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Setting up a therapeutic group in a treatment institution raises specific difficulties for the clinician. The group work impacts institutional functioning and vice-versa. This paper identifies a circulation of psychical elements from one space to the other (group and institution), marked by a form of reciprocal influence that is very often expressed through contrary tendencies (love/hate). This paper argues that these movements reveal difficulties in gaining access to ambivalence and in establishing splitting mechanisms. It studies specific logics of functioning of both institutions and therapeutic groups, their dynamics of co-influence, and the resulting effects. It also defines relevant strategies for the clinician in setting up and running therapeutic groups in treatment institutions. Identifying and elaborating the clinician’s countertransference is indispensable in this kind of practice. With these perspectives in mind, this paper intends to help modernize group work in institutions.