Understanding Reactions to Group Instability in Psychotherapy Groups

ABSTRACT

Working as director of a group psychotherapy training program in a university medical center, the author has observed many groups in periods of decreased group stability. These situations tend to arise frequently in an academic setting where summer breaks and other school-related holidays may result in extended periods of irregular attendance. Such times appear to be quite stressful to group members and leaders and frequently result in a storm of transferential and/or countertransferential acting out. This may carry over into supervision sessions via the mechanism of the parallel process and these, too, may become stressful, unrewarding, and nonproductive. An attempt to understand such situations and to find better ways of helping trainees deal with them constructively has resulted in the following ideas about group instability. Although these times remain uncomfortable and stressful, they can be managed and used to generate valuable information for the participants that can further the therapeutic process.