Abstract
Psychological research has identified difficulties in the awareness, verbalization and recognition of emotions in patients with somatoform disorders. Problems in the recognition of emotions are usually labeled as alexithymia. Patients with alexithymic characteristics need a special psychotherapeutic approach, which may be described as follows: The first stage of treatment aims to overcome the alexithymic barrier along with the development of self-monitoring skills for emotional states. A favorable setting for this work is group psychotherapy. In this stage of treatment cognitive targets and interventions dominate. These include: 1. the link between emotions and physiological response; teaching the fundamental laws of emotional life and the importance of emotional hygiene. 2. Improving awareness of difficulties in the recognition and expression of emotions. 3. Changing the patients negative attitude towards emotions. The second stage of the group work is mainly oriented towards the cognitive analysis of dysfunctional basic beliefs. In this stage psychodynamic issues become more important which include resistance and transference reactions, feedback of group members, analysis of social and familial contexts and the working through of traumatic childhood experiences.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
