Step Four: When it is an interpersonal issue, the protagonist, with the facilitator’s assistance, identifies three or four aspects of what he/she believes are the perspectives held by the other person in the relationship (e.g. other person’s fears or hopes, other person’s sense of competence or incompetence, other person’s expectations or suspicions regarding the protagonist).
Step Five: With the facilitator’s assistance, the protagonist identifies other people in the Balint group who will articulate each of the perspectives identified in steps three and four. These people (called “advocates”) are NOT to “role play” the protagonist or other person, but are rather asked to articulate the specific perspective they have been assigned in a clear and compelling manner. They need not “get it right” with regard to how the protagonist actually thinks and feels about this problem. Each of the advocates will obviously add in their own assumptions, biases, perspectives, etc. – and these may or may not align with the protagonist’s own assumptions, biases, perspectives, etc. There are rich insights to be gained by the protagonist (as well as the advocate and other members of the Balint Group) whether or not the advocate for a specific perspective “gets it right.”
Step Six: The protagonist sits back and listens to the advocates talk with one another and articulate their assigned perspective in relationship to the other perspectives represented by the other advocates. This critical step in the Balint Group process, called the “Advocacy Session”, is usually scheduled for 15-20 minutes. It is important that none of the advocates dominate the conversation (all perspectives need to be heard by the protagonist). The facilitator can provide some guidance and monitoring of the interaction to ensure that everyone is heard (though it is often insightful for the protagonist to witness the way in which each advocate and each perspective is being received by the other advocates in the group: is an advocate being ignored, misunderstood, forced into an extreme position, etc.).
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