Dutch Design: Practice Guidelines for Group Treatment in the Netherlands

Abstract

ABSTRACT The American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) Practice Guidelines helped inspire the Dutch Group Therapy Association (NVGP) to develop the Dutch Practice Guidelines for Group Treatment. In this article, we provide a short review of the history of Dutch group psychotherapy. We discuss socioeconomic developments in the Netherlands and their consequences for health care in general and group psychotherapy in particular. After that, we introduce the procedures of the NVGP Dutch Task Force in developing their Practice Guidelines including their process to reach expert consensus. We then elaborate on the similarities and differences between the American and the Dutch Practice Guidelines. We end by presenting future directions and thoughts on international cooperation in the development of evidence-based practice guidelines for group treatment.