Complex Dilemmas in Group Therapy: Pathways to Resolution

Group therapy presents the mental health professional with a unique set of problems and considerations. But while the issues that arise in a group setting and the kinds of decisions that need to be made are often quite unlike those encountered in individual therapy, the existing literature provides neither the inexperienced therapist nor the seasoned clinician with much guidance about how to address these complex problems. Complex Dilemmas in Group Therapy rectifies the situation. Edited by two of the field's leading practitioners and containing the work of more than two dozen experienced group therapists, this casebook provides a comprehensive look at the issues and problems unique to group therapy. The book is divided into seven sections, each devoted to a specific theme such as boundaries, enactments, projective identification, destructive group dynamics, and time-limited group therapy. After an overview of the given theme, each section includes three complex clinical dilemmas that fall under that rubric, and the responses of two seasoned clinicians to those dilemmas. Concluding each section is an extended theoretical discussion of the ways in which ideas about the particular topic have changed over time. This text is designed to appeal to both early-career group therapists and more experienced clinicians, and practitioners at all levels will find it an important resource for this growing therapeutic field.

Table of Contents:
Section I - Boundary Issues Overview Creating the Group Envelope, Barbara Cohn Dilemmas Sizing Up the Group, Steven Haut; Jeanne Pasternak Show Me the Money, Elaine Jean Cooper, Steven Krugman All for One and One for Some? David Hawkins, Victor Schermer Section II - Difficult Patients Overview Treating Difficult Patients in Group, J. Scott Rutan Dilemmas Angry Angela and Controlling Connie, Anne Alonso, Hillel Swiller All About Adam, Arnold Cohen, Elizabeth Shapiro Getting Our Affairs in Order, Earl Hopper, Suzanne Cohen Section III - Complex Defenses Overview Unraveling Projective Identification and Enactment, Robert Weber Dilemmas Axis II Had Me Spinning, Hylene Dublin, Kathleen Ulman Will the Real Expert Please Stand Up? Allan Gelber, Marsha Vannicelli Serial Scapegoating, David Altfeld, Bonnie Buchele Section IV - Destructive Forces Overview Destructive Forces in Group Therapy, Morris Nitsun Dilemmas Cuckoo Interrupted, Yvonne Agazarian, Walter Stone Does Anyone Want Group? Nina Fieldsteel, Anthony Joyce A Sinking Depression, Richard Billow, Jerome Gans Section V - Powerful Therapist Reactions Overview Containing and Using Powerful Therapist Reactions, Eleanor Counselman Dilemmas Legally Incompetent? Sally Barlow, Shawn Taylor, Macario Giraldo Fear and Loathing, Barry Helfmann, Robert Klein Tolerating the Intolerable, Allan Elfant, Harold Bernard Section VI - Self Disclosure Overview How Far Should I Go? Joel C. Frost Dilemmas Breaking Up the Family or the Fantasy? Sara Emerson, Gil Spielberg If I Did It, Why Can't You? Marti Kranzberg, Meg Sharpe Sharing At the Exit, Bernard Frankel, Brenda Smith Section VII- Time-Limited Group Therapy Overview Working With the Clock Ticking. Ted Powers Dilemmas Stand By Your Stance, Ramon Ganzarain, William Piper Manage My Stress Pamela Enders, Arthur Horne Containing Contagion, Helen Riess, Mark Sorensen Name Index Subject Index

About the Author :
Lise Motherwell, Ph.D., Psy.D. is Associate in Psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital, an Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Dynamic Group Therapy Training Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. Joseph Shay, Ph.D., has been a Clinical Psychologist in the Harvard Medical School system for more than 25 years, and a practicing group therapist for over 30 years. He is the co-editor of the book, Odysseys in Psychotherapy.

Review :
"This gem of a volume captures quite uniquely the anxiety-arousing, morale-dashing challenges confronting the group therapist. Formatted as a kind of advice column for struggling therapists, the volume poses realistic and compelling scenarious that reguraly arise in this clinical enterprise." -- Les R. Greene, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 50, No. 46, Article 13