Contact Function: How We Reach and Retreat in Groups with Ryan Spencer

In this episode of The Web: Weaving Psychology and Soul in Circle, Carrie sits down with Ryan Spencer, LMFT, a Certified Group Psychotherapist whose work bridges modern analytic theory and process-oriented group practice. Together, they explore the subtle relational movements that shape every group: the ways we reach toward connection, pull back for protection, and return when the moment feels right.

Through Ryan’s clarity and depth, contact function becomes a lens for understanding not only how groups grow, but how people navigate closeness, vulnerability, and repair.

You’ll hear:

  • What contact function means in the context of modern analytic and process groups
  • How reaching, withdrawing, and returning create the rhythm of group experience
  • Why paying attention to these micro-movements deepens safety, insight, and cohesion
  • Ways facilitators can track relational cues in real time
  • How these patterns reveal the emotional life of the group
  • Practical examples of contact function unfolding in live group process

For therapists, circle leaders, and anyone captivated by the alchemy of human connection, this conversation offers a rich and grounded understanding of what makes groups transformational.

Direction: Carrie Haynes 

Production: Hayley Lewis

Music:

Song: Embrace

Composer: Sappheiros

Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5ZVHXQZAIn9WJXvy6qn9K0

License: Creative Commons (BY 3.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Music powered by BreakingCopyright: https://breakingcopyright.com

Additional Music from:

Reveille – Keep On Keepin’ On

Emorie – Wild (Stripped)

Falls – At Long Last

Heartland Nights – Midnight Square Dance

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