Dynamics and Techniques of Group Psychotherapy in Private Practice

In rearing a mentally retarded child, parents are confronted with a number of taxing stresses and problems. As a result, many in this parent population need and could benefit from a social support network. Unfortunately, such networks often do not exist or parents make no effort to join them. One seemingly useful means of providing a facilitative social system for parents of retardates is via the support group. In this article, two support groups—each developed to assist parents in adjusting to their retarded children—are described. Also, the process stages of these groups are discussed.     

Psychoneurotic Art: Its Function in Psychotherapy by Margaret Naumburg

This article describes group psychotherapy with nursing home residents, ages 64-96, which utilizes the nonverbal and symbolic activities of drama therapy to facilitate an orientation to insight and transference phenomena, in contrast to the purely supportive techniques often used with the elderly. A case study of a long-term therapy group is described with examples of how the patients confronted their physical limitations, the death of their parents and of themselves, and transferences to the therapist. The media of creative drama, by concretizing and symbolizing difficult feeling states, and thus encouraging verbalization, may be a useful aid in extending the benefits of expressive psychotherapy to the impaired elderly.     

The Significance of the Fluctuations Experienced in Observing Ambiguous Figures and in Binocular Rivalry

This study investigated predictions from Mednick's remote associates theory as to unusualness of response in a word association task as a function of remote associational ability (high or low scores on the RAT), the nature of the verbal stimulus (flat or steep hierarchy words), and the serial position of the response. Ss were Ohio high school students. Although high RAT scorers gave significantly less unusual responses overall than did low RAT scorers, results were interpreted as generally supportive of the theory. Low RAT scorers moved more rapidly to less frequent responses than did high RAT scorers, later responses were more infrequent than earlier responses in the sample tested, and while word-type did not in itself determine unusualness of response, it did interact with the other variables in a manner consistent with the theory.     

Comparative effectiveness of CBT interventions for co-morbid chronic pain & insomnia: A pilot study

IntroductionChronic pain is difficult to treat and often precedes or exacerbates sleep disturbances such as insomnia. Insomnia, in turn, can amplify the pain experience. Both conditions are associated with inflammatory processes, which may be involved in the bi-directional relationship between pain and sleep. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for pain and CBT for insomnia are evidence based interventions for, respectively, chronic pain and insomnia. The study objectives were to determine the feasibility of combining CBT for pain and for insomnia and to assess the effects of the combined intervention and the stand alone interventions on pain, sleep, and mood outcomes compared to a control condition.MethodsTwenty-one adults with co-occurring chronic pain and chronic insomnia were randomized to either CBT for pain, CBT for insomnia, combined CBT for pain and insomnia, or a wait-list control condition.ResultsThe combined CBT intervention was feasible to deliver and produced significant improvements in sleep, disability from pain, depression and fatigue compared to the control condition. Overall, the combined intervention appeared to have a strong advantage over CBT for pain on most outcomes, modest advantage over both CBT for insomnia in reducing insomnia severity in chronic pain patients.DiscussionCBT for pain and CBT for insomnia may be combined with good results for patients with co-occurring chronic pain and insomnia.     

Exploring the Meaning of Spirituality and Spiritual Care in Chinese Contexts: A Scoping Review

Journal of Religion and Health - Spirituality is recognised as a fundamental aspect of health and nursing care. Yet, there are few studies exploring how this concept may be understood outside of...     

Transference,Catharsis, Insight and Reality Testing during Concomitant Individual and Group Psychotherapy

The authors argue that shame is a core issue for many men who assault their partners. Shame must therefore be addressed in treatment groups. This article outlines how one intervention, “the confession,” elicits shame and how that shame is negotiated through the various stages of group development.