If you are a therapist or someone in therapy, you are most likely now having sessions on a video format like Zoom. There are so many challenges to face on this new format, from efforts to preserve confidentiality, to technical issues, to the difficulty feeling connected through a screen. I am discovering that finding a comfortable position for my body and especially my neck is difficult and incredibly important!

The first time I held a therapy group via Zoom, I was nervous. There was so much to think about, from helping my clients hide their last names on their Zoom profiles, to making sure each client could find a safe, private, internet-connected place for the session, to figuring out how to bridge group members to one another from such a distance. I was surprised that all members of both of my two groups were willing to give the online format a try.

From the first group session, I was pleasantly surprised that the online format was more effective than I had expected. It was so nice to be able to see one another’s faces within this isolating time, and I noticed how relieving it was for group members to share their experiences of coping with the virus.

Many still had to go to work, some as front-line health care workers. Others had lost their jobs and were coping with financial insecurity. Members shared care and concern for one another’s struggles. Some who are less social enjoyed that others were sharing their experience more than usual, while some were anxious and restless cooped up at home.

As is always true in any group, no one was alone in any of their reactions, and joining together came naturally.

As the leader, I find that I have to be a lot more active in online sessions, paying very careful attention to members’ facial expressions, helping to navigate silences by wondering aloud about what collective anxieties might be under the surface, asking directly about difficult topics like how it is to live alone or to be constantly with spouses and children.

I have also found that there are gifts to be discovered in these online sessions. In one group, I noted aloud that one member was very restless and fidgety, while the others were very still. I wondered what was happening for each person outside of the screen. With so many of my clients struggling with body-focused behaviors, I wasn’t surprised to hear that many hands were active, fiddling with fiddle toys or skin or nails.

I asked what we all might need and one member suggested that we stretch. We all stretched our bodies and it felt so good! I felt in myself the desire to do a Lion’s Breath—a yoga move combining an exaggerated facial expression with the tongue out, eyes wide and mouth wide open with a yell, something like “AAAAAHYH.” I asked if members would be willing to do it with me, and sensed a lot of reluctance.

I did it first, straight into the camera. “AAAAHYH!” There was laughter and some softening of the resistance. I pressed forward. “Now all of us together, straight into the camera, 1, 2, 3….AAAAHYH!” Lion’s breath, loud and open, from every screen. We all laughed, and the laughter felt so good that we did it again. “1, 2, 3….AAAAHYH!”

The following week, with 2 minutes to go in the session, a member requested the Lion’s Breath. We did it together again, twice. With a new member joining the group next week, a request was made that we teach her the lion’s breath so that we can continue to include it in each session. And a new group tradition was born.

Among many other things I am grateful for here in isolation at my home, I am grateful for the ability to connect to the therapy groups in my week, both those I lead and those in which I am a member. If you are interested in joining an online group in Austin, austingroups.org is a wonderful resource, and if you live somewhere else, agpa.org will help you find an online group therapy connection.