Thanks for all the input! Yeah it is hard to tell exactly what's going on. This group therapy stuff is more interesting than I expected.

Alexandra, I tend to be very controlled with emotional expressiveness too. My mother didn't torment me with it (sorry that happened to you!), but emotional expressiveness was never modeled for me as a child. Everybody just masks how they feel in my family. For instance, I have never once seen my father cry. I've only seen my mother cry maybe 3 times (same with my sister). Though Mom did at least model anger -- she modeled it so well that I now avoid even the slightest expression of it. This is going to be interesting in group therapy since I'm supposed to express the emotions that I typically suppress. But how can I express what I've suppressed? I can't even feel it!

You're right that I'm anxious about the possibility of ever telling the therapist that I love him. I might one of these days, hopefully not so late that it's 3 minutes before he retires or something like that. I guess from this statement it's obvious that I'm planning to stick around in therapy for years. :-)

And Hopefull -- yeah I really can't tell what her motivations are. I'm guessing that she's just trying to do what she thinks we're supposed to do. But maybe she was always way expressive and is working on something different I don't know.

I do remember reading that people in group should talk about the therapist, but I think in the cases I was reading it was a therapist who ONLY worked with the members in the context of the group (not simultaneously with individual or couples therapy). At any rate, I have no intention of talking about my individual therapy sessions during group. That will remain completely private. I think I'd quit the group if I were expected to share that, but I doubt it's expected. I think it's just this particular member who lets us in on a few details about her other sessions. And like I said, it weirds me out. :-)

Thanks for all the input!

Sidony