Group Therapy Theory Comparison

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Looking for new and more effective ways to treat the issues of their clients, counselors and therapists may often begin to consider leading a group therapy session. Group therapy is a form of therapy in which a therapist either treats or provides psychoeducational skills to a small, carefully planned target group of individuals in an effort to ameliorate the issues and dysfunctions of each individual in that particular group of patients together (Scheidlinger, 2004). In this group, therapists often utilize some of the psychotherapy theories such as Gestalt, transactional analysis, psychotherapy or psychodrama which they often use to treat clients individually.

Counselors regularly decide which school of thought they will mainly utilize with their clients most often based on the combination of the orientation of the program they were primarily trained under, based on their personal views and opinions, and their personal therapeutic experience. There are some therapists who consider themselves purists and generally subscribe to only one particular theory practice; however, it is becoming increasingly uncommon to encounter a therapist, counselor or psychologist who still considers themselves a purist in that fashion. It has been realized that many theories offer potentially helpful methods of counseling (Lazarus, 2005), and some therapists find certain aspects of certain theories easier to manipulate in order to help different clients through different issues.

The same is true for therapists who decide to lead or co-lead psychotherapeutic or psychoeducational groups. For these therapists, it may become a learned balancing act for addressing the needs of each client individually, while not offending, confusing, or misleading the oth...

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...hotherapy. London: Sage Publications.

Lanza, M. L., Anderson, J., Boisvert, C. M., Leblanc, A., Fardy, M., & Steel, B. (2002). Assaultive Behavior Intervention in the Veterans Administration: Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy Compared to Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care , 38.

Lazarus, A. A. (2005). Is there still a need for psychotherapy integration? Current Psychology , 24 (3), 149-152.

Pryor, D. B., & Tollerud, T. R. (1999). Applications of Adlerian Principles in School Settings. Professional School Counseling , 2 (4), 299-304.

Scheidlinger, S. (2004). Group Psychotherapy and Relating Helping Groups Today: an Oveview. American Journal of Psychotherapy , 58 (3), 265-280.

Shulman, B. H., & Watts, R. E. (1997). Adlerian and Constructivist Psychotherapies: an Adlerian Perspective. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy , 11 (3), 181-193.

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