Group psychotherapy is a treatment in which a professional applies psychological techniques to a group of patients with a common problem. In this type of psychotherapy, each patient benefits from the specific techniques and interventions of the therapist and the group itself. Group therapy covers many practices: it can be applied to many psychosocial problems, mental disorders and addictions.
About Therapy
The clinical scenarios
The clinical scenarios of psychotherapy groups can be very varied and will affect the structure and performance of the group.
type of resource
The clinical scenario is usually defined by the type of resource the patient attends.
outpatient clinic,
In an outpatient clinic, the clinical scenario is ambulatory, and the characteristics of the group are relatively homogeneous patients of stable composition who attend voluntarily and meet periodically in the same place.
the therapeutic groups
While on the contrary, the therapeutic groups in a residential setting would have other characteristics: heterogeneous patients, in different phases of treatment, of variable composition as they progress in their treatment and who meet daily in the treatment centre itself. There are also support groups.
Goals of Treatment
The treatment goals are also variable and must be explicit for all group members. There are groups with various objectives: relapse prevention groups, groups whose objective is absolute abstinence, risk reduction groups, social skills training groups, foster groups, etc.
outpatient group treatments
The time frame is defined by the duration of the life of the group in several sessions and by the duration of the stay of the members of the group. Usually, outpatient group treatments are closed (group members are the same on the first and last day), with a defined objective and a defined duration in a specific number of sessions. In these ambulatory groups, the duration of the group’s life is equal to the expected stay of the members in the group. However, in treatment groups at residential treatment centres, groups tend to persist indefinitely, and group members come and go as they meet goals or progress through their days in the hospital. As with everything, there are exceptions, but this is the most frequent configuration.
Group psychotherapy is at least as effective as individual psychotherapy in psychiatric disorders (Smith et al., cited from Vinogradov & Yalom, 2010) and in addictive disorders (Weiss et al., cited from Brook, 2011).
Group psychotherapy in public health, where financial cuts have reduced staff in recent years, has the interesting advantage over individual therapy of its magnificent cost-benefit ratio. If one or two therapists can direct a group of 15-20 patients and the benefit to the patient is equivalent to that of individual therapy, the return on the therapist’s time is much greater.
Besides the financial benefits, group psychotherapy has other advantages over individual psychotherapy. Group therapy is based on a powerful therapeutic tool: the group setting. Interpersonal relationships are of great importance in our psychological development and are put into play in this group setting. Treatment in the group therapy format is intended to offer the individual the possibility of collaborating with other patients and obtaining satisfaction from interacting with these people in a context of realistic and mutually rewarding interpersonal relationships. Although this process can also occur in individual therapy, it is in group therapy where it acquires more dynamism because the group setting provides its members with a larger and potentially more powerful interpersonal field.Â