encounter group

American  

noun

Psychology.

1. a group of people who meet, usually with a trained leader, to increase self-awareness and social sensitivity, and to change behavior through interpersonal confrontation, self-disclosure, and strong emotional expression.

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encounter group British  

noun

1. a group of people who meet in order to develop self-awareness and mutual understanding by openly expressing their feelings, by confrontation, physical contact, etc

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encounter group Cultural  

1. A method of psychotherapy developed in the 1960s, in which a small group of people engages in intensive interactions to increase self-awareness and improve interpersonal relations. Group members are encouraged to be completely honest and open, reacting to one another with their immediate feelings, while exploring the entire range of emotions.

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Often associated with the radical social upheaval of the 1960s, encounter groups have been criticized for their potentially damaging effects, because many groups are led by people not professionally trained in psychotherapy.

Etymology

Origin of encounter group

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

They treat their community like an encounter group or Esalen workshop; often, they correspond with individual Hacker News readers over e-mail, coaching and encouraging them in long, heartfelt exchanges.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 8, 2019

Part immersion, part indictment and part encounter group, it guides the crowd through a set program of conflict and disclosure, mixing unscripted audience comments and more carefully composed revelations from actors.

From New York Times • Mar. 21, 2018

Participating in an encounter group, they get deeply, deeply in touch with their feelings.

From Salon • Jun. 19, 2015

With television now functioning as much national encounter group as entertainment, any act of violence or misfortune befalling a major character is immediately followed by a cacophony of anguish and/or rage on social media.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2015

The encounter group, a general descriptive term, is intended to include many variants.

From Marriage Enrichment Retreats Story of a Quaker Project by Mace, D. R. (David Robert)