ABSTRACT
Basic to all treatment processes is the communication exchange, with its analysis of channels of communication, its principles of impact, and its definitions of persuasion. By staying with an analysis of the process of communication among the family members rather than with its content, the therapist avoids entering into the group dynamics and is less likely to become a partisan. In conjoint family group therapy, a disturbed family is viewed as one in which communication among the members is severely disturbed. The documented effectiveness and economic efficiency of group treatment as reflected in traditional methods of working with individual patients have increasingly given way to group therapy. Communication groups are different from ordinary therapy groups in as much as the members are familiar with each other. Timing in group therapy sessions demands that the therapist take into account the members’ knowledgeability on certain issues.
