Main description:

This newly updated and streamlined edition of Group Psychotherapy with Addicted Populations provides proven strategies for combating alcohol and drug addiction through group psychotherapy.

The interventions discussed in the book build on a foundation of addiction as an attachment disorder rooted in the understanding of addiction as a family disease. An appreciation of group and organizational dynamics is used to address the complex experience of developmental trauma that underlies addiction. Having identified the essential theoretical underpinnings of supporting recovery from addiction, the second half of the book gives a thorough nuts and bolts description of constructing a psychotherapy group and engaging productively in the successive phases of its development from initiation of treatment to termination. The book concludes with specific recommendations for group psychotherapists to increase their competence with groups, deepen their appreciation of group and organizational dynamics and develop a community of support for their own well-being.

These methods are important for psychotherapists working with addicted populations who are inexperienced with group psychotherapy as well as seasoned group psychotherapists wishing to enhance their work.

Contents:

Part I: Theoretical Models 1. Addiction as an Attachment Disorder 2. Addiction is a Family Disease: An Attachment Theory Perspective 3. The Family is the Original Group: Group Relations and Addiction 4. Addiction is the Attempt to Maintain the Original Family: Trauma and its Re-enactment in Group Psychotherapy 5. Mutual Support is the Key to Constructing a Recovering Family: Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions 6. Addiction to Theory is the Group Psychotherapist's Most Serious Resistance: Exposing the Blind Men and the Elephant Part II: Nuts and Bolts 7. Conception and Birth: Preparing a Group Member 8. Holding the Infant: The Opening Phase of Group Psychotherapy 9. Separation and Individuation: Rupture and Repair 10. Play and Adventure: Enabling Peer Support 11. Termination: Letting Go and Letting God 12. Preparation of the Group Psychotherapist