Analytic Group Psychotherapy Research Articles

Fostering trust - a qualitative outcome study of psychodynamic group and individual psychotherapy for refugees with PTSD.

Background: Refugees and asylum-seekers have an elevated risk of mental health issues, such as depression and posttraumatic stress. Qualitative outcome studies can contribute by offering insight into patients' experiences of what they find beneficial and how they undergo the process of recovery. This study aligns with the small body of qualitative research focusing on refugees' perspectives of psychotherapeutic treatment for PTSD.Objective: This study investigates and compares the treatment experiences of refugees with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in psychoanalytic group therapy (PAGT) and individual psychodynamic therapy (PDT) within an outpatient context in Sweden.Method: 10 former patients were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. Data were analysed and interpreted according to the principles of grounded theory.Results: The findings reveal distinct categories for each treatment modality, being reborn for PDT and building a home for PAGT. Being reborn involved persistent intrapersonal change and lasting improvement in posttraumatic symptoms. Building a home involved a sense of belonging, support and temporary relief from posttraumatic symptoms. Participants from both treatment modalities underscored the significance of cultivating trust in therapeutic relationships.Conclusions: The study emphasises the necessity for tailored therapeutic approaches, contributing valuable insights to the limited research on effective mental health interventions for this population.

Effectiveness of group analytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy in routine secondary-care practice

Group psychotherapy has been shown to be effective across a diverse range of participants and settings. However, few quantitative studies have examined outcomes of Group Analytic Psychotherapy (GAP) specifically, or compared this with alternative treatments. In the present study we compare outcomes of weekly group analytic psychotherapy (GAP) and individual psychodynamic psychotherapy (PPT) at a psychotherapy service within the UK’s National Health Service. The service collected Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE) outcome measures between 2010 and 2020 as part of routine clinical practice, furnishing a large observational dataset (N=600 clients). We found that clients showed clinically significant improvement following either GAP (Cohen’s d=0.77) or PPT (d=0.68), and the rate of change during therapy exceeded that during a pre-treatment waiting period. There were no clinically significant differences in effectiveness between GAP and PPT, of either short-term (<1 year) or long-term (> 1 year) duration. These results support a conclusion that both GAP and PPT are effective in routine clinical practice. We consider the advantages and limitations of quantitative outcome measurement from a group analytic perspective and highlight the possible pitfalls of attempting to optimise therapy based on overly narrow criteria.

Kaës’ Internal Groups and Actual Groups: A Relational Perspective

Rene Kaës (2007), an influential French psychoanalyst relatively unknown to English-speaking readers, extends the field of psychoanalytic investigation and practice to groups. Building on Klein, Anzeiu, Bion, and Lacan, Kaës presents a dual-axes theory in which early oedipal and sibling complexes structure unconscious dynamics of internal groups. According to Kaës, analytic group psychotherapy provides access to the phantasies, affects, and action tendencies contained within internal groups that would be otherwise inaccessible. While a few reference articles have appeared in the English literature, Kaës’ bold assertions, core concepts, and praxis have not been subject to critical evaluation. I introduce Kaës’ main ideas, demonstrate their influence on my group work, and by comparing two case examples, from his practice and mine, articulate our differences, some of which arise from different conceptions of and approaches to intersubjectivity. The discussion continues in the final section which briefly considers the nature of psychoanalytic learning and how we may employ the therapeutic group to reach this goal.

Working on the future of group analysis – scientific exploration of efficacy, concepts, and neurobiological connections

This article addresses the imbalance in research focus, highlighting a pronounced emphasis on research in the American context compared to the field of group analysis, which is underscored by the identification of two literature reviews. The discussion delves into Lorentzen’s research contributions and the introduction of Focus Group Analytic Psychotherapy. Diverse perspectives on research are presented, with Nitsun and Lorentzen advocating for its importance, while Dalal takes a critical stance. The text investigates discrepancies within key concepts of group analysis, specifically the social unconscious, with Nitsun critiquing an undue emphasis on its significance and questioning its practical relevance in group settings. The relationship between group analysis and neuroscience is explored, shedding light on the reinterpretation of certain concepts through a neuroscientific lens, notably examining the framework of the neurobiology of intergroup relations. Ultimately, the article emphasizes the necessity of believing in and validating the advantages of collective thinking.

Conflictual meetings between social identities in analytic group therapy

Social identities play a significant role in the development of personality and various disorders and challenges. In addition, they play an important role in the encounter between representatives of different social groups and can add to personality and interpersonal perspectives to group dynamics. Despite their significance, exploration of social identities occurs mainly in the realms of social psychology and post-colonialist theories and not so much in psychoanalysis, which favours the individual perspective over the social. Foulkes, the founder of group analysis, started a revolution in the field of psychoanalysis when he focussed on the social world and its significant influence on development. However, some of his successors argued that due to political and other reasons, Foulkes did not ‘follow through’ with his own theory and in his therapy groups he did not put sufficient emphasis on exploration of social identities and power relations. This article reviews the concept of social identities through four theoretical disciplines: social psychology, psychoanalysis, postcolonial theories and group analysis. A vignette from an analytic group that has been meeting for two years and coped with the meeting of different social identities in the complex Israeli reality will be discussed.

‘Sewing together’: An idiographic study of a music therapist’s experiences of a group at a special school for children and young people with severe and complex special educational needs

This research was commissioned by a school in London which provides for children and young people aged 2 to 16 with a wide range of learning difficulties. This single-participant study uses video annotation, video elicitation interview and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore perceptions of processes in a music therapy group, from the point of view of a music therapist. Two tables of annotations present a description of events in each video clip in a timeline. The IPA interview analysis produced 25 emergent themes, grouped into four superordinate themes (‘Balancing diverse needs’; ‘Spontaneity’; ‘Therapists’ musical stance’; ‘Group dynamics’). Parallels are drawn with other music therapy groups described in the literature and with Foulkes’ group analytic psychotherapy. The study elucidates an approach to group music therapy which provides a space for spontaneous and meaningful interaction, both through music and other modalities.

An invitation to functional analytic group therapy.

An invitation to functional analytic group therapy.

Book Review: Focused Group Analytic Psychotherapy: An Integration of Clinical Experience and Research

Book Review: Focused Group Analytic Psychotherapy: An Integration of Clinical Experience and Research

‘Could it be that, after all is said and done, we are Oedipus and the group of the Sphinx?’: Learning from Foulkes

S.H. Foulkes’s paper concerning the Oedipus situation—published some 40 years ago—is still relevant in current group analytic practice. Main phrases of the Foulkes article, such as ‘regression’, ‘infantile sexuality’, ‘Oedipus conflict’, the ‘Sphinx-like mother’ and ‘transference’ are examined. Based on a case report about sexual pairing in group psychotherapy, the author depicts the course of events before analysing the enactment of the protagonists, the role of the group, somatic sufferings during the group process, boundary violations and countertransference factors, and discusses diagnostic and therapeutic implications as well as the need for further research on the special topic in group analytic psychotherapy.

More than one way home - Student raters' impressions of interventions and group processes in mentalisation based group psychotherapy and group analytic psychotherapy.

In a study comparing mentalisation-based group therapy (MBT-G) and group analytic psychotherapy (GAP) in a day clinic, both group psychotherapy forms were found to be highly effective. But how did specific interventions and processes in both groups differ? The present article describes student raters impressions. Twelve psychology students listened to 100 audio recordings of 90 minutes group psychotherapy sessions of GAP and MBT-G. Each session was randomly assigned to two student raters, who were asked to write down their impressions. These were analysed. Group conductors in MBT-G used more questions, had short shares of speech, used group dynamics and fostered multiple perspectives on issues discussed. Affect perception was stimulated by asking questions. In PDGT, conductors used more interpretations, confrontations and supportive interventions, and they had longer shared of speech. Handling of affects was based on 'allowing to get infected'. Discussion. It is hypothesized that symptom reduction in both groups occurred via different ways: in GAP the pathic (affective contagion) function of interactions was more relevant, while in MBT-G it was the phatic (contact keeping) function. Results are also discussed in relation to previous findings on group processes and interventions.

Überlegungen zum Stellenwert der analytischen Gruppentherapie angesichts der „Gesellschaft der Singularitäten“ (Reckwitz)

After a phase of founding and arrangement in the sixties and seventies the demand for analytic group-psychotherapy decreased in the middle of the eighties and in the beginning of the nineties. The author links this development to the rupture of the epoch in the sixties and seventies – described by the sociologist Andreas Reckwitz – and to the increase of the late modern cultural ideal of the (limitless) self-unfolding and the self-optimisation. It is illustrated, how this cultural ideal gives specially people with a narcissistic vulnerability the possibility for docking to, and inverse, how the stabilisation of this cultural ideal just is carried out from these people. The overburdening of the subjects with their psychical and physical manifestations, resulted of this context, is illustrated. The affect of shame is looked as the central and leading affect for the society of the limitless self-unfolding. For the author it is a substantial reason for the reduction of the demand for an analytic group-therapy. Against this trend the author highlights the rising neccessity of the therapeutic (and non-therapeutic) application of the group-analysis in our late modern society. He represents the analytic therapy group as an important space, in which social and individual conflicts, also in the domain of social and individual ideals, are experienced as reciprocal influencing and as workable in a group-analytic process. The importance of the non-therapeutic group-analytic activity is illustrated in the last section in the context of the many phenomenons of disruption and splitting in the society.

Relation Disorders, narcissism and dreams

The author writes that the group therapy is the space where you can both understand that pathology is not only an individual matter and also treat it by addressing all involved. In any individual or group analytic therapy the re-enactment of earlier patterns of relationships is part of the curative process.

Identity and personality disorders in group analytic psychotherapy

Identity and personality disorders in group analytic psychotherapy

Psychological Mindedness, Personality Structure, and Outcomes in Short-Term Group Analytic Psychotherapy

ABSTRACT The present study investigated the treatment effects of focused short-term group analytic psychotherapy and examined whether outcomes were predicted by the client’s psychological mindedness and personality structure as measured by the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis (OPD). Treatment foci were formulated according to the OPD for 66 student counseling clients across nine groups. Two observers independently rated client psychological mindedness and personality structure. The pre-post Cohen’s d effect sizes were large on the Global Severity Index (GSI) and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-64) and moderate on the Social Adjustment Scale Self Report, including all 66 clients starting treatment. Psychological mindedness significantly predicted two outcomes (GSI, IIP), and personality structure predicted one outcome (GSI). These measures could be helpful when selecting clients for short-term group analytic psychotherapy. We discuss study limitations and implications for future research and practice.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Cognitive Analytic and Cognitive Behavioral Psychodrama Group Therapy on Interpersonal Problems and Emotional Regulation Difficulties in Divorced Women

Introduction: The aim of the current study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-analytic and cognitive-behavioral psychodrama group therapy on reducing the interpersonal problems and difficulty of emotion regulation in divorced women.Methods: This research was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population of the present study included all divorced women who had referred to private counseling centers under the supervision of welfare organization in Mashhad (84 centers) in 2018. Among the statistical population, by convenient sampling method, 36 people who met the inclusion criteria were selected and randomly located into three groups: Experiment 1,2 and Control. Experiment 1 group participated in sixteen 120-minute sessions of cognitive analytic group therapy and experimental group 2 participated in sixteen 120-minute sessions of cognitive-behavioral psychodrama group therapy. The 60-item Interpersonal Problems Questionnaire (IIP-60) by Horowitz et al, and the Gretz and Roemer Difficulty of Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) were used to collect data. Data analysis of the present study was performed using Mixed ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test by SPSS software version 20.Results: The results indicated that both cognitive-analytic and cognitive behavioral psychodrama group therapies were able to significantly reduce the interpersonal problems and difficulty of emotion regulation of divorced women (p<0.01), in addition, cognitive-behavioral psychodrama group therapy had a greater effect than cognitive analytic group therapy on reducing interpersonal problems and difficulty of emotion regulation.Conclusion: Therefore, according to the obtained results, cognitive-behavioral psychodrama group therapy and cognitive-analytic group therapy can be used in order to reduce interpersonal problems and the difficulty of emotion regulation in divorced women.

A Turkish-Speaking Community Program in A Primary Care Psychotherapy Setting: How to Support and Engage A Complex Patient Population

ABSTRACT This paper presents a description of a multigroup-based psychotherapy program for Turkish-speaking individuals provided by an innovative primary care mental health service in London. As of 2021, the project offers two types of therapy: a year-long horticultural group, which is a blend between talking therapy and gardening, and a 20-week psychotherapy group. Both were designed to engage the particularly complex Turkish-speaking patient population in the London Borough of Hackney. The project is grounded in group psychotherapy and borrows elements from different theoretical orientations and therapeutic modalities including community psychology, group analytic therapy, horticultural therapy, attachment theory, and dynamic therapies. Here, we present how the program was created and developed and the specifics of the groups, together with the main themes and dynamics that emerged in the therapeutic process. The program evaluation and outcomes are illustrated by several clinical case vignettes throughout the paper.

Preparing the New Client for Functional Analytic Group Therapy

Functional analytic group therapy uses natural occurrences of clients' problems in the group to promote change. It focuses on parallels between the daily life issues for which clients seek treatment and their experience in session. When an issue shows up in the group interaction, the leader helps make it into an in vivo learning experience. The rationale is that unrehearsed experiences offer opportunities for learning that are more genuine and better tailored to the client's needs than prepared treatment activities. However, many prospective clients expect to talk about their problems instead of experiencing them and working on them in the moment as they arise. This article describes an experiential prescreening strategy that prepares for solid informed consent to a treatment that seeks therapeutic change through unplanned experiences in the group. Candidates engage in the construction of a working case conceptualization that anticipates how in-the-moment learning in the group can promote their therapeutic goals. During the interaction with the screening clinician, they learn to track target behavior and experiment with in-the-moment disclosure, acquiring experience with the tasks they will perform in the group. These elements are presented in a how-to framework, with examples based on the authors' experience.

State of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the 1992–95 war

While individual analytic therapy is still in its early stages of development, group analytic therapy and group psychotherapy in general are considerably advanced in comparison to other talking therapies, and are often used in healthcare settings and in private practice. All forms of psychotherapy offered in healthcare institutions are covered by health insurance. Most activities related to providing psychotherapy or undergoing training in various therapeutic modalities are not regulated by adequate laws or other regulations, nor does a definitive registry of psychotherapists exist. A majority of psychotherapists in healthcare institutions are (neuro)psychiatrists, but other helping professions are also often involved in providing therapies, with psychologists usually preferring cognitive-behavioural therapy.

Неожиданные пересечения: культурно-историческая психология в городском центре психического здоровья?

This paper will reflect on the influence of Vygotsky and Luria in my work as an occupational therapist in the community mental health setting of an ‘Activity Centre’ in the National Health Service, between 1991 and 2001. The paper will discuss a limited study, referencing Vygotsky during that period, with the benefit of hindsight and subsequent developments in the field of cultural-historical psychology. The origi¬nal study raised the questions of what evidence could be found to support the application of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) with a mixed group of adults in a community setting, and how this process of learning might be assessed and evaluated. At the time, these questions were informed by litera¬ture sources no later than 1998, and learning theory was often absent from professional training in mental healthcare. However, I will propose that some models of practice in mental health — particularly those founded in psycho-analytic group therapy and occupational therapy — could be enhanced by a deeper un-derstanding of Vygotsky’s ZPD, Luria’s model of field research, and the discussion of some less established connections in psychoanalytic praxis.

The effects of analytic group therapy compared with pharmacotherapy in patients with anxiety disorders

Background: Psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy are both effective in the treatment of anxiety disorders. However, drugs in pharmacotherapy are often compared with placebo controls, and psychotherapy is mostly compared to patients in the waiting list as the controls. We aimed to compare the effects of analytic group therapy with pharmacotherapy in patients with anxiety disorders.&#x0D; Methods: In this clinical trial study in Tehran, 65 patients (10 males, 55 females) presenting with a primary diagnosis of panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and/or mixed anxiety-depressive disorder (based on a structured clinical interview by a psychiatrist) were enlisted during the period from 2016 to 2018. The patients were randomly divided into two groups: drug therapy (group D, 33 patients), or drug therapy + analytic group therapy (group G, 32 patients). Anxiety was assessed in both groups before and immediately after treatment by the Persian version of the Hamilton Anxiety scale (HAM-A). Collected data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software version 21.&#x0D; Results: Both groups showed a statistically significant decline in HAM-A scores after the treatment. However, group G had a greater significant change in anxiety score compared to group D. The mean decline of HAM-A was 25.694.82 for group G and 23.214.64 for group D. The HAM-A score was significantly reduced in group G compared to group D (p = 0.039).&#x0D; Conclusion: This study showed that psychodynamic psychotherapy could improve the pharmacotherapy effects and is superior to pharmacotherapy alone.