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The NIIHR was inaugurated in November 1990. A registered charity and a limited company, it aims to provide a forum for the discussion and advancement of psychoanalytic approaches to the understanding of personal and social difficulties. Members work in public and private settings, with individuals and with groups.

The Institute acts as a focus of interest and commitment for those whose major professional concern is in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and related fields. It also offers public events for those who wish to explore the relevance of psychodynamic ideas to different contexts.

Current Work of the Institute
The current programme includes:
• monthly reading groups
• visiting speakers
• public conferences
• the development of specialist sections
• clinical seminars in specialist areas
• research (a list of papers produced by Institute members is available on request)
• continued promotion of links with professional bodies in the UK and Ireland
• the establishment of an EAP accredited ‘top up’ training programme
• accreditation and registration of psychotherapists in Northern Ireland

Institutional Affiliations and Associations
The Institute is a member organisation of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy. The Institute also has links with the NHS Centre for Psychotherapy in Belfast.

Organisation of the Institute
Each year the Annual General Meeting elects an executive committee, who undertake the day-to-day running of the Institute.

Group Work Section
Regular meetings promote the application of group analysis, and offer support to colleagues in their professional and clinical work. The Section has also developed relations with sister organisations in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and England.

Applying for Membership
Those interested in applying for membership should contact: The Secretary, NIIHR, 2 Malone Road, Belfast BT9 5BW (niinstitutehr@nullgmail.com) Full membership is open to suitably qualified psychoanalytic psychotherapists.
• Trainee Membership is open to students on recognised training courses in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
• Associate Membership is open to those with an interest in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

Northern Ireland Institute of Human Relations (NIIHR)

Address: 5 Crescent Gardens, Belfast BT7 1NS, UK

Email: David Smith (Chair): niinstitutehr@nullgmail.com

Email: Rhoda Dorndorf (Hon Secretary): niihrsecretary@nulloutlook.com

Website: www.niihr.org

Group Analysis, or Group Analytic Psychotherapy, was developed in England in the 1940s by Dr S.H. Foulkes, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, while working with soldiers from the Second World War. It is derived from psychoanalysis, as well as systems theory, developmental and social psychology, and sociology.

At the heart of Group Analysis is the belief that human beings are fundamentally social in nature, living their lives with other people in family, friendship and other social groupings. The sources of many problems encountered by individuals can be found in their relationship with the groups they grew up in, as well as the groups of which they are now a part. Foulkes believed that on this basis, people’s problems and difficulties are best explored, understood and addressed in a group context.

Group Analysis is now well established in most European countries, and is the main form of group therapy in the mental health services in a number of these countries, including Denmark, Norway, Portugal and the UK.

Who might benefit from group analytic psychotherapy?

Group Analytic Psychotherapy is a useful and productive way of addressing personal difficulties. It has supportive, problem-solving and psycho-educational functions, with the overall aim of achieving lasting personal change through a non-directive free-associative therapy.

As a form of psychotherapy which emphasises the essentially social nature of human experience, Group Analytic Psychotherapy is a valuable therapy for people with a wide range of difficulties, and can be helpful for:

• • • Individuals who experience relationship difficulties, depression, anxiety, social isolation, low self-esteem;
    • People who have already been in individual therapy may further benefit from group treatment regarding issues such as difficulty with intimacy and relationship problems;
    • Others who come into therapy, not because of any particular difficulty, but because they want to understand themselves in a deeper way.

How do I go about joining a group?
All those interested in group therapy are first met with, on an individual basis, by the group conductor over a number of sessions. This provides an opportunity for assessment of the individual’s suitability for this form of therapy, as well as providing a period of preparation for joining. As the process of developing insightful change is slow, people are encouraged to commit to a minimum period of one year in group, although in practice most stay longer.

How does Group Analytic Psychotherapy work?

• • • The group meets once or twice weekly.
    • Each group session lasts for one and a half hours.
    • Group membership is limited to 8.
    • New members may join the group when vacancies occur.
    • In this stranger group, people do not know each other before joining, and are asked not to meet by arrangement for the duration of the group.
    • Strict confidentiality regarding what takes place in the group is maintained.
    • In the space of the group, people are encouraged to talk about themselves and their concerns, and to engage with and respond to others in the group.

Some of the benefits of Group Analytic Psychotherapy

• • • The work of the group is to provide members with a dynamic opportunity to experience, reflect on and identify the causes of and solutions to their problems and difficulties.
    • In the group, one’s habitual ways of thinking, feeling and relating in the external world are often replicated. This provides an opportunity to reflect and understand the origin and nature of these patterns, and to allow the possibility of developing and establishing more productive ways of functioning.
    • Participants can discover that they share similar experiences with others in the group, which can significantly reduce feelings of shame and isolation.
    • Groups provide an opportunity to experience, reflect on and struggle with conflict.
    • A developing understanding of group interactions can become a powerful way of learning about the self.
    • Through the group experience and with the help of the group members, including the conductor, people can come to an understanding of how they operate in groups, what happens to them and why. People are supported to change and develop healthier methods of relating.

Applications of Group Analysis

Group Analysis has many therapeutic applications in the health sector. Group Analysts provide, support, train and facilitate the delivery of therapeutic support groups to adults and adolescents in a range of services including addiction, disability, mental health, and child & family services. In addition, groups are provided for carers in these services.

The principles of Group Analysis are also widely applicable in non-clinical fields, including the education and community sectors. Having an understanding of how groups work, what gets in the way of groups working well, how and why people operate in groups, what roles they take on, as well as the ability to identify and work with group dynamics, are essential tools for people working with a range of work tasks.

Services offered by Group Analysts include:

• • • Clinical group supervision.
    • Consultation to organisations and staff teams.
    • Staff support and process groups.
    • Team development.
    • Training courses, seminars etc

Irish Group Analytic Society (IGAS)

Administrator: Nicola Williams

Address: IGAS Global House, 29 Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1

Email: askigas@nullgmail.com

Website: www.igas.ie

Analytical or Jungian psychology is based on the ideas of Carl Gustav Jung, (1875-1961). Son of a Swiss pastor, Jung, a psychiatrist, became a disciple of Freud in 1906. After an initial close working relationship, (during which Jung was elected President of the International Psychoanalytic Association), the friendship ended acrimoniously in 1913 when Jung developed several ideas which departed from Freud’s views. While there is some overlap in areas of common interest, – the concept of the Unconscious, the complexes, and much of the early developmental approach -, Jung’s emphasis was different.

For example Jung saw the unconscious as complementary to and communicating with consciousness, rather than solely a repository of repressed experience. Equally he was less interested in the causes of neurosis than in its meaning and significance within the framework of the personality. These ideas led to his outlining a model of Personality Types (where Jung introduced the terms Introvert and Extrovert), which accounted for the variety of attitudes found within the range of ‘normal’ personality. His interest in the transformation of the personality and his belief in the in-built tendency of the psyche to strive towards wholeness, (something Jung felt emerged more in the second half of life), led to his developing the concept of Individuation.

As well as the Personal Unconscious, another area which interested Jung was that of the Collective Unconscious, which he regarded as the repository of people’s psychic heritage and possibilities. These ideas led him to a life-long study of the images and symbols found in humanity’s myths and religious beliefs.

A comparative study of these led Jung to the theory of Archetypes, innate images that operate as transformers of psychic energy which has its source in the instincts. Seeking for the historical roots of his Analytical Psychology, in the final decades of his life Jung was led to the study of Alchemical texts.

Such theoretical researches went hand in hand with a busy analytical practice, which led Jung and his followers to several innovations in psychotherapy – from new approaches to Dream Interpretation, and the use of Active Imagination, to the current use of Sand-Play therapy and the dramatic enactment of Fairytales.

Jungian Psychology in the Irish Context

The Irish Analytical Psychology Association was founded in 1996 to represent and promote the understanding and development of Analytical Psychology in Ireland. Two years later the I.A.P.A. became affiliated with the International Association of Analytical Psychology (I.A.A.P.), Zurich, where its status is that of a Developing Group. It is hoped that when there is a sufficient number of Analysts the I.A.P.A. will become a fully accredited training institute.

In 2000 the association became a member of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy, as representing Analytical Psychology professionally in Ireland, under the umbrella of the Psychoanalytic Section.

The I.A.P.A. has two categories within the list of Full Members whom it recognises as competent to practise in their profession: I.A.A.P. Analyst Members and Analytical Psychotherapist Members.

Contact Address:

Irish Analytical Psychology Association (IAPA)

Contact: Jean Fitzgerald

Address: Mount Ambrose, St. Margaret’s, Swords, Dublin

Tel: 087 249 2625

Email: jungireland@nullgmail.com  

Website: www.jungireland.com