Introducing humanistic group counselling for somatisation in a primary care practice: Preliminary findings

Abstract

Can group counselling help patients who present with symptoms that cannot be explained medically? Preliminary results of working with one such group are reported. Six patients in a primary care practice were offered weekly sessions for half a year. The findings suggest that the patients attended all group sessions. The patients reported experiences known to be related to group counselling, and when the group ended, patient reports show that the severity of their problems was reduced significantly (p<.001). Furthermore, during the six months after the group ended patients significantly (p<.025) reduced their visits to their general practitioners. These results seem to call for wider use of humanistic group counselling with somatising patients and further research into the impact of such form of counselling.

Keywords:

• Dialogue
• group counselling
• humanistic psychology
• primary care practice
• somatisation

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the cooperation of the doctors and staff at the health centre in launching this particular first step.