This indispensable book is designed to help practitioners create, initiate, and maintain therapy groups for traumatized individuals. Written by an array of experienced group therapists, the book addresses general aspects of trauma group therapy as well as issues specific to different populations and clinical problems. Cogent, practical information is provided on such important topics as screening and selecting members, understanding the impact of trauma on group dynamics, managing the effects of flashbacks, addressing dissociative states, working with countertransference reactions, and dealing with clients' emotional crises. Approaches and strategies are discussed for diverse groups, including survivors of sexual and physical abuse, clients with severe medical illnesses, bereaved children, survivors of catastrophic events in the community, victims of political and ethnic persecution, and those with diagnosed mental disorders in which trauma plays a significant role. Filled with illustrative case material, the book offers essential insights and tools for therapists, supervisors, and trainees from a range of orientations.

Present-Centered Group Therapy for PTSD integrates theory, research, and practical perspectives on the manifestations of trauma, to provide an accessible, evidence-informed group treatment that validates survivors’ experiences while restoring present-day focus. An alternative to exposure-based therapies, present-centered group therapy provides practitioners with a highly implementable modality through which survivors of trauma can begin to reclaim and invest in their ongoing lives. Chapters describe the treatment’s background, utility, relevant research, implementation, applications, and implications. Special attention is given to the intersection of group treatment and PTSD symptoms, including the advantages and challenges of group treatment for traumatized populations, and the importance of member-driven processes and solutions in trauma recovery. Compatible with a broad range of theoretical orientations, this book offers clinicians, supervisors, mentors, and students a way to expand their clinical repertoire for effectively and flexibly addressing the impact of psychological trauma.

With contributions from prominent experts, this pragmatic book takes a close look at the nature of complex psychological trauma in children and adolescents and the clinical challenges it presents. Each chapter shows how a complex trauma perspective can provide an invaluable unifying framework for case conceptualization, assessment, and intervention amidst the chaos and turmoil of these young patients' lives. A range of evidence-based and promising therapies are reviewed and illustrated with vivid case vignettes. The volume is grounded in clinical innovations and cutting-edge research on child and adolescent brain development, attachment, and emotion regulation, and discusses diagnostic criteria, including those from DSM-IV and DSM-5. See also Drs. Ford and Courtois's edited volume Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Adults, Second Edition, and their authored volume, Treatment of Complex Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-Based Approach.

Attachment theory is influencing how we understand interpersonal relationships and how psychotherapy can help facilitate change for those struggling in relationships. More recently, researchers and clinicians have applied attachment theory to group treatment, one of the most effective forms of psychotherapy to address interpersonal difficulties. This book highlights some of the bridges between attachment theory and contemporary approaches to group treatment. In addition to applying attachment theory to innovative treatments, each chapter addresses a specific way in which attachment impacts the members’ capacity for empathy and perspective taking; the development of cohesion in the group; the automatic fight-flight response during group interactions; members’ ability to tolerate diversity; and the leaders’ capacity to foster safety within the group. This book will help group leaders gain a richer understanding of attachment theory and attachment based techniques that will ultimately benefit their groups. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy.

This volume presents an innovative psychobiological framework for understanding and treating PTSD. A major emphasis is the need to reformulate diagnostic criteria and treatment goals to reflect emerging knowledge about the complex pathways by which trauma disrupts people's lives. Within a holistic, organismic framework, the editors identify 65 PTSD symptoms contained within five (rather than the traditional three) symptom clusters, and spell out 80 target objectives for treatment. Expert contributors then provide detailed presentations of core therapeutic approaches, including acute posttraumatic interventions, cognitive-behavioral approaches, pharmacotherapy, group psychotherapy, and psychodynamic techniques, as well as approaches to working with specific populations, including children, refugees, and the dually diagnosed. The concluding section reviews and synthesizes all case material presented, examining which symptoms are addressed by each of the core approaches, which treatment goals are met, and which clients can most effectively be helped. Combining cutting-edge theoretical exposition with clear-cut recommendations for practice, this is an ideal resource for clinicians, students, and researchers.

This book synthesizes research on groups from two separate but related fields--social psychology and clinical psychology--and encourages collaboration among researchers who are interested in different types of groups.

Dive into this educational and entertaining work on group psychotherapy and see firsthand how it has been helping patients learn and grow for years. Hailed by Jerome Frank as "the best book that exists on the subject," Irvin D. Yalom's The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy has been the standard text in the field for decades. In this completely revised and updated fifth edition, Dr. Yalom and his collaborator Dr. Molyn Leszcz expand the book to include the most recent developments in the field, drawing on nearly a decade of new research as well as their broad clinical wisdom and expertise. New topics include: online therapy, specialized groups, ethnocultural diversity, trauma and managed care. At once scholarly and lively, this is the most up-to-date, incisive, and comprehensive text available on group psychotherapy.