We were in a Summer Workshop in Houston, Texas in 1975 and the leaders framed the opening experience, breaking everyone into small alphabetical groups. Cleaves, Compton, and Criswell, soon joined by others, especially Carole Light, who had been put into a group with her therapist. We became the core of a new ongoing group. Three of us were new members in another established group, but decided we liked continuing with this group because we were all about the same age and were beginners in the field of psychotherapy. We held each other to great accountability in finding our truth and having the courage to speak it, holding each other’s feet to the fire and growing in the process. We learned from the wisdom of each other and the interactions in the group. What began as a peer group has over all of these years become a deep bonding into a family of choice, where we have felt known, confronted, engaged, supported, and deeply loved by each other. A major factor in my becoming the person and therapist I am has been this group.
