The impact of collaborative treatment on premature termination in activity group therapy

Abstract

Ever since Dora vengefully abandoned Freud (1953) by prematurely terminating her treatment, the problem of premature termination has been a common concern in our field. The dropout rate of adults reported by Yalom (1975) is high in the first year of group therapy, and from my experience, the problems of premature termination in children's groups are equally serious. It is the purpose of this paper to report on the attempt to pare down the casualty rates of membership in children's group therapy through collaborative treatment with parents..By understanding of dynamics, defenses, and resistances of the parental needs and conflicts, collaborative treatment becomes an important tool in stemming the tide and reducing the percentages of destructive influences to groups by loss of membership. Activity Group Therapy as a specific form of ego-oriented group therapy for latency-age children has been well documented by Slavson (1943) and more recently by Slavson and Schiffer (1975). Its practice has been thoroughly described and demonstrated by their colleagues Hallowitz, Rosenthal, Scheidlinger, myself, and others. The process of emotional re-education in Activity Group Therapy derives from the social interaction of the group members around the use of materials, food, and play rather than from the primary method of discussion, exploration, and interpretation. The desire of children for social interaction, the need to be accepted by peers, and their social hunger become powerful determinants for group cohesion and identification. In the presence of an adult, the symbolic family is created. The treatment allows children to make use of the permissive