The two faces of the group therapist

The group therapist wears two faces: spokesperson of the Establishment and spokesperson of significant truth. To run vital groups, these two roles of group leadership must stand in dialectic relationship to each other. The therapist introduces principles and practices that normalize group relations and provide a sense of cohesion, continuity, and regularity. However, to be constructive and promote significant truth, the group therapist must also be deconstructive, and encourage and support the group's questioning and challenging the very principles and practices that he or she asserts. A case example illustrates how the group leader is also two-faced in another sense of the term, since he or she may be false and insincere--or perceived as such--when being either the conservator or challenger of group process and culture.