Bridging the Gap: Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society

Based on the author’s twelve years of professional experience working in social services, Bridging the Gap: Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society will be the only book to incorporate proven counseling concepts and techniques with the difficulties groups experience within the Pagan community, giving the reader concrete, professional solutions to coping with common problems.

This book will contain 55,000 words, black and white illustrations and appendices with ten pages of resources and information for further study.

The lack of statistics in the pagan community makes it hard to quantify trends within pagan groups; yet the experience of practitioners show how often disputes and witch wars have forced groups to dissolve.  This is not only common but is inevitable within a collective of people. Several pagan communities have avoided the fate that many others have been trapped within.  The shelf life for a coven or group has no limit, but a trend has been set in which many find their end within two years of conception.  How do we continue to thrive within a community that cannot sustain long-term consistency? What are we missing?

As we evolve it becomes increasingly clear that being an incredible ritualist is not all that is needed to be a competent leader or member of our pagan society.  Our priests and priestess have a large disadvantage in dealing with the unavoidable dynamics of other practitioners, whether in a coven or the general community, because of the lack of training and resources to become competent to do so.  Unless they come to the Craft already equipped with these skills from professional training or other life experience, the leaders in our community have not possessed the skills to effectively model or train in these techniques.  For all the intensive training we endure in the Craft, pagans as a society are still ill-equipped to competently cope with the growing needs of our own community.

Bridging the Gap: Working Within the Dynamics of Pagan Groups and Society will be first book to look at filling the common gaps in our community by using techniques as tools to assess, understand, and work with the changing dynamic of any group or coven.  Behavior modification/shaping, effective boundaries, assessment tools, anger management, and restorative justice are just some of the counseling techniques that are used as a bridge in this book to better understand and work with the dynamics that are common within a group of pagan practitioners.  While maintaining a professional polish, the book uses humor, common scenarios, exercises, and step-by-step resources to examine the commonalities between techniques used in the counseling profession.

Readers will learn the following:

• Basics of common techniques used in counseling including anger  management, assessment tools, boundaries, behavior shaping, restorative justice and many others
• The common traps that occur within groups, which lead to devastating effects and dissolution
• Communication techniques
• The creation of the group mind and how it is effected by the budding dynamics of a group
• Creating boundaries to effectively mentor students
• The importance of creating clear objectives and expectations as a group
• The art of holding your group members accountable
• When it is not your fight (choosing your battles?); how to avoid unnecessary conflict and turmoil

In 2001, American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) polling data showed that there were approximately 134,000 pagans in the United States and the fastest growing religion (by percentage) between 1990 and 2001.  At that time it was estimated that the number of Pagan practitioners double about every 30 months.  According to the 2006 poll conducted by Covenant of the Goddess, 38 percent of practitioners worship in group settings.  This book is not only for those who are newly participating in coven or group dynamics but also for those who are trained leaders in the Craft.  Many practitioners identify with a solitary practice but are still members of the larger religious community.

Both the neophyte and the novice can benefit from the information, exercises and thought-provoking discussions the book generates.  Since no person is immune to the pitfalls of working with others, this topic is one that needs more resources shared as common knowledge in our community.