Might it be possible that neuroscience, in particular interpersonal neurobiology, can illuminate the unique ways that group processes collaborate with and enhance the brain's natural developmental and repairing processes? This book brings together the work of twelve contemporary group therapists and practitioners who are exploring this possibility through applying the principles of interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB) to a variety of approaches to group therapy and experiential learning groups. IPNB's focus on how human beings shape one another's brains throughout the life span makes it a natural fit for those of us who are involved in bringing people together so that, through their interactions, they may better understand and transform their own deeper mind and relational patterns. Group is a unique context that can trigger, amplify, contain, and provide resonance for a broad range of human experiences, creating robust conditions for changing the brain.

Psychotherapeutic Change through the Group Process discusses the relation between the properties of groups and therapeutic change. The purpose is to develop a view of groups that accounts for the diversity, complexity, and fluidity of the group situation. The view examines the group in depth, attending not only to overt events, but also to covert aspects of specific situations. The work addresses manifest behaviors, underlying motivations; and the cognitive, rational aspects of the group. It explores the intense affect which may be generated under conditions of group interaction; not merely to the group or individual, but to the individual in the group and to the group as the context for personal experience and change.The research presented here was initially explored in small group studies. Separate investigations considered the ways in which patients and therapists view group events, the nature of deviation, and the development of group standards. They consider factors associated with therapeutic improvement and therapeutic failure; and characteristic concerns of early sessions. These, plus several discussions of theory and methodology have been published separately.The authors' working procedure has been to study intensively a relatively small number of groups, relying upon careful observation of natural groups rather than upon laboratory experimentation. The overall effort has been to understand the processes of therapy groups in all their clinical richness and intricacy and yet to impose a scientific discipline and control on our analyses. This has meant a continuing attempt to develop appropriate analytic procedures so that clinical analyses can be as firmly rooted as possible in concrete data and reproducible methods. This book is a unique effort at the scientific grounding of social work practice.

and knowledge, and as a possible way to illuminate change processes in psychotherapy. Today, developmental researchers and neuroscientists increasingly locate keys to psychological health and development in the earliest interactions between mother and infant." "This book, which consists of significant papers by the BCPSG, traces the group's contributions to psychoanalytic topics of note, including; the location of the implicit, the creation of meaning, the moment-by-moment clinical process, and the subjective experience of the therapist. The book also includes new introductions to selected chapters, which provide background on the original intent and reception of each article." --Book Jacket.

The most comprehensive and thoroughly researched text available on this topic, Handbook of Group Counseling and Psychotherapy, Second Edition underscores the notion that group work is improved through increased collaboration between researchers and practitioners. Edited by renowned leaders in the field, this thoroughly updated and revised Second Edition explores current literature and research and offers suggestions for practice in psycho-educational, counseling, and therapy groups. The Handbook is divided into five main sections: current and historical perspectives, best practices, multicultural and diverse groups, groups in special settings, and an introduction to special topics.

Understanding the psychodynamics of groups has derived from the two separate strands of theory and practice, resulting in two separate disciplines: group psychotherapy and group dynamics. Present-day group psychotherapy derives mainly from psychoanalytic theory and Bion's early experiences with wartime groups, and has been developed from the work of clinicians who practice group psychotherapy as a form of treatment. Group dynamics theory and practice, on the other hand, have arisen largely from the work of social scientists like Kurt Lewin, have been researched in the field and in the laboratory, and have been applied to groups as arenas for leadership training and behavioral change. The Visible and Invisible Group synthesizes these psychoanalytic and group approaches to group life and offers practical guidelines to the group psychotherapist. The authors advocate the simultaneous use of two perspectives: the psychoanalytic perspective for observing the "visible" group of people and their interactions, and a General Systems "Field Theory" perspective for observing the "invisible" group-as-a-whole.

Group Leadership Skills provides a road map and a practical toolkit for users to lead all types of groups effectively. Drawing on extensive teaching and clinical experience, authors Mei-whei Chen and Christopher Rybak give readers numerous skills, techniques, insights, and case illustrations demonstrating how to tap into the heart of group therapy: the interpersonal processes. The text covers group processes from beginning to end, including setting up a group, running the first session, facilitating the opening and closing of each session, working with tension and conflict, and using advanced skills and intervention techniques to facilitate member change. The Second Edition expands on group leadership skills to include methods of running mandate groups, semi-structured groups, basic level unstructured groups, and advanced level here-and-now focused groups, as well as using psychodrama techniques to heal unresolved grief and loss.

Informed by Freudian, Foulkesian, and object relations approaches to individual and group analytic therapy, Konig and Lindner's extensive theoretical understanding of groups and individuals is saturated with a flexible common sense that moves comfortably between theory and practical application.