Who We Are

The Northwest Balint Circle includes medical and mental health professionals with an interest in the reflective case consultation discipline known as Balint group work. Many of our members have leadership training through the American Balint Society. Some are credentialed leaders or supervisors approved to train others.

We have members active at the national ABS and international IBF levels.

Contact Us to arrange a speaker for your professional group or agency. Balint group demonstrations provide excellent professional development and team building, and our experienced speaker-leaders can adapt to fit your context and needs.

What is A Balint group?

Balint groups consist of medical and mental health professionals interested in improving the clinician-patient relationship. They meet regularly to focus on specific cases with the goal of improving treatment. They do not do treatment planning, but increase the thoughts and feelings available to the clinician in difficult circumstances. The group process supports divergent (right brain) as opposed to convergent (left brain) thinking. Regular participation helps develop intuition and empathy.

In spring of 2014 Seattle hosted a training attended by people from five countries and eleven states. Afterward we made a video by posing the question "What is a Balint group?" to the Faculty of the Leadership Training Intensive.

Event News

There are several activities you might want to investigate .

Open enrollment Balint Group - Fall/Winter 2018-19

These sessions will be offered by Kris Wheeler (kris@kriswheeler.com) and Kathy Knowlton (tryekk@aol.com) starting September-December, with another set of meetings from January-May. All disciplines welcome. No experience with the method required. Here is more information.

Intensives in Spokane and LBI

Seattle hosted the spring Intensive in 2017 from March 30th till April 2nd. Reviews were excellent, so it's likely we'll offer to host again in the spring of 2020. If you have interest in helping to plan that event, watch this space for a future call to participate.

Spokane will hold next spring's intensive. The dates are April 25-28. This one will fill fast. (Boston topped out very early in fall of '18.) The registration is already open on the American Balint Society home page. Hope to see you there!

Long Beach Island off the coast of New Jersey, will be the fall site. It sounds remote, and it is beautiful and peaceful, but also remarkably easy to get to. Date and details will follow.

Our Activities

Our members participate in, lead and demonstrate Balint groups in many settings. To respect the power and complexity of group process, our listings include only groups which involve leaders with some training through the American Balint Society. Groups may differ in cost and enrollment structure. The following examples include leader contact information where appropriate.

Polyclinic Balints: Multiple Specialties, Multiple Settings

These groups are held by the largest physician-owned multi-specialty clinic in the state. Read more: Polyclinic Balint

Rotating Leader Groups

This format was pioneered in England. Read more: Rotating Leader Groups

Introductory Demonstrations

Members present papers and lead demonstrations at conferences, professional trainings and classes, nationally, locally and at the international level. If you are interested in hosting a speaker/trainer from the Northwest Balint Circle, contact us.

Weekends

Part of the Northwest Balint Circle's purpose is to provide a Balint weekend regularly. Read more:

Balint Weekends

What's happening?
Leadership Training
Intensives: