Julia Riddell, Darren Neufeld, Jolene Kinley, Dylan Davidson, Natalie Mota, Jo Ann Unger, Christine Henriksen, Tara Conway, Jonathan Jette, Depeng Jiang
{"title":"Effectiveness of Eight-Session Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Classes for Reducing Symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, and Emotional Dysregulation in a Transdiagnostic Population.","authors":"Julia Riddell, Darren Neufeld, Jolene Kinley, Dylan Davidson, Natalie Mota, Jo Ann Unger, Christine Henriksen, Tara Conway, Jonathan Jette, Depeng Jiang","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2025.2454677","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2025.2454677","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Brief group-based psychological treatments are a common tool for increasing service access. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills groups have been used with several clinical populations to improve emotional regulation. This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of DBT-informed classes across four treatment settings in reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation, as well as examining participant factors associated with treatment responsiveness and class dropout. A total of 315 participants completed pre-post measures as a part of standard clinical care. Linear mixed model analyses showed that participants who completed DBT-informed classes experienced significant reductions in symptoms of depression, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation. Only an individual's baseline DSM-5 score significantly predicted responsiveness to treatment in terms of decreasing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and emotional dysregulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":" ","pages":"1-31"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143781502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dreams - the Alchemy of Groups: Jungian Reflections on Group Work.","authors":"Ildiko Gabor","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2024.2429399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2024.2429399","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Jungian analytical psychology and group theories can mutually benefit and cross-fertilize each other. When incorporating Jungian ideas into group theory, the result enhances the way we can explore and understand projections. Encouraging the exploration of dreams that group members have about each other makes unconscious connections in the group accessible and can be expressed in group dialogue. A group is an ideal place for holding the tension of opposites within oneself as well as in projections onto others. The Jungian approach can help us explore group members' main conflicts and entrenched patterns of relating, and guide them in self-reflection and resolving the patterns that act as obstacles to healing. This process eases polarization and encourages individuation, group members' journey toward wholeness.</p>","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":" ","pages":"1-28"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"When a Group Therapist Has Cancer: Therapist Self-Disclosure and Countertransference.","authors":"Giorgio A Tasca","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2024.2429385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2024.2429385","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Group therapists who experience a serious illness like cancer must navigate several dynamic processes and questions about how to proceed in the best interest of the group. Not much is written on this topic regarding group therapy, so group clinicians have little guidance to understand the underlying dynamics that might help them make the most informed decisions. In this article, I discuss my cancer diagnosis, which required my leaving a psychodynamic process group that I led for almost a decade. I review key dynamic processes that emerged in my final group sessions and present clinical vignettes to illustrate these processes. Dynamic issues that were most relevant had to do with the impact on the therapist of narcissistic injury from a medical diagnosis and the timing, extent, and appropriateness of self-disclosure to the group. Therapist countertransference manifestations included focusing on the self rather than the group, being too bold with complex interpretations, and feeling some relief at no longer having to contain the group's complex and opposing needs. Self-reflection, consultations with trusted colleagues, and discussions with co-therapists can help a group therapist identify and tolerate the inevitable partial countertransference enactments. A group therapist's genuine self-disclosure that is as free as possible of countertransference manifestations and the therapist's modeling of self-reflective capacities go a long way to helping groups make the most of their experience when a group therapist is ill.</p>","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":" ","pages":"1-22"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Associations of Group Size with Cohesion and Clinical Outcomes in Group Psychotherapy: A Systematic Review.","authors":"Conal Twomey, Clodagh Dowling","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2025.2456020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2025.2456020","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Group size is a consideration for all psychotherapy groups, yet the topic has been subject to surprisingly few empirical investigations. This review explored the influence of group size within group psychotherapy by investigating its associations with cohesion and clinical outcomes. Significant group-size associations were found in seven of the 17 included individual and meta-analysis studies (combined N = 21,425), pointing to partial support for the influence of group size. Some interesting tentative trends were identified, such as potentially better outcomes in smaller groups and greater group-size influence in process-orientated groups. Considerably more research is needed, as psychotherapy group-size decisions should ideally be informed by empirical evidence rather than by relying on clinical opinion, conventional wisdom, and recommendations made by influential commentators.</p>","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":" ","pages":"1-20"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Allison R Battles, Robert A Curland, Patrick J Cruitt
{"title":"A Pilot Evaluation of a Therapeutically Applied Tabletop Role Playing Game Group Therapy Among Veterans.","authors":"Allison R Battles, Robert A Curland, Patrick J Cruitt","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2025.2454666","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2025.2454666","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Social connectedness is a fundamental human need that is thwarted by chronic loneliness. The therapeutic application of role-playing games (TA-RPG) has the potential to promote social connection and flourishing by providing opportunities to work on mental health through immersive, collaborative storytelling. The purpose of this discussion is to describe the pilot implementation and evaluation of a TA-RPG group at VA medical center. Four group cycles were conducted over 18 months. Sixty-five percent of those who initiated the group completed treatment, attending an average of 11 out of 12 sessions. Qualitative analyses identified themes of perceived benefit and impactful group processes. Participants reported a high degree of satisfaction. These preliminary findings suggest that TA-RPGs may be a viable and engaging group therapy approach for fostering connection.</p>","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":" ","pages":"1-24"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143732281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Difficult Patients: Their Construction in Group Therapy.","authors":"Jerome S Gans, Anne Alonso","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2025.2473255","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2025.2473255","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Written from the perspective of inter-subjective theory, this article addresses how the leader and group members co-construct the difficult patient. Too often, therapists and patients have tended to attribute difficulties in therapy groups to \"the difficult patient\" without appreciating how they themselves contribute to the construction, the needs this construction serves, and the potential value of such patients to the group. Mistakes in group leadership, vicissitudes of inter subjectivity, disturbing intra-psychic defenses, and while-group dynamics interact to produce the difficult patient. Also discussed is the group member who is difficult but who no longer meets the criteria for patient-hood. By exploring the factors involved in the co-construction of the difficult patient, the authors hope to guide clinicians in the deconstruction of such impediments, thus allowing the difficult patient to become \"just another group patient.\"</p>","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":"75 1","pages":"38-53"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143665061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Attending to Diversity in Group Psychotherapy: An Ethical Imperative.","authors":"Dennis Debiak","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2025.2473256","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2025.2473256","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ethical issues can arise in dealing with diversity when practicing group psychotherapy. In this paper, a case is presented of a therapist-in-training who is attempting to determine whether a particular psychotherapy group composed exclusively of heterosexual males would be an appropriate and effective treatment venue for a gay male; the clinical vignette is designed to illustrate a process of ethical and culturally competent decision making. The discussion of this vignette articulates the multiple steps through which the group psychotherapist must proceed to successfully resolve ethical dilemmas that are related to diversity.</p>","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":"75 1","pages":"61-72"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143665057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Commentary on \"Clinical Practice Guidelines for Group Psychotherapy\".","authors":"Leonardo M Leiderman","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2024.2429382","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00207284.2024.2429382","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Clinical Practice Guidelines for Group Psychotherapy are a scholarly, compelling, and comprehensive guide for group therapists committed to the treatment of individuals seeking group therapy. Evidenced-based practice guidelines that foster best clinical practice and research are the main gateway in advancing the group therapy discipline to the forefront of the mental health field. My objectives in writing this commentary on the 2006 AGPA practice guidelines include: 1) emphasize the importance of group practitioners reading them to enhance their practices; 2) examine areas of the guidelines that are relevant today and address contemporary topics that could be incorporated into the revised AGPA clinical practice guidelines for group psychotherapy.</p>","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":" ","pages":"235-244"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143558268","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Contemporary Theories of Group Psychotherapy: A Systems Approach to the Group-as-a-Whole.","authors":"Yvonne M Agazarian","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2025.2473258","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00207284.2025.2473258","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The author discusses how subgroups represent the basic focus of the systems-centered group therapist. Particular attention is given to boundary issues and to how therapy takes place by facilitating the process of discriminating, communicating, and integrating perception of differences in the apparently similar and similarities in the seemingly different. Communication occurs at the boundaries between systems at all levels of the hierarchy: the group, the subgroup, and its members. Clinical vignettes are provided to illustrate important process issues, such as work with difficult patients, levels of intervention, and group resistance and defense.</p>","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":"75 1","pages":"110-136"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143665059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Happy Anniversary <i>International Journal of Group Psychotherapy</i>: Let's Celebrate All the Places You Went and Will Go!","authors":"Cheri Marmarosh","doi":"10.1080/00207284.2025.2450491","DOIUrl":"10.1080/00207284.2025.2450491","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46441,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Group Psychotherapy","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143598117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}