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Group Psychotherapy

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The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy: An Overview of Chapters 3 and 5
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of Dr. Irvin Yalom’s book (2005), The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Chapters 3 and 5. This overview provides a focus on Yalom’s Group Cohesiveness, and the basic task of group therapists.

Therapists have a role and responsibility with developing and maintaining groups. According to Dr. Irvin Yalom’s book (2005) The Theory and Practice of Group Therapy, The basic posture of the therapist to a client must be one of concern, acceptance, genuineness and empathy. They must utilize techniques of creating, maintaining and deter any forces that threaten group cohesiveness. For example, I observed a therapist during one of her group sessions where she discussed the rules of attending the group such as tardiness, disruptive behaviors, respect for others and the use of a cell phone during group meetings. All members were aware of the rules and followed them accordingly. There was a particular time where a group member had her cell phone out playing a game on it. The therapist politely asked the group member to put away her phone as it was disruptive to the other group members. The consumer put her phone down then picked it up again and continued to play games on her phone. The therapist stopped the class and removed the member from the group as she was not focused on the meeting and was disruptive to other members. Yalom (2005) indicated that there would be times when a therapist must delay dealing with pressing needs of an individual client and sometimes will have to remove a member from the group for the good of the other members.
During my readings of Yalom’s (2005) book, I learned about therapeutic factors in which Yalom (2005) indicated that one of the factors, Group Cohesiveness, was the most important and

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