The Power of Group Therapy
24 Jul 2023Sharing and Acceptance
What about group therapy provides an environment for positive life change? Is it the relationship with the therapist? Is it the relationship with other group members? Is it the therapeutic approach of the group leader? There has been much debate over the effect of these factors and others.
A group therapist with a great deal of experience (since the 1970s) argues that it is the interpersonal environment in which people show themselves and are accepted by others in the group.
It is the affective sharing of one's inner world and then the acceptance by others that seem of paramount importance. To be accepted by others challenges the client's belief that he or she is basically repugnant, unacceptable, or unlovable. The need for belonging is innate in us all. Both affiliation within the group and attachment in the individual setting address this need.1
A Positive Feedback Loop
The positive group environment creates a loop in which change builds upon change in a spiral of successful interactions. Taking the risk to share, feeling the support of others (and their understanding) and further creates and environment for therapeutic change.
Therapy groups generate a positive, self-reinforcing loop; trust-self-disclosure-empathy-acceptance-trust.ibid
Group Acceptance
Some argue that in group therapy the group is artificial and group cohesion will not happen. Members will not trust each other. Members will not accept each other. Yalom disagrees, noting that groups will accept almost anyone, as long as a few conditions are met.
The group will accept an individual, provided that the individual adheres to the group's procedural norms, regardless of past life experiences, transgressions, or social failings. Deviant lifestyles, history of prostitution, sexual perversion, heinous criminal offenses - all of these can be accepted by the therapy group, so long as norms of nonjudgmental acceptance and inclusiveness are established early in the group.ibid
First Chance to Share
Why is group therapy so effective for some people? Because some people have never had an environment in which they could safely share. Some people have never had positive feedback from others who care about them.
For the most part, the disturbed interpersonal skills of our clients have limited their opportunities for effective sharing and acceptance in intimate relationships. Furthermore, some members are convinced that their abbhorent impulses and fantasies shamefully bar them from social interaction.ibid
Group therapy provides members a place where they can share, get positive feedback, and be accepted by the others in the group - sometimes for the first time in their lives. Learning to interact in this group gives members skills that they can take into other social environments, building strong relationships for life.
1Yalom, I. D., & Leszcz, M. (2005). In The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (p 56). Basic Books.