This group therapy is a growth-oriented and change-oriented group therapy and offers the advantages of therapy with a therapist and the advantages of group experience simultaneously.

I Egon am active as a therapist just as in individual therapy.

Additionally, there is the experience of group dynamics and the self-experience of interaction with other people.

This is experience-oriented group therapy work. We work in the here and now on real situations that occur interpersonally here. The group therapist actively supports the group process so that internal and external interactive relationships taking place in the therapy room can be felt and made conscious. This creates clear emotional states, often very intense, which the entire group reflects upon mindfully, spontaneously and then carefully, first in the group and subsequently in writing alone.

In my group therapy work, I employ emotion-focused approaches from schema therapy, gestalt therapy and emotion-focused therapy. Feelings are intensified by making inner experiences deliberately concrete, physical and interpersonally experienceable – instead of treating them abstractly or purely mentally. When parts of the self are brought outward, authentic encounters emerge: What was previously an internal monologue becomes an actual occurrence between people in the present moment. This triggers emotional processes far more strongly than mere thinking or reporting. The feeling is no longer just observed – one is in the midst of it.

Emotions are experienced and expressed physically, not just put into words. Participants move, change their posture, their vocal tone, their facial expression and their breathing. Feelings are anchored in the body and are evoked there – posture and voice act directly on the limbic system and the autonomic nervous system. Changes in physical state lead more quickly to deeper emotional states than understanding alone: The body carries the memory and intensifies the experience. In parallel, I Egon as therapist slow down what is happening and direct attention inward: "Stay with this feeling," "What are you noticing right now in your chest?", "Say it again, but more immediately." This reduces mental evasive maneuvers and narrative distance. When attention is held, emotional activation increases – subtle changes such as tensions, warmth or tears are perceived and expanded. Feelings unfold when they are experienced without possibility of escape.

Through activating emotional opposites through immediate interactions between group members, strong emotional tensions arise. Opposing emotional systems are stimulated simultaneously, hidden feelings reveal themselves in response to confrontation, criticism or distancing. The tension between different inner parts increases emotional power: Contradiction generates emotional energy. Group members are encouraged to speak from the I-perspective, to choose emotionally charged words and to address their counterpart directly. Direct address in the now activates emotional memory and evokes attachment feelings, shame, anger or sadness – emotional meaning becomes present rather than merely mental. Telling someone something personally works more powerfully than talking about that person.

Primary feelings possess a stronger biological effect and greater organizing power than subsequent or defensive reactions. When protective mechanisms are set aside, vulnerability shows itself, and emotional truth emerges with greater intensity. As therapist, I Egon deliberately interrupt reason-emphasized explanations, extensive storytelling and distanced reporting. Avoidance normally dampens feelings – by remaining in immediate experience, these dampeners fall away, and group members can no longer escape through thinking. Emotion gains strength when escape routes are blocked. In this work, emotions are lived through, intensified and transformed.

The real experience taking place here enables a better getting to know oneself and an active, supported self-development process for changing disturbed relationship schemas, mental schemas, internal and interpersonal attitudes and behavioral patterns. We work clearly change-oriented. High group therapy and change motivation is a basic requirement. All group members have already worked and work parallel to group therapy in individual sessions with Egon. This is combination therapy (= individual + group therapy). A strong working alliance with Egon before admission to the therapy group is a prerequisite.

I consider these small therapy groups to be the most efficient method of all for increasing social interactional competencies and for overcoming multiple problem areas (e.g. social anxieties, self-insecurity, depression, developments after trauma in relationships with other people, consequences of personality disorders in social relationships and in dealing with oneself, among many others).

I love these therapy groups because they enable psychotherapy in a real, protected laboratory.

To ensure appropriate patient-centered case processing, only 4 people participate in my therapy groups.

4-Coaches-Principle: Each group consists of the 4 group members and the therapist: 5 people.

I Egon as therapist have the help of 3 co-therapists here to help a patient.

I Egon offer small therapy groups so that we can work tailored to the needs of each group member.

Since the group is so small, there is much time and attention for the concrete learning processes of each individual group member.

Work is coping-oriented. All members in the group are constantly active in the (self and other) support process.

In doing so, one practices paying attention to oneself while paying attention to another group member. Working on oneself while working with another group member. Expanding self-perception while deepening perception of others. It is pure 150-minute self-experience in real 150-minute interaction. Everyone works the entire time on their own conflicts and goals, while another group member serves as a trigger. The compassionate, active therapist ensures this. Each group member learns to ensure this in this practical laboratory: an interactive learning process that becomes ever deeper and seizes ever more feelings, thought patterns and impulses. An interaction between self-perception, perception of others, meditative and interactive mindfulness and action with each other creates a change process: active learning in the group.

My therapy groups work in a completely protected framework. This means:

Confidentiality. My attitude as group leader is strictly benevolent toward each group member. Each group member decides whether and when work is done on a concrete difficulty, whether and when a private matter is addressed. Pressure is not allowed. Verbal violence is not allowed. Respect is mandatory.

A 150-minute group session takes place every week. There is no vacation during the group process. Everyone reserves this entire time free for this process. All 4 group members always participate in all sessions.

The participants in the group do not change. The 4 group participants and the therapist form a strong, deeply trusted unit from the 1st to the last session: always together in strong belonging.

If you would like to participate in a therapy group, it is required that you first engage in individual therapy with my professional support. A trusting therapeutic relationship between us must already be established before you can be considered for a therapy group.

Our therapy groups are very intensive and oriented toward sustainable change processes. They require committed collaboration, strong group cohesion and very active participation over several months. Group members are carefully selected exclusively from my circle of individual patients to ensure a beneficial and harmonious group constellation.

These groups take place weekly in Hamburg Altona Ottensen and twice for an intensive in Egon's practice in Hohwacht at the Baltic Sea with group accommodation in an apartment in Plön Holstein. In addition to the sessions in Egon's practices, the members meet as a self-help group for various additional therapy tasks without Egon during the week. It is an intensive process with the group during these months.

Intellectualization and rationalization When a group member intellectualizes and rationalizes during the group therapy process, they limit their processing to rational reason and ignore emotional, physical and deeply felt aspects of their present reality, which are often of crucial importance. They behave as if they are acting and thinking correctly according to the social, moral and logical rules of our established society, but in reality they are a well-dressed liar, controlled by shame or fear. They work to maintain an old, corrupt regime – the regime of their own psychological disorder. The main goal is the maintenance of a blockade that leads the therapy process of the entire group into a dead end, so that their deeply hidden truth remains invisible: the pain, the fear, the shame, the disgust... and how they sold their soul for it. Because it would require much honesty, courage, willpower, acceptance, self-feeling and self-love to resist this devil. They pretend they must understand something, as if there must be an order that needs to be conquered under mental control. But in truth it's about control under the dictatorship of the disorder – the dictatorship of the intellect. The tools of the person, here the intelligence, have taken power over them and are no longer available to them. This happens in secret. If someone tries to speak against it – be it their own gut or another emotionally charged group member – they are immediately disqualified. On this basis, group therapy becomes coffee talk, a waste of time and money for all group members. In behavioral therapy and psychoanalysis, we use our intellect as an instrument to expose and change cognitive distortions, old thought errors and dysfunctional thought patterns. It is indeed about a change at the level of understanding. However, this is only part of the work we do in psychotherapy. Psychotherapeutic healing happens at the level of feeling, where the stored ideas and the associated deep consequences for oneself come together. At this depth are the emotions that are irrationally controlled. Here the mind no longer works. For this we use other tools: intuition, sensitivity, deep emotional and psychosomatic self-perception and perception of others. And we practice achieving, even mastering, a deliberate, spontaneous, free-flowing handling. Those of you who know Japanese martial arts can understand it: The samurai does not think. He is completely awake, in deep contact with everything that is. His body acts without the head. The head is too slow. Only this way can he survive. That is the basis of Zen Buddhism. As fast as the wind. That is feeling.

Group progress report Your group therapy with the group has ended. Now you should write your own progress report about this experience. For this you should read the reflections from yourself for each session:

1. First you read the reflections on the first session. Then you write down your own thoughts. 2. Subsequently you read the reflections on the second session and write your own impressions again. 3. You proceed this way with all further sessions. When you are finished with this, then reflect on the entire group process and write about additional aspects that occur to you. The following aspects are very important and you should write about them:

• Changes in yourself: What has changed in you and about you? How did this come about? - Symptoms of your disorder: Were there new symptoms? Which symptoms have you overcome? How was your disorder before and how is it after therapy? - Concrete changes: How have you achieved concrete changes with the help of the group process? Consider changes in your suffering, your problems and your social, interpersonal relationship patterns. - Important interpersonal experiences: Which concrete situations and interactions in the group helped you? What did you concretely do to cope with challenges in the group process? - Intense challenges: What particularly intense or difficult challenges were there for you? Which behavioral experiments did you design in these interpersonal experiences? - Impressions and consequences: What impressions did the other people make on you and what consequences did these impressions have? - Learning units: What important lessons have you learned? What were your experiences with your reflections, your homework and your goals from session to session? - Achievements: What achievements did you have in this active process? What was your position on the axis passivity versus activity? - Relationship with the group therapist: How did the group therapist help you? How was your relationship with him and which figures did you project onto him? - Relationships with group members: How was your concrete relationship with each group member and how did these relationships influence your process? How did these relationships help you? - Not achieved: What did you not accomplish in this group and what would you like to achieve in the next group? What was the reason that you did not accomplish something concrete in the last group? - Motivational reactions: How did you react motivationally to the various situations and moments in the group? - Participation in new group therapy: Would you like to participate in a new group therapy? Why? What will you do differently in the next therapy group? Use these guiding questions to create a comprehensive and reflective report about your experiences in group therapy.

Group participants report here about their self-exploration group / therapy group / coaching group. Former members of completed groups have written here about their self-experience, so that people interested in group therapy / group coaching can have more information when they feel uncertain before the group experience.

[Translate to English:] Hallo Egon,

habe lange überlegt, was ich zu meinen Erfahrungen in der Gruppentherapie schreiben könnte.

Diese Aussage trifft es am besten.

"MUT – OFFENHEIT – RESPEKT

Werte die gelebt werden, Werte die helfen.

Eine unglaublich wertvolle und helfende Erfahrung, die frei macht.

ICH – BIN – FREI

Danke."

Before group therapy, I was already in individual therapy with Egon due to my trauma. He encouraged me to try this, as it could help me with coping with my problem. Since a work accident I have a handicap that I try to conceal so that I wouldn't be asked about it. The confrontation constantly stirred me up emotionally and I didn't want to suffer anymore, feel this pain or have the feeling that I'm missing something, so I'm worth less than others. I was a little anxious, nevertheless I was curious about what people I would meet, what problems they have. Should I actually not be completely alone with my problems? In the first hour we all introduced ourselves, told why we are there. Egon was there as a "mediator", gave the impetus at important phases. That is, when what was told by a person in the group should be further discussed, intensified. The conversations about my handicap, how the others would react to me, helped me a lot and I was able to reduce my fear of showing myself to others as I am. After the end of the group I felt complete and am healed. The interaction with each other was very considerate, nevertheless everyone said what they thought and it never left the therapy room. With the consent of all involved, I also brought my partner at the time and discussed important problems with him openly in the group. The others tried to convey his view of things to me and vice versa, so that we could benefit for ourselves from the experiences of the others and understood the other better. I think in retrospect that the group dynamized my healing process. I was able to grow and recover faster. You share something, are there for each other, help each other, it is a different feeling than talking with "one" therapist, you have many opinions on one point, as in reality too, there are always many solutions and you stand in a strong community!

"I struggled with myself for a long time about whether I should start group therapy or not. At first it was hard for me to imagine opening up in the circle of three strangers and telling about my past and my current problems. But I dared to take this step and let myself get involved with the group. Ultimately I was thereby confronted with completely new problems and quickly noticed how hard it was for me to open up. But this resistance then clearly showed me that I myself didn't want to accept my trauma past and therefore had such problems getting involved with the group. When I finally understood this connection, I dared to take the step and told the group about my experiences, memories and feelings. How important this step was only became apparent afterwards and would not have happened without the group. Shaped by this first group experience, I got involved in group therapy again a year later. I quickly noticed that I could enter or get involved in a completely different way. When it came more specifically to trauma work, I feared a collective helplessness, which however did not arise. The other three group participants acted like an emotional support that first made it possible to look so closely. The two group experiences were important building blocks on my path of healing and I am glad in retrospect that I got involved in it."

From individual to group therapy When I came to Egon for individual therapy, I was sure that group therapy was nothing for me. Already with Egon it was difficult for me to open up – how should that then be possible with 3 strangers at once? But in the course of my individual therapy my attitude changed. I recognized that a group can be not threat but protection. The confidential conversation with people who also have to deal with stressful topics, the mutual feedback and the experiences from one's own experience – in this I now see the strengths of group therapy. I believe that such a trusting basis can emerge in which one can also discuss and heal the topics that touch the heart in its innermost, there where we are all so vulnerable. And indeed more than an individual therapy session is able to do.

My experience with group therapy is thoroughly positive. At the beginning of my therapy stood, as with every other person too, the decision individual or group therapy. It took some time and persuasive skills on the part of the group therapist Egon. I, who most reluctantly talks about feelings and problems, should open up to three completely strange people? Completely unthinkable. The fear that the other participants wouldn't take me seriously or perhaps wouldn't like me because of my problems was quite big. The feeling that everyone must love me, like me, respect me, I must be perfect, stood totally in the way. But I noticed very quickly, if I want to change something in my life, I should get involved in something new. After a few individual sessions I decided on group therapy. Looking back, that was the only right decision. I wanted to actively participate in my life and had to change something myself. That is the first important step for group therapy.

In the group itself the most diverse characters met and it is initially an unfamiliar situation. It was quite difficult for me to express myself about my feelings and fears in front of completely strange people. Nevertheless it worked because Egon repeatedly encouraged us. It helped me that everything we told about ourselves remained in the therapy room. The composition of the group was also decisive. Egon always selected the group participants with the right instinct. I had always felt well taken care of in the group.

Meanwhile I have completed the third group therapy and must say that I feel much more secure with myself and my life. The path there was not always easy though. I had to learn that I may not close my eyes to my problems and that it is very important to perceive my feelings and also to express them. To feel and appreciate myself, regardless of what others think about me. No person is perfect. Mistakes are nothing wrong, they belong to you and me. There is no person in the world who is loved by everyone, just as little as I like all people. This realization became conscious to me in the course of group therapy. I could also tell other group participants without problem what bothers me about them and what problems I see in them. That was completely unthinkable before group therapy.

Meanwhile I am at the point where I sense when something is not right with me and can mostly also express it. Of course one must be honest with oneself and not pretend anything. I have learned that it only depends on myself and I have my life in my own hands. Other people are not responsible for me feeling good, but only I myself. I have learned to notice what is good for me and what I can do so that I feel good. Communicate and talk about my feelings and not swallow them down and choke on them. The reflections that are written after each session also helped me with this. There I could reproduce the felt feelings and situations again in writing and feel and deepen my thoughts about them.

For the next individual appointments I strive to discuss current situations and work out tips and help. It is important that I work these out myself and don't expect them to be served by Egon "on a silver platter".

That was also decisive for group therapy. We worked everything out ourselves and Egon accompanied us.

After the three group therapies with Egon I can only advise everyone to have this experience themselves. It brought me a lot and I feel freer and more comfortable than I have ever felt. That alone is already a reason to restart one's life with group therapy.