11 Curative Factors of Group Therapy

[nickdyson]

Hi I would love to see your video for the other 9 of the therapeutic factors

[cadmantheaviator]

Of course there are also downsides and risks to groups. It is not suitable or preferable for everyone. A utopian dogmatic certitude about the value of groups can be misplaced. 5-15% of people are harmed by group therapy. It can be confusing what the role of the therapist is and if not properly prepared a client/patient can be set up to feel dangerously alone. A challenging confrontational therapist can make a client feel totally lost and trapped in a “damned if stay damned if I leave” scenario. Therapists are prone to be zealous about their modality. Weeks or even years can go by without any of these supposed benefits to materialise. Meanwhile group therapists can fail to see deterioration in individual members. Stuck with their certitude that the group “cares.” In the end 40% of people experience no benefit. Those who leave feeling harmed are left to untangle what they couldn’t grasp then and have no one to turn to who will help understand that it wasn’t them who failed. People need to know the downsides to group therapy and especially analytic groups. Where the therapist will essentially blank them and allow the client to flounder with all protestations put down to resistance and transference. I’ve been there. It’s altered my view of psychotherapy forever. They knowingly accept harm of clients and use dogma to excuse themselves. The first loyalty of therapists is always to their school of thought. Arguing this truth reveals the deep deep denial at the heart of psychotherapy.