Routledge Why Group Therapy Works and How to Do It: A Guide for Health and Social Care Professionals (The New International Library of Group Analysis)

This book describes how group treatment offers a unique opportunity for group members to learn and to change as they interact with other group members. The group structure presents a social microcosm of relationships that people who seek psychotherapeutic treatment find problematic in their private and public lives. In groups, the participants can observe each other, provide feedback to each other, and practice change strategies. In short, group treatment has a powerful healing and supportive function. Based on the authors’ many years of education and experience in academia, the private and public sectors, specific guidance is offered to group leaders on participation, organization, and communication in group treatment. The authors describe the history and characteristics of group treatment, how to organize a treatment group, the roles and responsibilities of the group leader, methods of group treatment, and typical responses of participants. Given its purpose and methodology, this book takes an original perspective on group treatment aimed ultimately at improving healing processes in healthcare and social care. This book will provide a helpful introduction and guide for a range of professionals who work in primary healthcare, company healthcare, somatic care, psychiatric and social care, and the non-profit sector. Review "This excellent, multi-authored guide to group therapy is written in a clear, accessible and singular voice. Focused on enhancing the capacity of frontline practitioners to use group therapy effectively in a range of clinical settings, the book offers much to those who are beginning to work with therapy groups, and it is also a comprehensive resource for those with more substantial experience. This book meets a very important need in our field promoting the delivery of high-quality care." - Molyn Leszcz, MD, FRCPC, CGP, DFAGPA; President, The American Group Psychotherapy Assn; and Professor of Psychiatry, The University of Toronto, CA "Great on theory and how-to for group leaders. Drawing from Swedish group analysts as well as Yalom and Agazarian, the authors’ integrative approach is essential reading for new and experienced group leaders." - Susan Gantt, Chair, Systems-Centered Training and Research Institute "This will become a first-reference book at all levels of training. It was originally published in Swedish in 2016 and is now issued in English with a new introduction and conclusion. Practitioners will be grateful across the field and in many parts of the world. Written by a team of eight experienced clinicians led by Christer Sandahl, a pioneer in psychology and group therapy, it is fluent, accessible and applied. It provides a thorough and lucid guide for practitioners in a characteristic Scandinavian voice – temperate and inclusive - that assembles the contesting factions of a wide field and their histories in a measured, authoritative, focussed, coherent text. Their account of Focussed Group Therapy (FGT) is an original contribution that will be of value to all practitioners. Why Group Therapy Works and How To Do It, meets challenges posed at the outset. Why do groups with advantageous cost-benefits remain ‘the poor relation’ in practice? This book could help us change this." - John Schlapobersky, Institute of Group Analysis, London; Author, From The Couch To The Circle: Group-Analytic Psychotherapy In Practice (Routledge 2016) "It is clear, from the title, that this book’s ambition is to provide a practical guide to the activity of group therapy, that most difficult of the psychotherapies due to the complexity of group interactions and relationships and the vicissitudes of practice in an often sceptical world. How well does it achieve this goal? Well, in reading it I was envious that the current group analytic trainees will have access to this first-class coverage of the ideas and practicalities involved in setting up a functioning group. I wish that something like this had