Sticks and stones may break my bones, but what about words?

Helping children to use words to express their thoughts and feelings is the goal of psychodynamic group therapy. The subject of this paper was a group of boys in a weekly school-based counseling group. The article explores ways in which the boys could only discharge psychic tension in action and uncovers a fear of using words as a mode of expression. By conceptualizing what he calls "action-talk," a stage between the use of action and talk which sounds like talk, but is not, the author resolved resistances to progressive communication. The importance of being aware of the therapist's own need to control the direction of the group, tendency to avoid negative feelings, and the importance of open-ended, talk-based therapy approaches (versus curriculum-based or psychoeducational groups) are discussed.