Therapeutic factors in two forms of inpatient group psychotherapy: Music therapy and verbal therapy

Therapeutic processes in one type of creative arts group psychotherapy, music therapy, were compared with verbal group psychotherapy. Sixty-one short-term inpatients ranked group psychotherapy curative factors and completed satisfaction ratings. Therapists rated 201 group therapy sessions— 109 music therapy and 92 verbal therapy. Statistical analysis revealed that patients highly valued both group formats. The mean curative factor rankings for both groups included cohesiveness, instillation of hope, and altruism among the most helpful factors. Therapists' ratings indicated qualitative differences between the two groups. Music therapy involved more therapeutic interaction among patients and emotional expression, whereas verbal therapy emphasized concrete problem solving.Supported in part by Biomedical Research Support Grant Program grant #S07-RR05755 from the Division of Research Resources, National Institutes of Health.     

Dynamically oriented group therapy with alcoholics: Making it work despite the prevailing bias

A bias exists in the psychiatric community against dynamically oriented group therapy with alcoholics. The basis for this bias lies primarily in negative experiences of practitioners who have attempted to use traditional therapy with alcoholic patients who continued to drink. At Appleton Outpatient Clinic, we have found that dynamically oriented group therapy is a highly suitable treatment modality for alcoholic patients when negative biases of treators can be addressed and when initial preparatory work is done with patients. This preparatory work includes: (a) building a working alliance around abstinence and providing adequate supports to make this possible; (b) explicit contracting that establishes clear treatment goals and consequences should the goals not be met; (c) preparatory short-termgroup experiences.This paper was presented at the 1988 annual meeting of the American Group Psychotherapy Association.     

Emerging quality improvement measures in genetic counseling

The need to establish guidelines for total quality management in genetic counseling is now recognized as new genetic technologies are being introduced into genetics services and primary care. Genetic counselors have an important role in developing methods for assuring quality in the genetic counseling process. Emerging quality improvement measures as well as selected examples from the Quality Assurance Program in the Genetics Services Division at the Foundation for Blood Research are presented as examples of direct genetic counselor involvement. Suggestions for future directions of quality improvement activities for genetic counselors are discussed.     

Toward a Definition of Family Resilience: Integrating Life-Span and Family Perspectives

Family resilience is a relatively new construct that describes how families adapt to stress and bounce back from adversity. Literature pertaining to resilience as a family-level variable is reviewed. An overview of the developmental psychopathology literature dealing with individual resilience is also presented. Implications for extending the study of family resilience drawn from research on individual resilience are discussed and a definition of family resilience is proposed.     

A family‐therapy approach to child abuse: countering resistance

Abusing and high-risk families have been seen over three years at a new treatment resource with a family therapy orientation. The families present with established resistance to any treatment intervention and many have defeated a succession of previous helping agencies. Initial typology and treatment strategies are described with the aim of more systematic selection of therapeutic techniques.     

Schedule-induced polydipsia and polyphagia in nondeprived rats reinforced by intracranial stimulation

Five rats, which were neither food nor water deprived, working on fixed or variable-interval schedules of reinforcement for intracranial stimulation developed consistent and excessive patterns of postreinforcement eating or drinking. The gradual deterioration of polydipsia and polyphagia in this situation points to a distinction between the acquisition and maintenance of these behaviors.