ABSTRACT
The previous chapter focused on why, how and when a therapist might intervene in the course of a group session or over a series of sessions. In this chapter I shall take a longer view of the therapist in the group, examining some broader issues which stem from there being five to seven or eight or so patients or clients in a group rather than just one. The discussion will include attention to situations that face group therapists which do not arise in one-to-one therapy; the therapist’s position in the group; and implications for how a therapist may make use of a group in order to benefit individual group members. The chapter is organised as follows:
• Similarities between individual and group psychotherapy. • Some obvious differences between the group as a medium for therapeutic work
and one-to-one-psychotherapy, and some not-so-obvious consequences. • Situations and events which can arise in groups which do not occur in individual
psychotherapy, and how a therapist may respond to them. • Some complexities concerning transference dynamics in groups. • The position of the therapist in the group: purpose and task, power,
responsibility, and information; closeness, distance, and neutrality. • How may a therapist make use of a group in order to benefit individual
members? • The group therapist as a person.
