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The therapeutic group is the result of carving up of the institutional landscape. This space is guaranteed by a contract and alliances concluded between the two co-founders of the group, the institutional representatives and the therapists: the institutional group cradle. Day-in, day-out, institution and group are subjected to the reciprocal effects of presence, with attendant risks of confusion. When a rupture of this kind threatens the institutional setting, a work of symbolisation of the boundaries must occur between the two founders in order to maintain the invariants of the setting. This regulation requires the creation of settings functioning as networks, including the group, the institution and the extra-institutionnel. Once the containing capacity and interlocking of the envelopes has been rediscovered, it will allow the group to symbolise its links to the institution and assert its identity. The example of a group clinical experience in a residential institution will illustrate the issues at stake and the processes of this problematic.