Group psychotherapy is any form of therapy as long as it is collective, that is, carried out in a group. It has a beneficial action that resolves and re-educates patients based on the interactions and communications that occur within groups organized for therapeutic purposes.
This model of therapeutic action emerged after World War II when the American psychosociologist Kurt Lewin worked a group of people for therapeutic purposes. He believed that individuals feel a therapeutic effect action when they hear other people talking about their problems and how they can be solved.In this type of psychotherapy certain therapeutic factors intervene that become very important because they explain how the members of the groups help each other to change their attitude, thinking, and behavior.
Of all the existing therapeutic factors the universality factor is highlighted here (patients in a group no longer feel alone and in isolation, but experience relief when they realize that they are not isolated with their problems); the group cohesion factor (in these psychotherapies the members of a group become very united, offer support to each other and create relationships which are very meaningful and valid for the therapy to work) and the factor of developing socialization techniques (patients in the groups learn to distinguish and stop inappropriate behavior simply by observing each other and making honest and well-received comments). The best therapeutic results are obtained in groups in which as many of these and other therapeutic factors as possible are present, such as the establishment of hope, the offering of information, and imitative behavior.
Group psychotherapies fall into at least three different groups of techniques: the group dynamics techniques which use the group movements and interactions that occur in regular meetings for a therapeutic purpose, and are very appropriate for children and adolescents; the non-directive psychoanalytic verbal techniques which use psychoanalysis as the therapy of choice; and the group of psychomotor and dramatic expression techniques which in addition to what is verbalized, use psychomotor activities, games, and mimicry scenes. A great example of this type of technique is the well-known psychodrama, a specialized form of group therapy in which each patient, with the help of others, presents or relates on a stage their difficulties in the presence of a therapist.