ABSTRACT

This is an account of my first year conducting a treatment groupfor men referred for violent and sometimes sexually violentbehaviour. From the very beginning, they have continued to surprise me.

Axis one: history lines

Before the beginning

A few months into my training in forensic psychotherapy at the Portman Clinic and while still finding my feet, I was invited to take over a group from a senior staff member upon her retirement. Despite my initial anxiety, I was tempted by the idea of a group that had been going on for a while and I was open to the possibility of learning how to be a group therapist by sharing the experience with colleagues at the Group Workshop. My supervisor suggested that he would help me develop my own style of conducting a group. I had extensive discussions with the departing therapist, and I spent some time looking at the patients’ files. I eagerly waited for my first session.