From Our Affiliates
What brings a group together — climate scientists, laughter, the Third Age, and more.
Special Focus · Group Therapy: What Brings Your Group Together?
A shared focus can create safety, connection and belonging. Groups organised around a particular life experience, challenge, community or interest can help participants discover that they are not alone — perhaps the best-known example being Alcoholics Anonymous, which shows the enduring power of people coming together around a shared experience.
Across our CAOA community, colleagues are working with groups of many different focuses and methodologies. Here are five of them.

Climate in Therapy: When Scientists Sit in the Circle
Seven climate scientists spend a weekend in group therapy, exploring the emotions of knowing, studying and living with climate change — and asking what a group can offer when knowledge alone is not enough.
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River of Life LGBTQ+
A 43-minute documentary following a multigenerational group of queer participants through a ten-week drama-therapy workshop — screening with a workshop on Sunday 11 October at The Roxie, San Francisco.
Visit the film's siteAwareness Therapy and Trauma
The Institute brings its Awareness Therapy approach to group work focused on trauma. Its new AI-powered self-awareness tool is featured in Living Voices.
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Rielájate: Organisational Culture, Wellbeing and Creative Play
Laughter as fuel, attitude and flag. The group invites people to switch on play mode and let go of control through honest laughter — and is preparing a new course, Stress Dies from Laughter!
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Working with the Third Age
Through U3A Tweed Coast and the Men's Shed, workshops on emotions, roles and relationships with people aged 65 and over — drawing on Feelings Allowed and the Play of Life® method.
Read moreWhat Special-Focus Groups Are You Working With?
Tell us who your group is for, what brings participants together, and what methodology you use. Your focus might involve a life stage, community, social issue, clinical need, professional challenge, culture or shared experience. Your group might have been running for years — or you may only just be starting. Photos, links and brief descriptions are welcome.
And don't just read about what colleagues are doing — connect with them. Your experience may give another colleague an idea; theirs may help you develop yours.
A Voice from Iran: Connection Across Borders
Ravanmehr Clinic, Iran
در این شماره از CAOA Connect، با خرسندی بخشی از تجربه و تأملات دشتی، یکی از همکاران کلینیک روانمهر در ایران را با شما به اشتراک میگذاریم. این نوشته نگاهی کوتاه به ارزش تبادل حرفهای بینالمللی، ارتباط گروهی و روابطی دارد که از طریق ایجاد فضاهایی برای یادگیری و تأمل مشترک میان همکاران کشورهای مختلف شکل میگیرد.
برای همکاران کلینیک روانمهر، فرصت دیدار، یادگیری از یکدیگر، تبادل تجربه و ایجاد روابط حرفهای معنادار با متخصصان دیگر کشورها، از ارزش ویژهای برخوردار بوده است.
«این جلسات فضایی حمایتگر فراهم میکنند تا بتوانیم یکدیگر را ببینیم، از حال هم باخبر شویم، تجربههایمان را با یکدیگر در میان بگذاریم و درباره آنچه به صورت فردی و گروهی تجربه میکنیم، با هم تأمل کنیم.»
«از صمیم قلب از تکتک شما سپاسگزارم و امیدوارم این همکاری حرفهای، دوستی و تبادل ارزشمند در آینده نیز ادامه یابد و گستردهتر شود.»
We are pleased to share this reflection from Dashti, a colleague at Ravanmehr Clinic in Iran. It offers a glimpse into the value of international professional exchange, group connection, and the relationships that develop when colleagues from different countries create spaces to learn and reflect together.
For colleagues at Ravanmehr Clinic, opportunities to meet, learn from one another, exchange experiences, and build meaningful professional relationships with professionals from other countries have been particularly valuable. Thanks to Dr Abdollahi, a series of educational and therapeutic programmes has made these connections possible. Alongside the educational component, one of the most valued aspects has been the group sessions offered to colleagues at the clinic.
“These sessions provide a supportive space where we can meet one another, understand how our colleagues are doing, share our experiences, and reflect together on what we are experiencing individually and as a group.”
Dr Gesu and Dr Constantine, together with other teachers and colleagues who have generously shared their knowledge and experience, have contributed as educators and group facilitators. This support has been particularly meaningful during challenging and uncertain times, when opportunities for connection, reflection and mutual support become even more important.
“I sincerely thank each and every one of you and hope that this valuable professional collaboration, friendship, and exchange will continue and grow.”
A Voice from Iran: More Than Learning
پریسا، یکی از همکاران ما از ایران، درباره ارزش یادگیری، تبادل حرفهای و ارتباط انسانی میان کشورها و فرهنگهای مختلف مینویسد:
«برای من، این تجربه بسیار فراتر از یک تجربه آموزشی بوده است. این فرصت را فراهم کرده تا از یکدیگر بیاموزیم، تجربههایمان را به اشتراک بگذاریم و ارتباطات حرفهای و انسانی معناداری ایجاد کنیم.
از دکتر کارلوس و همه اساتید و همکارانی که در این تجربه همراه ما بودهاند صمیمانه سپاسگزارم. امیدوارم این ارتباطات ادامه پیدا کند و فرصتهای تازهای برای تبادل و همکاری ایجاد شود.»
Parisa, a colleague from Iran, reflects on the value of learning, professional exchange, and human connection across countries and cultures.
“For me, this has been much more than an educational experience. It has created an opportunity to learn from one another, exchange experiences, and develop meaningful professional and human connections.
I am deeply grateful to Dr Carlos and all the teachers and colleagues who have shared this experience with us. I hope these connections continue to grow and create new opportunities for exchange and collaboration.”
More from our Affiliates
An Experience Using the Pillars of Life
How the Pillars of Life activity helped unemployed and refugee students reconnect with positive memories, resilience and hope — a case study from a TAFE confidence programme.
Read moreGroup Psychotherapy in China
How has group psychotherapy developed in China, and what happens when Western approaches to group therapy encounter Chinese culture?
Read the articleGrupo con Acento Latino
A support and encounter initiative launched in 2021, coordinated by IAGP's Transcultural Section with the Family Section. Its sessions blend expressive arts, shared analysis, psychodrama and dream matrices, bringing together colleagues from Brazil, Uruguay, France, Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America — a space of containment amid the region's political changes and transcultural crises.
Transcultural Section