This Balint group method is highly structured and informed by psychoanalytic ideas, developed by the psychoanalyst Balint in the late 1950s. It is distinct from supervision, psychotherapy, or ordinary case formulation or consultation, and is oftentimes a moving and meaningful experience for participants.
Balint Group
Organised by:
TJG Psychotherapy
Description
Please join for an exciting and uniquely interesting Balint group focusing on the subjective experience of the work we do.
Dates
Start date: 23 January 2026
End date: 26 June 2026
Schedule: Fourth Friday of each month
The group has the choice to continue beyond June 2026, based on desires of members and facilitators. This can be discussed and decided in early May.
Often an ongoing group has strong merits.
23/01
27/02
27/03
24/04
22/05
26/06
Method
Balint groups are named after the psychoanalyst Michael Balint who held psychological training seminars for PCP’s in London.
The education was based on small group case presentation and discussion, studying the relationship between doctor and patient in the context of every day consultations.
Details
Balint groups offer a supportive and intellectually and emotionally challenging environment that goes beyond just knowing or knowing what to do with our patients. The group focuses on facilitating growth, meaningful interpersonal interaction, the validation of subjective experience, and deep engagement with the feelings stirred up within us by our work.
Balint groups are oftentimes rewarding, and sometimes the experience can be both unusual and provocative.
We will gather monthly via Zoom for a tightly structured and mutually supportive Balint group.
We seek members who would benefit from co-creating a warm, intuitive and like-minded group experience; psychotherapists, academics and medical professionals.
This group will be facilitated by Tamara Gittleson, a Chicago and London-based psychoanalyst.
Format
The group members and leader sit in a circle. The leader asks: ‘who has a case?’ Someone volunteers to talk about a patient who has been on her mind. The problem may be that the patient has been emotionally disturbing or just difficult to understand or to engage. The group listens to the story without interrupting. When the presenter has finished, the leader invites the group to respond to what they have heard. There may be questions or emotional reactions induced by the patient’s story and speculations about what else might be going on.
Instead of extensive questions to the presenter, the leader helps the group members themselves to work on the case.
The leader first asks if there are any clarifying questions about facts that need to be clarified (age, length and frequency of treatment.) The invitation is for the group to speculate rather than know; to explore rather than formulate — essentially to explore the dyadic relationship.
The presenter then sit back and remain silent for the next 20-30 minute. The leader then supports the group to rely on their own resources to take over the work with the presented patient.
The presenter is then invited to re-join and to have her say and respond to what she has heard.
The role of the leader
To make the group a safe place, where confidentiality is observed and members feel free to talk about their feelings and their work (including their mistakes).
The group is not a therapy group although its effects can be therapeutic.
The leader’s second aim is to keep the discussion focused on the doctor/ therapist-patient relationship. They may ask how the patient has made everyone feel. Do we like the patient and want to help him? Or would we prefer to keep him at a distance? The group may be invited to consider how the patient is feeling or what sort of therapist- doctor he wants his therapist to be.
A group that dislikes or fears the patient may be unwilling to engage and will try to ‘escape’ by talking about generalities:
In this situation the leader will bring the group back to the work, perhaps by representing the patient (‘If I were this patient I would be feeling terribly alone and abandoned right now…’)
Ending the session
The session ends, like a therapy session, when time has run out.
The presenter is invited to have the last word. We do not attempt to tie the loose ends or give a reassuring summary.
The third phase
After the presenter is invited to rejoin the group, the last few minutes are spent reflecting on the ‘meta’ experience- for each participant to reflect on their experience of listening to the case presentation, participating in discussion and what it has felt like to be part of the group on that day.
All experiences and reflections are welcome. It is moving, connecting and meaningful.
Benefits of Balint
What does participation in a Balint group do for a group member?
The first and most easily obtained benefit is to have a safe place where you can talk about interpersonal aspects of your work with your patients. The group will be sympathetic and they will all have been in similar situations themselves. This is a great relief and usually means that when a dreaded patient turns up again he or she will seem less gruesome. Balint group experience helps to avoid professional ‘burnout’.
Secondly, the Balint group encourages doctor/ therapists to see their patients as human beings who have a life and relationships outside the consulting room. They become more interesting to listen to and easier to help.
Thirdly, the group members may gradually reach a deeper level of understanding of their patients’ feelings and their own. They may realise that certain patients or emotions may resonate with what is going on in the own inner and outer lives. This may be causing problems which the doctor can learn to avoid or even to turn to therapeutic advantage.
To book, email Tamaragittelson@hotmail.com
