The theory and practice of group psychotherapy

Rating:
Summary: The Master Of Group Therapy
Review: Yalom's revolutionary book, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, is essential reading for the graduate student in therapy and counseling. It provides a comprehensive guide to the group experience, from the beginning to the end, and everywhere in between. It includes how one would create a group, problems to expect, and practical solutions to these problems.The book does not read as a typical textbook, but as a novel. The author's style is informative, but not laden with academic jargon. The high readability is also due to the fact that Yalom includes real-life examples throughout the entire book. This helps the reader to apply theory to situations that will be encountered in the course of conducting group therapy. Each chapter is outlined explicitly, which helps with future referencing.The most practical knowledge gained from reading this book is the emphasis the author places on the here-and-now process of group therapy. This is an aspect often overlooked by new group therapists. The explanation of group process demystifies the group experience and explains how it is that groups are beneficial to the members participating in them. This book is also practical in that it gives an explanation of all possible pitfalls encountered in the group setting, including problem patients and attrition in the group. The author helps the reader to know what to expect and how to handle problems when they arise.While this book was an extraordinary guide to the group experience, there were a few shortcomings. First of all, the book was based on outpatient groups Yalom lead at Stanford, which might not be applicable to all of the population. The reader is advised to take this into account when reading the book. Also, the groups were all long-term, sometimes lasting several years. In reality, this may not be a practical occurrence, as therapists may have trouble finding members that will commit themselves to such a long-term group.There were two major aspects of group therapy that needed more attention in this book. First of all, cross-cultural issues were not discussed in this book. This is an extremely important aspect of all therapy, and it was not addressed here. It is questionable that all of the results presented in this book would apply to multi-cultural situations. In addition, brief therapy groups were rarely mentioned in this book. In reality, therapists will probably conduct homogeneous brief therapy groups much more often in the course of their careers. The author included a chapter on the encounter group that was so popular in previous decades but is rarely used anymore. It would have been more fruitful to address the brief therapy group and omit the encounter group.Despite these shortcomings, this book is of extreme value to the new therapist. It includes the group in all aspects, and answers readers' questions before they are even asked. It should be mandatory reading material for all graduate students before they lead their first groups.

Rating:
Summary: Timeless
Review: Yalom's techniques are timeless, as long as human nature and how it plays out in social interactions transcends time and place. Thus, decades after publication, this book of group therapy lives on, whereas others, more faddish, are either narrowly focused on sufferers of the "disease of the year", or, in the case of "pragmatic", short-term "manual-based" groups which insurance companies favor, assume that all one has to do is give the patient the right recipe and 8 weeks to practice it, and they'll be cured of life-long ingrained pathological behaviors.
Anyone who thinks this book is "out of touch" or demonstrates a lack of empathy by Yalom, probably has a pet style of group therapy, and an axe to grind. Often, seemingly more empathic therapists, run groups in which everyone takes turns getting sympathy, distress is "validated", whereas the patient's contribution to it is ignored, and the premise is that sufferers are misunderstood victims of a neglected disease who are finally in the hands of someone who "gets it". Usually therapists who lead such groups, don't only wish to empathize, but are driven by a wish to feed their own vision of their specialness as the champions of the underdogs.
One of Yalom's greatest contributions is the effectiveness with which he used the group approach to exactly show patients how they cause their own distress--by creating a group atmosphere in which members play out their poor social skills, and get the powerful impact of peer feedback on this. He did so in a way which demonstrated genuine empathy in action: by steering members to identify (and empathize) not only with each others' misery, but with each others' strengths. Sympathy without a kick in the [...], is patronizing, and implies inequality. Sympathy with a kick in the [...] (always best given by peers), is sympathy with belief in your power--this shows respect for all of you, your strengths and your miseries. THIS is empathy. THIS is what empowers group members to overcome their problems. And this truth, will never go out of date.