ABSTRACT
Our lives begin and unfold within the context of families that shape and, in most instances, support our development. Many religions have plumbed the value of group witness and participation for centuries. However, only since World War II have group and family therapy come into prominence as treatment modalities, with many recent adaptations. The focus is increasingly moving beyond the closed system of the self and his or her conflicts to an open, larger system or systems of which the person is a part. “The individual patient is being viewed from a relational perspective, in terms of the early contacts with important others in his or her life and the emotional roles the patient has assumed within the family” (Klein, Bernard, & Singer, 1992, p. 16).
