The Group Therapy Microcosm

21 Jul 2023

A Microcosm of Interactions

It can take quite awhile for an individual and a therapist to get to know each other well enough for change to take place in the client’s life. There are a number of reasons for this, including that the therapist often has to take the client’s interactions with others at face value until a relationship develops where the therapist can see how the client interacts within their therapeutic relationship.

Group therapy allows the therapist to observe clients interacting with each other. This provides a microcosm of social interactions, but even more:

Not only does the small group provide a social microcosm in which the maladaptive behaviour of members is clearly displayed, but it also becomes a laboratory in which is demonstrated, often with great clarity, the meaning and the dynamics of the behaviour. The therapist sees not only the behaviour but also the events triggering it and sometimes, more important, the anticipated and real responses of others.¹

This context allows the therapist additional insights which can help in treating the client, but also allows clients in therapy the opportunity to see issues and resolutions for others and themselves.

Intersubjectivity

Watching a single client in group therapy isn’t just about what that client does, but involves the interchange of that client with others, including the therapist, and how meaning is created in these group interactions.

A traditional view of members' behaviour sees the distortion with which members relate events - either in their past or within the group interaction - as soley the creation and responsibility of that member. An intersubjective perspective acknowledges the group leader's and other members' contributions to each member's here-and-now experience - as well as to the texture of their entire experience in the group.^ibid

That is, the therapist not only has the opportunity to observe the client interacting with others, but also has the opportunity to watch the client begin to make meaningful experiences with the group as a whole.

The idea of the social microcosm is, I believe, sufficiently clear: if the group is conducted such that the members can behave in an unguarded, unselfconscious manner, they will, most vividly, re-create and display their pathology to the group. Thus, in this living drama of the group meeting, the trained observer has a unique opportunity to understand the dynamics of each client's behaviour.²

So, why can group therapy be so effective? It allows the therapist to watch the client interacting with others in real time. Rather than simply relying on the client’s recounting of interactions with others, the therapist can watch the client interacting in the moment. This provides opportunities to interact where feedback and learning can take place.

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¹Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2005). In The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (p 42). Basic Books.

²Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2005). In The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (p 44). Basic Books.

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