Spirituality in Group Psychotherapy: Opportunities and Challenges*
Justin Hecht, MBA, PhD

Like many psychotherapists, I have been interested in what lies beyond the traditional psychotherapeutic goals of fostering healthy functioning in work, society, and love. My interest has lead me to study the works of Carl Jung, Stan Grof and others, and has also led me on an odyssey of studying the great myths and religious traditions of the world. I have been working to integrate what I’ve learned in my spiritual search with traditional dynamic group psychotherapy.

Many of the people who come to group psychotherapy have serious deficits in their social skills and are isolated and cut off from others. In earlier times, social expectations would more or less compel each member of a tribe, community, or village to participate in some form of communal worship. Many modern urban dwellers have lost this connection to a meaning-making system. Though some may rightly argue that the end of semi-compulsory attendance at religious services is overdue, this nonetheless leaves many people not only disconnected from others, but also without a way to make meaning of their human experiences.

Most mainstream psychologists are not encouraged to venture in to the world of spirituality for a variety of reasons including the concern about losing the “objective” basis of modern psychology as a science and a desire to avoid undue influence on clients. It has been my experience, however, that clients are eager to talk about their spiritual ideas, aspirations, frustrations, and experiences, and that most clients willingly welcome my gentle and respectful inquiry into their personal spiritual lives.

It might help to define the term “spirituality.” The American Heritage Dictionary gives as one of many definitions of spirit: “The essential nature of a person or group.” When I use the term with my groups, I say that spirituality is whatever helps you to feel most truly yourself. I believe that if a group therapist defines spirituality in this way, it need not be threatening to clients or to the group.

Discreet Techniques for Introducing Sprituality
There are many ways to introduce spirituality into a group setting, and your choice of technique will depend on the nature of the group you are leading, the contract you’ve worked out with your clients beforehand, as well as your own tastes and inclination. I like to organize techniques in a continuum from the most subtle and discreet, all the way to the most directive. 

The most subtle and discreet techniques begin with your own preparation for conducting group psychotherapy. You might allow extra time before your group session to meditate or pray for guidance during the upcoming session. You might take a few moments between your office and waiting room to make a simple mental blessing for the client(s) you’ll be seeing. Another discreet technique is to ask for inspiration and guidance from your own wisdom, intuition, or an external power. With these simple methods, your clients need never know that you’ve begun to introduce spirituality into your therapeutic work.

The next step is to begin speaking about spiritual and religious matters with your clients during intake sessions. Taking a brief spiritual history during the initial meeting signals to new clients that you’re interested in this area of their lives, and helps increase clients’ willingness to disclose their experiences. If clients think that they’ve had no spiritual or religious experience, I find it helpful to ask “Has there ever been a time when you’ve felt strongly connected with the best part of yourself or the world, or felt an overwhelming joy just to be alive?” 

Another technique is to listen to the material in a group session with an ear for themes having to do with greater meaning, feelings of transcendence or greater connection, altruism or high aspirations, or for the “synchronicity” or meaningful coincidence that seems to happen just in time. You can begin to reinforce the group members’ attempts to make sense of their lives in a broader context through these means. Listening for and encouraging dreams can have the function of deepening the soul work of the group.

You can become steadily more active and directive in the ways that you shift the group. One such method is drumming. Group sessions can be entered into and finished by rhythmic drumming, with a range of different instructions. Members can be encouraged to visualize and allow their fantasies free reign, or the drumming can be positioned as a time for reflection and connection. The drumming serves to separate the time before and after group and makes the group time more sacred and spiritual. Group members may have fantasies or active imaginings that connect with deep spiritual and universal themes. These fantasies can be interpreted in the context of the interpersonal processes in the group.

Similarly, I have used music with great success. At my workshops, I’ve played evocative selections of music and asked group members to meditate on the meaning of the songs I’ve selected. For instance, I’ve been surprised at the power of the reactions and associations to the song “Somewhere over the rainbow”. Just playing this song evokes powerful memories, wishes, disappointments, and childhood experiences, and deepens the connections of new group members with remarkable speed.

In my ongoing therapy groups, I generally wait until an appropriate group culture had been firmly established, and then ask members to bring in a piece of music that speaks powerfully to them. In every case, I’ve been surprised by how the introduction of a piece of music deepened the spirit of the group. In some cases, the music has been powerfully expressive of group member dynamics: one dysthymic woman, characteristically passive and indecisive, brought in a piece of music that another group member described as “sad and wandering.” This insight helped her to express her pain and forged deeper connections among group members. In other cases the musical selection revealed a hitherto hidden aspect of a client. One rather gruff and hyper-masculine man played a dainty classical air featuring flute and harp; the surprised group members commented that he seemed to want to express his feminine side, and he agreed. In both cases, music introduced the spiritual in a comfortable way that deepened group process.

A moment of silence, either at the beginning or at the end of a group, can subtly introduce spirituality. This moment can be minimally directed or not directed at all. It can serve to help the group transition to a more peaceful, grounded way of interacting.

Directive Techniques for Introducing Spirituality
The other techniques are more directive and may require a renegotiation of the contract. These techniques include (to name a few) chanting, guided meditation, walking meditation, expressive arts, prayer, breath work, visualizations, past life regression, and rebirthing. Each of these techniques can be used to foster a powerfully spiritual group experience. The introduction of these techniques can change the culture of the group, the group contract, and the existing interpersonal dynamics in profound ways, and should not be undertaken lightly.

For example, I use a guided meditation, called “metta” or “loving-kindness,” to begin and end the weeklong workshops I lead at Esalen Institute. This meditation has the effect of quickly connecting group members, reducing conflicts, and promoting healing. It’s also a way of modeling compassion, tolerance, and forgiveness. Members can relax into a sense of peaceful, contented beneficence; the group maintains a supportive quality throughout the week. Interpersonal confrontations and conflicts, when they occur, are held in the frame of compassion and tend to be more forgiving and indirect. 

Advantages and Disadvantages
Integrating aspects of spirituality into group has a number of advantages. Group members feel sustained by the best parts of themselves or by something larger than themselves. Groups take on a more positive, supportive, and compassionate tone. Members become more intuitive, creative, and authentic. Allowing for non-rational and intuitive processes helps to democratize the group and reduce the dominance of verbal and articulate members. Anxiety, fear, and regressive emotions can be replaced by contentment, security, and aspirations. Members can encourage each other to reach their ideals. Introducing spirituality helps groups to become inspiring. 

Combining spirituality and group psychotherapy also presents dangers. More than other therapeutic modalities, combining spiritual techniques can contribute to dangerous ego inflation in an unprepared leader. Transference to the leader can become magnified, and the leader can be seen as god-like. Another potential problem is the danger of collusion and avoidance. Many people have trouble giving and receiving “negative” constructive feedback, and introducing spirituality into a group may give members the false impression that they may not confront each other on important issues. The leader must work energetically to dispel this misconception.

Still another potential problem is what Ken Wilber calls “the pre- trans- fallacy.” Many people who are “pre-egoic,” that is, unable to function effective with ego demands of work, society, and relationships, are attracted to “trans-ego” states or experiences. These people may believe that by losing themselves in the blissful states of meditation, they can avoid doing the necessary work of being on earth. This work decidedly includes interpersonal connections of the kind that traditional group psychotherapy is designed to foster.

Combining aspects of spirituality thus requires the potential leader to master a challenging combination of group psychotherapy leadership skills and spiritual techniques and practices. Like the sorcerer’s apprentice, those who aspire to lead a group with these elements must not be naďve to the potential challenges that this presents. The leader should be not only a competent in group psychotherapy, but should have done his or her spiritual homework as well. At the same time, a slow and careful introduction of some of these techniques can deepen and enrich the life of both leader and group.

* This article is a distillation of the ideas the author presented in a workshop at the AGPA Annual Meeting in Boston in February 2001. It was published in the August/September 2001 issue of The Group Circle.