ABSTRACT

In the earlier model of couples group psychotherapy, groups met for 150 minutes, and much of the second half of each session was spent executing a specially designed, structured exercise. At the bathroom break after the unstructured part of the group, the leaders met and designed or chose an activity likely to deepen or refine the learning that had begun in the first portion of the session. If, for example, the group had been discussing the parts of themselves that embarrassed, humiliated, or shamed them, the leaders might have designed an exercise on the impact of poor self-esteem on a marriage and on careers.