From the Couch to the Circle: Group-Analytic Psychotherapy in Practice

From the Couch to the Circle: Group-Analytic Psychotherapy in Practice is a handbook of group therapy and a guide to the group-analytic model - the prevailing form of group therapy in Europe. It draws on John Schlapobersky's engagement as a practitioner and on the words and experience of people in groups as they face psychotherapy's key challenges - understanding and change. This book provides a manual of practice for therapists' use that includes detailed descriptions of groups at work; accounts of therapists' own experience and the issues they face in themselves and in their groups. It is devoted to the Group-Analytic model and brings the other psychodynamic models of group therapy - the Tavistock, Interpersonal, Psychodynamic, Modern Analytic and Systemic - into a comparative discussion creating an integrated and coherent approach.

It is divided into three sections: Foundations - aimed at practitioners using groups of any kind and working at every level including those providing supportive psychotherapy and groups for psychosis, trauma, those at risk, older people and children; The Group-Analytic Model - defines the group-analytic model at a basic and advanced level; and The Dynamics of Change - aimed at group analysts, psychotherapists and psychologists providing short-term psychotherapy and long-term group analysis. The book is illustrated with clinical vignettes and incisive, instructive commentaries to explain the concepts in use. It is intended for those seeking psychotherapy, whether to resolve personal problems or to find new sources of meaning in their lives. It is also intended for policy-makers in mental health, teachers and students of different models of psychotherapy and the psychosocial field. The comparative discussion running through the text about methods and models of practice will be of interest to the wider mental health and psychotherapy fields.

The author draws together the inherited wisdom of group analysis since Foulkes' time and makes his own lasting contribution. From the Couch to the Circle will be an invaluable, accessible resource for psychotherapists, psychoanalysts, psychologists, family therapists, academics, psychologists, mental health practitioners, academics and teachers in psychotherapy.