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  • Essay / Art Psychotherapy: Group Dynamics - 2362

    One of the many important concepts of group dynamics that I have found most interesting is the idea that all aspects of the group process have the natural ability to discuss all aspects of the group process. relevant past experiences of each group member. I have found this to be very true on many levels within each session, process and overall group development. It has been personally meaningful to view the life of a band as a story with a beginning, middle and end – simply a process of succession of moments in constant motion. Looking at it that way, it then makes perfect sense that every story reminds us of all past stories, and every part of the story reminds us of all parts of past stories. With all this in mind, I couldn't think of a better and more appropriate topic for my final paper than that of the last session and end of a group. Even as I write the introduction to this article, I couldn't be more aware of my impatience to reach the concluding paragraph and final sentence as I say to myself, "Well started, it's half done ! » The following is a description of what happened on our last session. The first exercise we did in class was called “Positive Me”. Each member took out a blank sheet of paper and wrote down their name and the title of the specifically focused topic they presented to the rest of the class over the past two weeks. Then, similar to the “Round-Robin” we did in one of the experiential art therapy exercises, the paper was passed to the person sitting next to you. All papers were passed out in a full circle and everyone had the chance to remember, write down and share any (positive) responses, thoughts or feelings they had in response to each person's presence... in the middle of the paper. .....orks citedDalley, T., Case, C., Schaverien, J., Weir, F., Halliday, D., Hall, PN and Waller, D. (1987).Art therapy images: new developments in theory and practice. New York, NY: Routledge. MacKenzie, K. Roy. (1994). The developing structure of the therapeutic group system. In H.S.Bernard & K.R.MacKenzie (eds.), Basics of Group Psychotherapy (pp.35-59). New York, London: The Guilford Press. Wadeson, Harriet. (1987). Mid-phase and late art therapy treatment. In The dynamics of artistic psychotherapy (pp.185-197). United States: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Waller, Diane. (1993). End of the group: What to do with images and objects. In interactive group art therapy (pp.150-152). New York, NY: Routledge. Yalom, Irving. (2005). The advanced group: termination. In The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (5th ed.). (pp. 382-390). New York: basic books.