ABSTRACT
Frequently when people enter into psychotherapy they are unable to access and express their feelings. This inability to process one's feelings interferes with self-soothing and with creating an emotional connection to others. These in turn are psychological factors in depression, anxiety, and relationship problems. Population intervention has been used in adult outpatient psychotherapy groups. They tend to have intact reality testing, satisfactory verbal skills, have at least average intelligence, and have workable introspective abilities especially toward emotions, beliefs, internal dialogue, and interpersonal relationships. The intervention is applied when the group therapist or the group becomes aware that a member is shutting down, blocking, or numbing their feelings. The intervention begins by discussing an emotionally important interpersonal issue. Once the negative internal dialogue has been clarified the group member is asked to verbalize these negative remarks out loud. In conclusion, patients often enter into group psychotherapy experiencing difficulties in emotional processing.
