Group Psychotherapy Practice - Coursework Example

Introduction In her article “Group psychotherapy specialty practice”, Sally Barlow has tried to attract reader’s attention towards the form of a therapy called ‘group psychotherapy’ (Barlow 2008, p.240). She has pointed out that one of the fundamental reasons for ‘group psychotherapy’ failing to attract the attention and faith of the clients is the lack of capable leaders and counselors to practice group psychotherapy. Both the class discussion and article refer to how important it is for the psychologist who leads the group to be adequately trained and to be able to interact well with the group and ensure that everyone feels part of the group and understands how the group came to be. A leader should have eleven qualities: communicating, knowing and using resources, understanding the characteristics and the needs of the groups and its members, planning, controlling group performance, effective teaching, representing the group, evaluating, sharing leadership, counseling, setting the example (Buckskin council). According to the author of the article, the education system is to be blamed for the fact that group psychotherapy is not able to gain the trust and confidence of the clients despite its positive outcomes (Barlow 2008, p.240). However, the article has missed one of the most important aspects of psychological therapy and that is client’s perspective. Information form a primary source that has been to both individual and group therapy held firmly that both had played a very important role in her recovery from post- traumatic stress after two of her friends had committed suicide. “Group therapy made me feel like I was not alone, but it was hard to interact at first as I did not know anyone. While individual therapy made me feel more at ease, but it did not necessarily make me feel as if the psychologist really knew what I was going through since she had not been through it herself” (Angie Botha, SA,). Group therapy, despite having many positive attributes to it, could lack one of the most important things that people suffering from mental disorder seek and that is, individual attention, but once again this could come down to the leader of the group and how the psychologist ensures that enough attention is given to every member of the group. Summary The rationality behind the idea that group counseling is needed to be in the forefront of the special practices in the field of psychology is that people live in the society and hence, they can survive only as a group (Barlow 2008, p.240). According to Burlingam, Fuhriman and Mosier (2003), group therapy has a potential to work more effectively than individual therapy in some cases (Barlow 2008, p.241). However, group therapy training is not getting enough space in the graduate programs (Barlow 2008, p.241). The author says that despite the fact that group therapy has a potential to produce better results than individual therapy, its popularity is restricted due to some misconceptions that people have in their mind like fear of exposure, lack of attention and a fear of catching the disorder form other people in the group (Barlow 2008, p.243). According to the author, apart from these fears by people suffering from mental disorders, one of the other reasons for lack of popularity of the group treatment is the incompetence of the group leader (Barlow 2008, p.243). Our class discussions were clear on the importance of leadership. The author thinks that it is a duty of the group leader or the facilitator to motivate people suffering from psychological disorders or behavior problems to participate in group counseling treatments by managing their logistics, time, place and sessions in such a way that everyone should find it easy to participate in it (Barlow 2008, p.243). Making group counseling therapy easily accessible will motivate more people to participate in it. A study by Barlow (2004) found that for a group leader to gain expertise in group therapy, what is necessary is training in different aspects of group therapy (Barlow 2008, p.243). The article throws a light on the need of the inclusion of the group therapy training as one of the important part of the psychology curriculum with great success (Barlow 2008, p.244). However, the article seems to have looked at only the positive aspects of group psychotherapy. It has failed to take into consideration the importance of privacy in the psychotherapy counseling. There are many aspects of group psychotherapy that are not covered in the article. For example, things like personal disclosure, body language, language pattern and intimate desires of the client etc, which are extremely important for a psychologist to know, are the aspects which the counselor cannot analyze in the group sessions (page 1). The article does not throw a light on the aspects of the group dynamics that help the client to recover from the mental disorder. The article lacks depth and information regarding the group therapy. A form of a therapy can be called successful only if it is able to cure the disorder of the patient permanently. Hence, even if a particular form of therapy can have a slow rate of improvement, what really matters is that it should have a permanent effect on the lives of clients. Group therapy has a potential to create a sudden rush of excitement and optimism in the participants by making them see that they are not the only ones suffering from mental disorders (page 10). However, there are also chances of the excitement and the rush dying down once the group therapy sessions become routine. To know if group therapy is effective, one has to look at the advantages as well as the disadvantages: Group Psychotherapy Group counseling is a form of therapy where a group of 8-10 people gather together to find a solution to the problems they are experiencing in their lives (page 5). As group therapy is goal oriented, it involves people who are suffering from same kind of issues in their lives (page 5). With the help of facilitators, the participants learn different techniques to cope with their problems and find solutions for it (page 5). Group counseling is one of the most effective techniques for treating the clients suffering from mental disorders. Another important fact about group therapy is that people who are suffering form addictions or disorders can see each other’s recovery and find hope and light in the situation which will motivate them (SAMHSA/CSAT Treatment Improvement Protocols, National library of medicine). However group counseling has quite a few disadvantages which cannot be ignored. The disadvantages of group psychotherapy The social atmosphere of group therapy is considered as one of the advantages of group therapy as it provides the similar setting as the real world (page 7). However, the social atmosphere could prove to be a disadvantage as most of the people who seek psychological counseling are those who are not able to cope with the demands and the nature of the social life. Hence, people who seek counseling to cope with the social pressure or isolation can find it difficult to adjust in the social atmosphere of the group counseling which might arouse the same fears and maladjustments that they face when in the society. People suffering from psychological problems also suffer from low self esteem as they lose confidence in themselves (Wong, 2006, p. 20). They are not able to function properly in their daily routines (Wong, 2006, p. 20). They find it difficult to cope with the demands of personal and social life and this makes them feel low (Wong, 2006, p. 20). The feeling of low self esteem creates a fear of ridicule and rejection from people around them (Wong, 2006, p. 20). The potential of this fear becoming a barrier in the treatment during the group psychotherapy is very high. Study by Budman et al (1988) revealed that people suffering from psychological disorders and behavioral problems prefer individual therapy to group therapy (Alonso A, Alonso S & Piper, 2003, p.363). It has been found that even though group therapy has many positive attributes related to it, it is not preferred by clients as they think that the aspect of ‘individuality’ gets ignored in the group therapy setting (Alonso A, Alonso S & Piper, 2003, p.363). People who suffer from mental disorders have a very deep need of attention and care. The definition of the group psychotherapy says that it is a form of therapy where people who are suffering from same kind of problems gather together to support each other and practice the therapy techniques to find a solution to their problem (page 5). However, one important thing to be understood is that even though the issues people are experiencing are same, the root cause of the issues can be different. Different root causes of the problems need different techniques and hence, need to be treated differently (page 5). One of the most important needs of human beings is personal attention and this need is fulfilled only through individual psychotherapy. CONCLUSION The author’s view that the failure of group psychotherapy is a result of lack of appropriate leadership and lack of training is not convincing enough. The success of the group therapy depends not only on the strength of the leadership but also on the comfort of the client. Literature review has shown that people who suffer from mental disorder have low self esteem and low confidence levels. These qualities make them uncomfortable in the setting of group therapy. Trust between the client and the therapist is the aspect on which the success of the therapy depends. In the group therapy, participants are not able to develop the feeling of trust as the attention of the facilitator is distributed. Hence, if one takes the needs of the clients in consideration, then the author’s opinion that group therapy has the potential to become more popular than individual therapy due to its positive attributes seems weak. People suffering from mental disorder have a very strong need of being cared for and only individual therapy can fulfill this need of the clients. Hence, group psychotherapy cannot replace the success of the individual psychotherapy. According to the article the public is one of the interested parties who help to promote group therapy, but I however disagree with this as I think that the only type of group therapy that really gets promoted by the public is Alcoholics anonymous. The article definitely challenges one of the statements made in the presentation in class that group provides members with support, while the article agrees with this statement to some extent it also disagrees in the way that it is saying that the support a group has to offer is not enough and that individual therapy is needed as well. When focusing solely on group therapy this would mean that group therapy is therefore not enough. But when looking at the other points that group therapy provides to a patient according to our class discussions, one can see that group therapy actually offers support in a more ways than one as members can test out different behaviors and get different kind of feedback. According to our class discussions members will also be able to see that they are not alone and that they are in a group who understands what they are going through. This to me is one of the most important aspects of healing- sharing feelings and finding companionship. As we are social beings and define ourselves according to society, it is very important to know that we are not alone and that even if you do have problems there are other people facing the same kind of challenges. References: Barlow, S.H. (2008). Group Psychotherapy Specialty Practice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39, 240-244. Alonso, A., Alosnso, S. & Piper, W. (2003). Group Psychotherapy. In I.B.Weiner (Ed.), Handbook of Psychology: Clinical Psychology (347-366). New Jersey: John Wiley &Sons. Wong, D.F. (2006). Clinical Case Management for People With Mental Illness: A Biopsychosocial Vulnerability-Stress Model. NY: The Haworth Press, Inc. Online resources: -Information@buckskin.org, 11 skills of leadership - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, SAMHSA/CSAT Treatment Improvement Protocols, National library of medicine) Primary Source: Angelique Botha, South Africa, treatment received by Dr. Albie Fourie (Psychologist) Contact number: 07909669188 Read More