ABSTRACT
The personal development (PD) group is found in many different places, from clinical psychology doctorates to counselling certificates. Some students struggle not with the idea of personal development as such, but with the group nature of the task. Models include person centred, gestalt, existential, trans-personal, psychodynamic, humanistic, relational, systemic, cognitive-behavioural, cognitive analytic, to name but a few—and integrative of course. Every PD group member is faced with the challenge of learning to relate in a meaningful manner, to communicate at depth, to change and to grow, and to facilitate these processes in the client. Both personal development and therapy in groups rest upon the mutual and meaningful relationships that the members painstakingly build in the process of the group’s existence. The reality is that members of both have to take responsibility for their own behaviour and the impact that they have upon others.
