International Journal of Group Psychotherapy最新文献

The challenges of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are many and create delays in development overall, but particularly in the area of self-development for children and adolescents. Neurodevelopmental delays can lead to disruptions in self-development, which may negatively impact the individual's social, cognitive, and emotional functioning. Group therapy has been shown to be an effective treatment for youth, however, there is a lack of literature demonstrating how group therapy can be beneficial for self-development for neurodivergent children. The areas of self-development include self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-repair. This article will explore the rationale and strategies to create and facilitate therapy groups that foster self-development in neurodivergent youth.

Jungian analytical psychology and group theories can mutually benefit and cross-fertilize each other. When incorporating Jungian ideas into group theory, the result enhances the way we can explore and understand projections. Encouraging the exploration of dreams that group members have about each other makes unconscious connections in the group accessible and can be expressed in group dialogue. A group is an ideal place for holding the tension of opposites within oneself as well as in projections onto others. The Jungian approach can help us explore group members' main conflicts and entrenched patterns of relating, and guide them in self-reflection and resolving the patterns that act as obstacles to healing. This process eases polarization and encourages individuation, group members' journey toward wholeness.

Group size is a consideration for all psychotherapy groups, yet the topic has been subject to surprisingly few empirical investigations. This review explored the influence of group size within group psychotherapy by investigating its associations with cohesion and clinical outcomes. Significant group-size associations were found in seven of the 17 included individual and meta-analysis studies (combined N = 21,425), pointing to partial support for the influence of group size. Some interesting tentative trends were identified, such as potentially better outcomes in smaller groups and greater group-size influence in process-orientated groups. Considerably more research is needed, as psychotherapy group-size decisions should ideally be informed by empirical evidence rather than by relying on clinical opinion, conventional wisdom, and recommendations made by influential commentators.

Group cohesion is considered a key group therapeutic factor; however, limited knowledge exists on the session-to-session development of group cohesion in the context of training groups or on the factors that may predict such developments. We utilized multilevel growth modeling to examine the longitudinal changes in 44 counselor trainees' ratings of group cohesion in seven experiential growth groups across four semesters. We found significant between-person variability in the growth trajectory of group cohesion and identified trainee self-disclosure and gender as significant predictors of group cohesion. The results indicated the complexity of within- and between-person changes in group cohesion in training groups and the need for further research to identify potential predictors of these changes. We also discussed ways for group facilitators to attend to self-disclosure as an important marker of group cohesion.

There is limited research on group cohesion as a potential outcome facilitator in group-based cognitive-behavioral treatment (GCBT) for youth. We examined if group cohesion mediated the relation between the temperamental trait behavioral inhibition and posttreatment outcomes following GCBT for youth with anxiety disorders. The sample comprised 88 youth (M age = 11.2 years) from a randomized controlled effectiveness trial. The outcomes were posttreatment clinical severity and treatment satisfaction. Group cohesion fully mediated the relation between behavioral inhibition and posttreatment severity. Higher group cohesion was associated with lower posttreatment clinical severity. There was no significant association between behavioral inhibition and treatment satisfaction, hence no mediation. We conclude that group cohesion is a factor that can be targeted by clinicians to potentially enhance GCBT outcomes.

Group therapists who experience a serious illness like cancer must navigate several dynamic processes and questions about how to proceed in the best interest of the group. Not much is written on this topic regarding group therapy, so group clinicians have little guidance to understand the underlying dynamics that might help them make the most informed decisions. In this article, I discuss my cancer diagnosis, which required my leaving a psychodynamic process group that I led for almost a decade. I review key dynamic processes that emerged in my final group sessions and present clinical vignettes to illustrate these processes. Dynamic issues that were most relevant had to do with the impact on the therapist of narcissistic injury from a medical diagnosis and the timing, extent, and appropriateness of self-disclosure to the group. Therapist countertransference manifestations included focusing on the self rather than the group, being too bold with complex interpretations, and feeling some relief at no longer having to contain the group's complex and opposing needs. Self-reflection, consultations with trusted colleagues, and discussions with co-therapists can help a group therapist identify and tolerate the inevitable partial countertransference enactments. A group therapist's genuine self-disclosure that is as free as possible of countertransference manifestations and the therapist's modeling of self-reflective capacities go a long way to helping groups make the most of their experience when a group therapist is ill.

Written from the perspective of inter-subjective theory, this article addresses how the leader and group members co-construct the difficult patient. Too often, therapists and patients have tended to attribute difficulties in therapy groups to "the difficult patient" without appreciating how they themselves contribute to the construction, the needs this construction serves, and the potential value of such patients to the group. Mistakes in group leadership, vicissitudes of inter subjectivity, disturbing intra-psychic defenses, and while-group dynamics interact to produce the difficult patient. Also discussed is the group member who is difficult but who no longer meets the criteria for patient-hood. By exploring the factors involved in the co-construction of the difficult patient, the authors hope to guide clinicians in the deconstruction of such impediments, thus allowing the difficult patient to become "just another group patient."

Ethical issues can arise in dealing with diversity when practicing group psychotherapy. In this paper, a case is presented of a therapist-in-training who is attempting to determine whether a particular psychotherapy group composed exclusively of heterosexual males would be an appropriate and effective treatment venue for a gay male; the clinical vignette is designed to illustrate a process of ethical and culturally competent decision making. The discussion of this vignette articulates the multiple steps through which the group psychotherapist must proceed to successfully resolve ethical dilemmas that are related to diversity.

The Clinical Practice Guidelines for Group Psychotherapy are a scholarly, compelling, and comprehensive guide for group therapists committed to the treatment of individuals seeking group therapy. Evidenced-based practice guidelines that foster best clinical practice and research are the main gateway in advancing the group therapy discipline to the forefront of the mental health field. My objectives in writing this commentary on the 2006 AGPA practice guidelines include: 1) emphasize the importance of group practitioners reading them to enhance their practices; 2) examine areas of the guidelines that are relevant today and address contemporary topics that could be incorporated into the revised AGPA clinical practice guidelines for group psychotherapy.

The author discusses how subgroups represent the basic focus of the systems-centered group therapist. Particular attention is given to boundary issues and to how therapy takes place by facilitating the process of discriminating, communicating, and integrating perception of differences in the apparently similar and similarities in the seemingly different. Communication occurs at the boundaries between systems at all levels of the hierarchy: the group, the subgroup, and its members. Clinical vignettes are provided to illustrate important process issues, such as work with difficult patients, levels of intervention, and group resistance and defense.