What happens in a Pesso Boyden Personal Development Group?

Whether you come to a Pesso Boyden group seeking personal development (growth) or therapy (repair), first and most importantly, clients report feeling quickly at home and safe in Sally’s one-day groups.

I can confidently say that my experience with Sally has been life changing and have no hesitation in recommending her.

Each group meeting includes a different short input about the Pesso Boyden approach, so participants gain understanding as well as powerful experience of why this method is so effective. Each evening there will also be  Sally leads  two individual sessions, or ‘structures.’

A ‘structure’ usually begins with the participant exploring present-day feelings, symptoms or dilemmas. Guided by the therapist, they are helped to track current responses and behaviour patterns back to past experiences and circumstances – the events of early life.

The client and therapist collaborate to construct a ‘new memory’ – a symbolic experience in which the client has an opportunity to savour as their younger self something they longed for or missed earlier in life. Through this experience, a new way of seeing and being is developed. The client gains a new perspective, which typically leads to a clearer sense of choice and agency in daily life.

Everything that takes place in the structure is controlled by the client, assisted by the therapist. The individual sessions take place within the group. Group members are available to support the client’s work if invited, yet always under the direction of the client and therapist. The work is safe, respectful, and inspiring.

You can attend the group as an observer participant; in this case you will have the opportunity to fully participate in the group sessions and witness other participants’ structures. As an observer participant you will not a have a structure yourself. Attending a group in this capacity is an ideal ‘taster’ for people who want to experience the method first-hand in preparation for having a structure themselves at a later date.

Sally is able to create and hold a space that is healing and freeing and not scary at all. Even if you choose to attend but simply observe the sessions done with others, the learning is both intense and immense so it’s totally worth it.