ABSTRACT
Future trends worth discussion need to reflect progress from the fields of relational psychoanalytic thought, cognitive behavioral couples work, educa tional contributions from positive psychology, behavioral finance, neurobio logy, and sensory awareness. This chapter touches on recent advances that are likely to enable major contributions from these fields to the clinical execution of couples group psychotherapy. Recent trends in couples group psychothe rapy that seem likely to become more important in the next decade include:
relational psychoanalytic concepts and practice;• the educational imperative from positive psychology;• the world of behavioral finance;• the neurobiology of coupling; and• the centrality of sensory awareness.•
Recent exposure to newer thinking in psychoanalytic work has focused my attention on a quiet expansion of interventions in the last decade. Dreams and associations, long the foundation for deep psychodynamic insight work, have been complemented by both concepts and practice that involve the dynamics of interpersonal space and actionoriented therapy. The power of the model of couples group therapy that is in these pages is a direct result of work done between 1986 and 1989 with Dr. Carl Whitaker, a psychodynamically trained creative thinker who was one of the founders of the field of family therapy.
