Dynamics and Cultural Implications of Experiential Training and Therapy Groups

The purpose of the group experience could be anything from education to health to religious demonstrations or to political repression. Regardless of its purpose, the group experience always involves these common factors: group members, cultural context, individual needs and motivations, and communication. Methodologies, objectives, resources, schedules and content are the other additional elements which may vary according to the nature of the group. The first group of factors are called primary factors and will always be present in any group experience. The second group of factors are called secondary factors which may be absent in total or in part. The presence of the primary factors, which are distinctly human factors, makes the group experience a powerful tool for learning and growing. Considering that “gregarious sentiment” (sentiment of group belonging) is a basic human sentiment, the group experience is an inherent part of our lives. All of us are looking for companionship, conversation, etc. In other words, we are always looking for a group experience. For that reason, universities and others have been studying the group “phenomena” in terms of “process”, “content”, “development”, “purpose”, etc. The conclusions of all these studies are multiple. As long a s human nature constitutes a significant part of the group experience, science will always have something new to discover