Almost three years ago, I began running a psychotherapy group which oriented group members to the full spectrum of their body-focused, repetitive behaviors (e.g. hair pulling, skin picking, nail biting). We reviewed the demographic backdrop to these behaviors, treatment options, and factors such as motivation that affected their outcomes. We began exploring our own pulling/picking profiles and uncovering the emotional and sensory factors that fed them. I started this group to foster intellectual understanding, and even more so, to foster relationships between individuals and not just ones with our bodies. In the safe and controlled space of a psychotherapy group dedicated to BFRB sufferers, we began to heal shame and rely on one another. This group that began in 2015 proved incredibly rich and fulfilling, and lasted approximately 6 months. Since then, I have now run four chapters that have grown longer and stronger every time. Each round I become even more convinced of the importance of having this unique space for encountering sameness, difference, sharing, and receiving with like peers.
I have been getting a number of calls these days and believe we have reached a critical mass to begin a new group January 2018. The curriculum will include familiar and novel components that focus on overt behavioral management of the BFRBs, and also tackle discomfort, relationships, self-compassion, and self-assertion. All of this learning will happen experientially and through guided exercises and conversations.
I am aiming to begin this group January 2018, but will adjust according to members' availability. I am currently envisioning a meeting time of Wednesdays from 6:15 - 7:30 pm, and meeting place as my usual office at Post and Divisadero in San Francisco. Session fee would be $80/session, which if you submit for reimbursement can be claimed on your insurance superbill as well.
If you have any interest in the group, please let me know by email: dr.nmayeda@gmail.com, or by phone: 415-735-0029 in the next couple of weeks. Again, please reach out to me if you have any interest at all. Your inquiry will by no means by a commitment, just a chance to get more information so we can mutually determine fit.