Finding my own people at AAP was a priority after I attended my first AAP event in 2012 as a scholarship recipient. Brian Cross, my husband, and a long-time member of AAP had years of history with so many AAP people — colleagues, former therapists, supervisors, group members, co-therapists, etc. After three years of attending AAP events, a few of people with whom I had attended a series of open process groups started talking about creating our own Family Group. We took a leap of faith and I asked for a meeting room to meet at the 2016 Summer Workshop. Our first meeting was held in a magical stone barn with white Christmas lights strung around the room. Even though I sometimes wish that I had joined an existing group, I decided to put my energy into imagining a multi-generational diverse group that would be the kind of posse I want to belong to. Starting a new group with new members is like reinventing the wheel in many ways. On the positive side, we all get to have a say in how the group develops. The difficulty is that our learning curve is steep. We have had so many firsts: fights, secrets, invitations, try outs, and rejections. The process has drawn us closer, clarified our edges, and helped us grow. And we have also been able to pull on senior members who have offered us support and good will, wanting us to succeed and find a place of our own.
