Short-term focused group-analytic psychotherapy (SFGAP): An integrative approach to change based on research

Group-Analytic Psychotherapy (Group Analysis; GA) is probably the most commonly used psychodynamic group therapy in Europe. It is mainly based on clinical experience, but the research evidence is increasing. This article describes how results from a Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT) comparing the outcomes of short- (20 sessions; six months) and long-term (80 sessions; two years) group-analytic, manualized therapies, are integrated with the short-term therapy used in this RCT, resulting in a new brand of therapy, Short-Term Focused Group-Analytic Psychotherapy (SFGAP). The selection of suitable patients is based on an evaluation of level of personality organization and the establishment of a circumscribed treatment focus for each patient, based on his/her patterns of interpersonal problems and main complaints. The article describes how patients are evaluated and prepared, how a treatment culture is developed, phases in the group process and implications for therapist interventions. The article is illustrated with a case history and group material.

Commentary

When I (the first author, W. E. P.) read the chapter by Levy, Meehan, Clouthier, Yeomans, Lenzenweger, Clarkin, and Kernberg (2016), my immediate reaction was a flashback to the initial RCT that I conducted in the mid-1970s. This included a comparison of psychodynamic group therapy by psychiatric residents in their first year of training with a treatment-as-usual condition for young adults suffering from neurotic or mild characterological problems, using a battery of 10 sociometric measures taken prior to and after 3 months of treatment (...