by Mass-Goldman). The sources name these but do not define them in detail [uncertain].
Steps [synthesis built on the named concepts]: (1) Notice when one member's material sets off a chain of related memories, dreams or images in others. (2) Do not interpret each contribution separately; let the chain run, then name the shared theme at group level. (3) Ask members what in the theme resonates for each of them, so the group-level meaning gets personal anchors. (4) Watch the deeper levels: Zinkin links them to projective identification, splitting, sacrifice and scapegoating, and notes each level can defend against another.
Example language (illustrative): "Since Maria spoke about her father's illness, almost everyone has brought something about losing someone. Something in the group has been touched."
Watch for: sudden emotional discharge followed by relief and new material (working); a theme that becomes collective in order to avoid one painful individual issue.

4.14 Socialisation and relief of isolation

Purpose / when: especially with isolated members and early in their group career; Foulkes listed social integration and relief of isolation as a group-specific factor (1964, p. 34).
Steps: (1) Let members discover they are not alone with a problem; do not rush to differentiate. (2) Value peer explanations: Foulkes compared group members to children accepting from peers what they would resist from parents (cited by Mass-Goldman). (3) Help the isolated member be included, without the conductor taking over that function [synthesis]. [source: Mass-Goldman, Exchange; Pisani]
Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like a few of you thought you were the only one who felt that."
Watch for: belonging becoming the only gain; in the median group Pisani treats socialisation as a secondary aim.

4.15 Ego training in action

Purpose / when: throughout; members learn by speaking to each other and handling the emotions that follow.
Steps [steps synthesis; concept from Pisani]: (1) Encourage members to say things to each other directly rather than about each other to you. (2) After a hard exchange, stay with how each person is now feeling. (3) Help the group notice the new behaviour when it happens, briefly and without praise that turns it into performance.
Example language (illustrative): "You've been telling me how angry you are with Tom. Can you tell Tom?" ... "How was that, to say it and to hear it?"
Watch for: members speaking more directly over months; a member whose new directness is met by attack needs protection (4.18).

4.16 Here-and-now transference and reality-testing

Purpose / when: when members relate to the conductor or each other as figures from the past.
Steps: (1) Note the transference (to you, between members, to the group as a whole, e.g. as family). (2) Compare the reaction with what is happening in the room. (3) Use the difference between past and present to test reality, and invite the member to try a new way of relating there and then. (4) Keep in mind that interpretation is used but insight is not the only aim. [source: Thomas 1997; Lorentzen review]
Example language (illustrative): "You expected the group to laugh at you, the way your brothers did. What actually happened when you said it?"
Watch for: the member noticing the expectation earlier next time; transference used as resistance to current feelings (Foulkes's caution, via Access to Unconscious Processes).

4.17 Boundary incidents as material

Purpose / when: lateness, absence, meetings outside, requests for extra time, messages to the conductor, fee issues.
Steps: (1) Hold the boundary (end on time; don't extend). (2) Report outside communications to the group (4.4). (3) Use the incident to demonstrate latent meaning: what the behaviour expresses about the member's relationship to the group and what it evokes in others (Lorentzen's "boundary issues"). (4) In a mature group, let members take up the incident first. [source: Lorentzen review; Hengstberger 2025; steps 1-2 partly synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Kate has been late three weeks running, and each time the group starts again when she arrives. I wonder what that's about for Kate, and for the group."
Watch for: punitive or collusive group responses; your own irritation (4.19).

4.18 Protecting a member / responding to scapegoating

Purpose / when: when a member is attacked, singled out or is especially vulnerable; scapegoating is one of the destructive forces Thomas lists.
Steps: (1) Intervene promptly, normally at group level first. (2) Ask what the scapegoat is carrying for the group (location). (3) Help members take back their projections. (4) If the member is acutely distressed, attend to them directly before interpreting [the crying-member vignette shows interpretation without support failing]. [source: Thomas 1997; Location page; Mass-Goldman, Exchange; Skynner's projection principle via Wikipedia]
Example language (illustrative): "The group has been very united against Paul tonight. I wonder whether Paul is being asked to hold something the rest of us find hard to own."
Watch for: the targeted member missing the next session (follow up, see 5.3); repeated scapegoating of members who are different in identity (positionality, section 3).

4.19 Using the conductor's counter-reactions

Purpose / when: when you feel bored, irritated, protective, silenced or pulled into a role; Foulkes's "counter-reactions" (Selected Papers, cited by Pisani).
Steps: (1) Register the reaction. (2) Ask whether it is yours (personal matrix, positionality) or induced by the group; Hengstberger notes an anxious silencing in the conductor may signal aggression or persecution in the group. (3) Use it to inform location; rarely disclose it, and only in a form useful to the group [disclosure guidance: synthesis]. (4) Take persistent reactions to supervision; Friedman (2007) discusses supervision in group analysis (not drawn on). [source: Pisani; Location page; Hengstberger 2025]
Example language (illustrative, if used): "I've noticed I've been very careful with my words tonight. I wonder if others feel it's dangerous to speak."
Watch for: blind spots created by your own group-analytic culture (Hopper & Weinberg, cited in Access to Unconscious Processes).

4.20 Short-term focused conducting (Lorentzen variant)

Purpose / when: in 20-session closed groups.
Steps: (1) Be more active than in long-term groups, adjusting to how active members are. (2) Speed cohesion: link themes between members, ask clarifying questions. (3) Model interpersonal skills. (4) Build boundaries by marking the group as different from ordinary social situations. (5) Keep each member's agreed focus alive and connect group events to it. (6) Keep a bifocal orientation and put the group's interest first, while encouraging members' initiative. (7) Translate and interpret latent relational and emotional aspects, exploring meaning together in free-floating discussion. (8) Keep most interpersonal work in the here-and-now. (9) Remind the group actively of the approaching end. (10) Use MacKenzie's phases as a backdrop. [source: Lorentzen review; Zahl 2022] Training: the IGA accepts short-term (20-hour) group analytic therapy toward its group practice requirement (Zahl 2022); delivering FGAP itself has no published certification requirement in the sources [uncertain].
Example language (illustrative): "Jonas, what Eva just did, deferring to everyone, is close to what you said you wanted to work on. Did you notice it in yourself too?" / "We have six sessions left."
Watch for: the conductor becoming so active that the group stops working for itself.

4.21 Introducing a new member and handling departures

Purpose / when: in slow-open groups, whenever membership changes.
Steps: (1) Announce a new member's arrival in advance [synthesis]. (2) Expect mixed reactions: Zinkin notes a departing member may unconsciously need to be "destroyed" to make room for a new one even while the group consciously welcomes both (cited by Mass-Goldman). (3) Make these reactions speakable at group level (rivalry, loss, sibling feelings) [synthesis]. (4) For leavers, work the ending through over several sessions before the last [synthesis] [uncertain: notice periods not in the sources]. [source: Mass-Goldman, Exchange; Thornton 2004 via same]
Example language (illustrative): "Next week a new member, Ali, will join us. There may be all sorts of feelings about that, including about Rose leaving."
Watch for: the newcomer being frozen out, or the leaver's departure being ignored.

4.22 Ending the session

Purpose / when: every session.
Steps: (1) End on time, with a brief, firm statement, even mid-silence; Behr reports Foulkes closing after a long silence with "It's time to finish." (2) Do not summarise or tie up loose ends; unfinished material carries into the next session [synthesis]. [source: Behr, Gags and Gaffes]
Example language: "It's time to finish" (Foulkes, quoted by Behr), or "We'll stop there for today." (illustrative)
Watch for: members raising important material in the last minutes; take it up next time as material.

4.23 Co-conducting

Purpose / when: with two conductors (common in training, short-term and refugee-survivor groups).
Steps: (1) Agree roles and how you will handle disagreements; roles may also emerge organically (one welcoming at the door, the other closing). (2) Meet after each session to process. (3) Notice gendered transference: a male-female pair may be treated as a parental couple, and the group may work to keep them together. (4) Notice when questions go to one conductor and leave the other feeling like an assistant. [source: Hengstberger 2025, citing Dudley & Caton 2024; Schlapobersky 2016 Vignette 0.3; step 2 synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "The group seems to want only one of us to answer."
Watch for: splits between conductors mirroring splits in the group.

4.24 Median and large groups

Purpose / when: training courses, therapeutic communities, organisations; median group 12-30 members in a single circle with free discussion.
Steps: (1) The conductor is non-directive and relatively disengaged. (2) The aim shifts toward humanising the socio-cultural context (socialisation as secondary aim). (3) Leadership principles differ from the small group (Schlapobersky 2016, ch. 12; detail not drawn on here [uncertain]). [source: Pisani; Thomas 1997]
Example language (illustrative): "Perhaps the difficulty in speaking here says something about what it is like to be one voice among many."
Watch for: long silences and splitting are expected; do not convert the large group into a lecture.

4.25 Skynner's group-analytic family and marital therapy

Purpose / when: families, couples and child-guidance referrals (e.g. school refusal) where the network around the identified patient is involved. Skynner, Foulkes's pupil, integrated open-systems and group-analytic theory into conjoint family therapy (Skynner 1969; 1982). [source: Springer entry; Wikipedia; BJGP 1990]
Steps (as far as the sources describe): (1) See the whole family together; Skynner encouraged GPs to do so, presenting it as valuable and safe. (2) Facilitate communication between family members. (3) Clarify and support a clear authority structure (hierarchy). (4) Read the problem in terms of individual developmental life stages within the family. (5) Use transference and countertransference deliberately to reshape the family's power structure toward order and clarity. (6) Help members take back projections, reducing scapegoating and the identified patient's delinquency or symptom. (7) For complex cases favour the analytic approach; draw on structural and systemic methods where useful. [source: Wikipedia; BJGP 1990 review] Skynner's further concepts (e.g. selection criteria for family vs individual therapy in his early papers) are not drawn on here [uncertain].
Example language (illustrative): "When Dad steps back, it seems Tim gets louder. What happens if Mum and Dad decide this one together?"
Watch for: the therapist being drawn into the family's scapegoating system; Skynner wrote on the family therapist as family scapegoat (1979, not drawn on).

5. Handling problems

The sources say little in procedural terms about problems; most items below are marked [synthesis] and draw on the principles in section 3.

Long or tense silences. Tension distorts time and attribution: Behr felt a silence lasted half an hour when it was about ten minutes, and misread side-talk as an attack on him. Response: check your reading before acting; wait longer than feels comfortable; if you speak, comment at group level on what the silence might hold. [source: Behr, Gags and Gaffes] (illustrative: "It's hard to start tonight. I wonder what we're not saying.")
Resistance. Behr chose to "let the resistance run its course" rather than intervene; the outcome is not reported. Response: allow defensive talk for a while, as it is often the "non-problem" through which change happens (Thomas 1997); intervene when it hardens into a pattern that excludes someone or empties the group of feeling, and locate it in the group's current situation (a break, a newcomer, a recent conflict) rather than in one member [synthesis on when to intervene]. Remember that transference itself may act as resistance (Foulkes 1971).
Stuck or repetitive group. [synthesis] Check the frame first (recent boundary slippage, conductor absences, an unmentioned event); check whether the group is conforming to your preferred focus (Foulkes's warning on the conductor shaping culture); name the repetition as group material; consider whether a member's stuckness is being held for the group (location). If one member is stuck for many months, review with them individually and in supervision whether this group still fits.
Monopolising member. [synthesis] Treat it as a group arrangement: the group lets one person fill the space. Ask the group, not only the member, about it. (illustrative: "Tom has been carrying a lot of the talking. I'm not sure how the rest of you feel about letting him.")
Persistently silent member. [synthesis] Silence may be a contribution; avoid singling the person out early. Notice non-verbal participation (unspoken exchange, Mass-Goldman). Invite gently after a theme clearly touches them; discuss in a review if silence continues for months.
Overwhelm or acute distress in session. Support first, interpretation later: in the Location-page vignette, continued interpretation to a crying member failed until the conductor changed stance. Response: slow the pace, attend to the distressed member directly, involve the group's capacity to support, and close the session firmly but warmly. [source: Location page; steps partly synthesis]
Risk and crisis between sessions. [synthesis] Follow standard risk-assessment practice: assess suicide and self-harm risk individually if a member discloses intent, agree a safety plan (including safe storage or removal of means), and coordinate with the person's GP or crisis services. Agree beforehand what you will do with information about risk and how it will be brought back to the group. Group analysis is not a crisis service; very unstable clients may need individual treatment before or alongside the group.
Absence, lateness and drop-out (non-adherence). Treat as boundary incidents (4.17) and as communications to the group. [synthesis] Contact a member who misses without notice (a brief message inviting them back, without starting therapy by phone); tell the group about the contact; if a member stops coming, encourage at least one final session to say goodbye. Early drop-out often follows feeling too different or being scapegoated; review composition (4.2).
Scapegoating and attack. Protect promptly (4.18); the anti-group forces (scapegoating, hostility, avoidance, non-attendance) are signals needing attention, not proof of failure. [source: Thomas 1997]
Rupture with the conductor. [synthesis] Anger at the conductor (for silence, breaks, fees, a mistake) is expected; the conductor's silence can feel withholding or threatening to people new to the analytic attitude (Thomas 1997). Respond by acknowledging your part plainly, without defensiveness, then exploring what it means for the group. Humour about your own mistakes can deflate and reveal (Behr). (illustrative: "I got that wrong last week, and I think it's left some of you feeling I don't get it.")
Members meeting outside / sub-grouping. [synthesis, rule from GAN] Do not punish; invite those involved to bring it into the group, and explore what the group could not hold inside.
Conformity and dependence on the conductor. Foulkes warned of members submitting fully to the conductor's conscious and unconscious views. Response: return questions to the group (4.7), reduce your activity, and notice when members speak your language rather than their own. [source: Access to Unconscious Processes]
Difference, exclusion and positionality. Failing to attend to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and privilege harms members; your silence can join an exclusion. Response: name the dynamic at group level when it appears, including your own position, and take it to supervision. [source: Hengstberger 2025, citing Stevenson 2020]
Co-conductor splits. Questions directed to one conductor, gendered transference to the pair; process together after sessions and name the pattern in the group. [source: Hengstberger 2025]
Short-term groups: too little time. Keep the agreed focus, be more active, remind the group about the end; accept that the aim is to start a change process, not to finish it. [source: Lorentzen review; Zahl 2022]
Online groups. Online conducting of small and large groups has changed the conductor's role and dynamic administration; the source gives no specific guidance [uncertain]. [synthesis] Agree a private room and camera rules, a plan for dropped connections, and how to bring screen events (camera off, someone else in the room) back as material.
Family work (Skynner): the therapist pulled into the system. [synthesis, building on Skynner's interest in the family therapist as scapegoat] Notice when you take sides or become the target; use the countertransference to understand the family's projection system rather than act it out.

Sources

Sources:

Further reading (not drawn on unless listed above; content known via the sources above):

Foulkes, S. H. (1948). Introduction to Group-Analytic Psychotherapy. Heinemann.
Foulkes, S. H. & Anthony, E. J. (1957). Group Psychotherapy: The Psychoanalytic Approach. Penguin / Karnac.
Foulkes, S. H. (1964). Therapeutic Group Analysis. Allen & Unwin / Karnac.
Foulkes, S. H. (1971). Access to unconscious processes in the group-analytic group. Group Analysis, 4(1).
Foulkes, S. H. (1975). Group-Analytic Psychotherapy: Method and Principles. Gordon & Breach / Karnac.
Foulkes, E. (ed.) (1990). Selected Papers of S. H. Foulkes. Karnac.
Skynner, A. C. R. (1969). A group-analytic approach to conjoint family therapy. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 10.
Skynner, A. C. R. (1976). One Flesh: Separate Persons. Constable.
Skynner, A. C. R. (1982). An open-systems, group-analytic approach to family therapy. In Gurman & Kniskern (eds), Handbook of Family Therapy.
Skynner, R. & Cleese, J. (1983). Families and How to Survive Them. Methuen.
Skynner, R. (1990). Explorations with Families: Group Analysis and Family Therapy (ed. J. Schlapobersky). Tavistock/Routledge.
Behr, H. & Hearst, L. (2005). Group-Analytic Psychotherapy: A Meeting of Minds. Whurr.
Schlapobersky, J. R. (2016). From the Couch to the Circle: Group-Analytic Psychotherapy in Practice. Routledge.
Barwick, N. & Weegmann, M. (2018). Group Therapy: A Group Analytic Approach. Routledge.
Lorentzen, S. (2014). Group Analytic Psychotherapy: Working with Affective, Anxiety and Personality Disorders. Routledge.
Lorentzen, S. (2020). Fokusert gruppeanalytisk psykoterapi. Norwegian.
MacKenzie, K. R. (1997). Time-Managed Group Psychotherapy. American Psychiatric Press.
Zinkin, L. (1994). Exchange as a therapeutic factor in group analysis. In Brown & Zinkin (eds), The Psyche and the Social World. Routledge.
Thornton, C. (2004). Borrowing my self: exchange as a group-specific therapeutic factor. Group Analysis, 37(2).
Stevenson, S. (2020). Psychodynamic intersectionality and the positionality of the group analyst. Group Analysis, 53(4).
Dudley, J. & Caton, M. (2024). Looking beyond the 'couple'. Group Analysis, 57(3).

Training note: the title "group analyst" is gained through qualifying training at the Institute of Group Analysis or equivalent national institutes; the sources do not set out the requirements [uncertain].

← Previous · V-083Interpersonal group therapy (Yalom)Next · V-085 →Tavistock group relations