Group Psychotherapy Chapter Summary

The text book, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom with Molyn Leszcz begins with the preface of the fifth edition. In the preface, Irvin D. Yalom introduced Molyn Leszcz as his collaborator and how they met at Stanford University in 1980. He then discussed how they both worked hard collaboratively to combine old and new material to make this edition. Their goals for this edition were to prepare student therapists for the present-day workplace and to keep the current methods from decaying, so that students can gather wisdom and techniques of the field when they get the opportunity to utilize those methods as therapists. Yalom briefly talked about what each chapter in the text would discuss. He closed out by mentioning while making changes to this text, he was also writing the class novel, The Schopenhauer Cure, which complements this text very well.
In the readings of chapter one, sixteen, and seventeen of The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom with Molyn Leszcz, I read about therapeutic factors, encounter group, and the training of group therapies. There were many important concepts in chapter one. Briefly, installation of hope is crucial in any therapy because it’s the foundation for other therapeutic factors to be effective. Research studies have found when the client and the therapists both have high expectations before therapy starts; it leads to positive therapy results. In relations to installation of hope, self-help groups such as Alcoholics

Encounter group is a group of “seekers” and “normals” who engaged in face to face interaction to improve self-awareness and interpersonal skills. Encounter group has a variety of experiential groups such as human relations groups, training groups, sensitivity groups, and personal growth groups just to name a few. One of their goals is to strive for change and growth within