Anima Group

Anima Group format

To begin, a member volunteers to do a 10-minute narrative.

The format of the narrative is:

1. What your life used to be like in a specific area,

2. What change occurred in that area and how it came about, and

3. What your life is like now in that area, how it’s improved, and your current issues and how you work through them.  

Then we’ll go to a volunteer share. If two or three members are present, shares will be ten minutes. If four or more members are in the group, shares will be 3-5 minutes. Once everyone has spoken, members, including the narrative guy, can then volunteer to share a second time.

The format for the shares:

1. Facts: Describe the situation you want to talk about, whether it happened recently, in the more distant past, or if it’s what you’re going through now.  

2. Feeling: How you feel about what happened. Note that “good” and “bad” are not feelings.

3. Meaning: Why you feel what you do. Go as many whys deep until it clicks. If you don’t know exactly, then take a good guess.

4. Responsibility. How your feelings about what happened are your responsibility.

5. To do: What you could do about it, simply as a suggestion to yourself.

 You don’t need to stick to this structure exactly. These are more like guidelines than rules. But if you only come here to complain, it will to be unhelpful for everyone, especially you.

However, the rules we do have are:

1. “I” statements. Keep the focus of your share on you, and only reference the speaker or someone else and their share to relate your emotional experience with it.

2. No advice. Do not give advice unless someone explicitly asks you for it—and even then it’s probably a bad idea.

3. No politics. It’s okay to reference a political situation, but keep both the situation and your views on it ambiguous, and only do it to relate your emotional experience with it.

4. Confidentiality. What you hear and who you see must remain confidential for the health of the group and to minimize embarrassment.

Commit to be here once per week and to talk through your issues in such a manner. This process will allow you to more fully face your anxiety and express your anger. With each successive group your awareness will increase until you’re able to experience the archetypes and use them to make your life productive, meaningful, and fun.