Compare and Contrast Individual Therapy and Group Therapy
Individual Therapy
Individual therapy is a process in which a patient personally meets with a therapist to treatment a particular problem through set goals. A client’s meeting with a therapist gives him or her a feeling of privacy, which makes it easier for the client to disclosure the issues they are facing. Some patients find it hard to share private information with strangers, which requires individual therapy to gain confidence and discover their abilities to get over challenges.
According to Teyber (2000), the main factor that connects a therapist to a client is the basis of therapeutic change. It determines the success or failure of therapy. The interaction between the therapist and client are crucial at this early stage. First, it is essential for the therapist to have the level of experience necessary to treat clients with complex issues. Developing an atmosphere of trust and safety are paramount. In interpersonal psychotherapy, you can employ techniques that may be idiosyncratic to this process. Interpersonal therapy allows for a therapist to explore with the client the past issues that may have led to their seeking therapy (Teyber, 2000). The skillful therapist could help the client understand how not addressing these past issues are negatively impacting their current functioning. In successful therapy, clients experience a new kind of relationship. In the initial session, the therapist may establish that the therapy may be ineffective if the therapist tells the client what to do.
The psychotherapist establishes a collaborative relationship with the client from the beginning. This allows the client to understand that they are working together to resolve the clients' issues. This collaboration continues throughout the therapy process until termination. The collaboration is ineffective if an atmosphere of trust and safety have not been established (Van & Wild, 2016). There will nothing to collaborate if the client does not open up to the therapist.
The interpersonal therapist can horn in on repetitive relational themes and interpersonal patterns. The therapist listens intently for the themes that exist in the client's narrative. This provides an opening for the therapist to address how they can work together to change the client's narrative. The psychotherapist has to deal with ambivalence and conflict of the client. The therapist will have a better understanding and respond to the both sides of the conflict (Shechtman et al, 2010). The client may be experiencing opposing feelings and the therapist will be able to identify these conflicting feelings. There is a certain push and pull nature of the conflict. The field has developed concepts of clients being hurt and misunderstood
Unfortunately, therapist do not pay much attention to clients concerns about both being hurt by the therapist and others and hurting others. Clients can after treatment find their own voice advocate for themselves. Confrontation is an issue the therapist attempts to stay away from. They fear that the client will feel intimidated. This stems from the fear of hurting the client and has significance with the therapist (Van & Wild, 2016). The therapist may have grown in a household where they had authoritarian parents. This poses a problem for the therapist that may find themselves in a personal bind as a result of their own childhood issues. The therapist also may hear recurrent affective themes. This is a meaningful and beneficial goal that the therapist may provide for the client. The therapist can provide in this case specific examples and explore ways of helping the client see how this issue impacts them.
The psychotherapist has to deal with ambivalence and conflict of the client. Teyber (2000), speaks about recognizing how client conflicts are played out in the therapist-client interaction. According to Teyber the relationship between a therapist and a client brings solutions to problem and improves a patients relational patterns.
This process allows for therapist and client to find new ways of interacting that do not replicate old patterns of behavior. These behavior patterns may have transpired in their personal or family relationships. The individual can benefit from the interpersonal psychotherapy to explore how these patterns prevent from having healthy interpersonal relationships (Van & Wild, 2016). This is unique to interpersonal psychotherapy due to the therapist having the time to reenact past patterns and provide insight for change.
Teyber (2000) states when studying a patient’s lack of change, it is important for a therapist to expect resistance and defense from a client throughout the process. This helps the therapist to study the reasons for resistance and should be done to prevent resistance. The therapist has to be attuned to the client and their reactions to better understand what they may be experiencing at that time (Shechtman et al, 2010). The therapist has to understand when the client is being resistant and how to address the resistance without harming the relationship. The therapist will be skilled enough to understand the problem that exists between the therapist and client is a problem the client experienced with others.
Teyber goes on to say that this resistance is associated with shame that begins to surface after the client get in touch with their deeper feelings. Shame can generate resistance perhaps more than any other effect. Many of the clients that come to treatment will usually encounter some level of shame and the therapist is charged with helping them work through this (Teyber, 2000). Shame also has many faces and the therapist will become familiar with how shame is a concern of clients entering therapy. It is clear that shame and guilt both play an important role in client issues once they begin to explore after entering treatment.
Group Therapy
Group therapy involves many individuals. This forum is advantageous in that it offers social support, but not a personal interaction with a therapist. Group therapy exposes clients to meeting other individuals with the same issues they are struggling with. The relationships that develop in a group therapy reassures a person that they are not alone in their issues.
Irvin D. Yalom (2005), provides a context to understand group psychotherapy and the process. In the group psychotherapy process, it is first understood that more people can receive therapy at one time. The group reflects the first group the client belonged to which is the family. The group psychotherapist could look at how a person was socialized in their family and help them better understand and resolve these issues. Many agencies may be inclined to run groups to maximize revenue for the agency.
Yalom (2005) describes various principal factors. They include university, altruism, instillation of hope, socializing techniques amongst others. Universality is when a client meets people with the same problems as his. The altruism is an innate quality that all individuals may possess at some level (Shechtman et al, 2010). We feel that we want to help others which in turn help us.
Also, cohesiveness is an important component in that it allows members to feel close to other group members. Although he readily acknowledges that these are arbitrary. They may be discussed separately however, they are interwoven. Group therapy we know can mimic the family. The psychotherapist must understand the roles the participants play. Socialization skills can be developed in the group process. The members interacting and exchanging of information takes place while they connect with each other. Socialization enhances cohesiveness (Galanes & Adams, 2013). It is also quite possible for the group members to dislike one another. The concept of resolving conflict helps the group member to resolve other issues outside of the group therapy.
Members are able to take risks as the process continues and the group process deepens as does their sharing. The group process assisted the peers in not feeling unique after hearing others share their experience on the topic. The psychotherapist (facilitator) is able to address several people at one time who have similar experiences (Van & Wild, 2016). Depending on the type of group the topics may range from panic disorder, depression, obesity, bulimia, divorce, medication management organ transplant, cancer survivors and host of other relevant issues.
The group can address issues from HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, bipolar, depression and a host of other issues that all the members in the group may have yet experienced differently. The group allows peers to provide feedback to each other in an effort to normalize their experiences. According to Yalom (2005), a lot of patients go into therapy with the perspective that their problems are unique and unacceptable. These thought are true to some extent since some clients have severe life challenges. This heightened sense of uniqueness stems from not interacting, sharing or hearing others feelings and experiences. This is challenged in the group process as people begin to share. This allows members to take a risk and not feel ashamed that they now understand that others experienced not only the acts but the shame and guilt associated with the act.
Furthermore, Yalom (2005), regarding the therapeutic factor, states that universality greatly helps patient who have suffered sexual abuse. The most essential part of therapy group is the sharing of private information, often for the very first instance in each patient’s life. They share the intimate details of the abuse and the devastation they experienced. The psychotherapeutic group process helps to challenge and confront behaviors such as prostitution, sexual perversion, and other negative criminal activity. This is also another part of the group cohesive process as the members are learning and growing together. Group cohesiveness is an important therapeutic aspect due to acceptance, peer support, and through interpersonal learning (Yalom, 2005). It is evident throughout the group process from the creation of a group to maintenance of group that members will not feel like they can openly share and be themselves until cohesiveness takes place.
There are several differences among individual and group therapy. First, individual therapy is safe as it has individualized treatment while group therapy entails many people simultaneously receiving therapy. In individual therapy, a therapist deals with one client at a time. This means that the therapist creates greater interpersonal safety for the client. Teyber, (2000), states clients may be empowered to safely feel the pain their experiences have hurt them in other relationships. Feel better about themselves or forgive themselves for behavior they have felt unrealistically shameful or guilty about, remember more specifically when and with whom this particular relational conflict originally was learned. These are unique issues that the client could best benefit from in interpersonal psychotherapy (Galanes & Adams, 2013). On the other hand, Group therapy has many individuals in one session. This makes group therapy more attractive to the agency that can use one therapist and bill for multiple clients. You can conduct a group with as many as 6-10 clients at one time. This is important to be aware of in a climate of managed care.
Second, individual therapy takes more time, while group therapy consumes less time and is cost effective. Individual therapy is a time-consuming process that may take several sessions over time that may not be available in other therapy formats. In the interpersonal process, the relationship aspect is essential between therapist and client. This part of the interpersonal psychotherapy process creates a forum for the client to openly discuss concerns about being hurt by the therapist and hurting others (Van & Wild, 2016). On the other hand, Group therapy is cost friendly since the therapist takes less time to attend to all the clients at once. Less time means that a client will spend less money on paying for psychotherapy.
Third, individual therapy has no concern with the group dynamic, while group psychotherapy improves socialization skills. Individual therapy does not require socialization as a client does not have other people to interact with apart from the therapist. On the other hand, group discussion helps people to socialize. The development of social skills is very important since isolation has not allowed individuals to improve social interactions since they were limited. Yalom (2005) states, communication was maintained throughout the therapy, the storm was calmed, and the patients gained liberation from inner struggles and also improved their ability to explore interpersonal relationship. Additionally, in Individual therapy, the clients receive the full attention of the therapist, while Group therapy has universality. Interpersonal therapy requires a therapist to attend to one client only. This means that the therapist focuses fully on the issues of the client. The therapist can assume many roles one in which they act as the support person and allow the client to arrive at their own understanding of the problem and best methods for solving it. The psychotherapist in this process helps teach the client problem-solving skills that will sustain them long after the therapy ends (Shechtman et al, 2010). In contrast, group therapy promotes universality. Universality allows the client to believe that they alone experienced these issues and had this wretched life. Due to prolonged periods of isolation, they experience ongoing life stressors and their heightened sense of uniqueness is disconfirmed in the therapy group.
Conversely, there exist some similarities between individual and group therapy. First, both approaches have positive outcomes for clients. There is a good chance for positive outcomes in the therapy process when people are identified to determine which process will be best for them (Galanes & Adams, 2013). In most cases, people can benefit from both the interpersonal psychotherapy and the group psychotherapy process combined.
Second both therapy approaches instill hope on clients. The therapists' goal is to ensure that a client sees the positive in a negative situation. Installation of hope is a powerful process and Yalom (2005), states that hope installation begins during the group orientation, where the therapist depicts positive anticipations, correct negative thoughts, and explain to the clients about the healing properties of the group.
Third, both Individual and Group therapists experience resistance from clients. Some clients willingly join therapy, but in the process, they change. This changes may result from shame and unwillingness to share their problems (Shechtman et al, 2010). Therefore it is important for a therapist t to have enough competency on how to handle a client to help them share more for them to fully recover by the end of the therapy session.
Finally, at the end of the therapy session, termination separates the client and the therapist. In order to have a successful ending, the therapist and the client have established a mutual final date. It is also practical for the interpersonal psychotherapist will explore the clients' reactions to ending. The therapist may also be impacted by the ending. In natural endings, the therapist must give the client permission to leave (Van & Wild, 2016). They can laugh together about misunderstandings, talk about possible breakthroughs and awkward moments. In some cases, the therapist will have to inform clients that they may have contact with them after the treatment. The client may need to be reassured that if something comes up that they could come and speak to the therapist. The therapist could also note the successes of the therapy and how the client can take these successes into future relationships. This process isn't always smooth and sometimes both the therapist and clients have difficulty in ending their sessions (Shechtman et al, 2010). This becomes even more difficult depending on the degree of progress and the length of time of the therapy. Some of the issues that arise in closing are that they did not prepare in advance for the closing or the clients did not understand when or why this particular ending was taking place. It is clearly expressed that ending is perhaps the most difficult part of the therapeutic process and must both client and psychotherapist must prepare for it.
In conclusion, it is safe to say that both interpersonal psychotherapy and interpersonal group therapy both have similarities; both experience client resistance, the processes instill hope to clients, and they all have positive benefits to clients. The contrast is that many people are serviced in one group for the same amount of time as one person in individual therapy, groups are cost-effective since you are able to provide therapy to many clients simultaneously. In individual counseling, you can be in counseling for years to resolve an issue. This may not be possible in the group therapy process. Therefore, both individual and group therapy are highly successful and are great in meeting the needs of people suffering from mental issues. Both Yalom and Teyber made great arguments for each process and each has merit and value.
References
Galanes, G.J., & Adams, K. (2013). Effective group discussion: Theory and practice. New York:
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Shechtman, Z., Vogel, D., & Maman, N. (2010, January). Seeking Psychological Help: A
Comparison of Individual and Group Treatment. Psychotherapy Research, 20(1), 30-36.
Teyber, E. (2000). Interpersonal process in psychotherapy: A relational approach. Wadsworth
Publishing Company.
Van Rijin, B., & Wild, C. (2016, January). Comparison of Transactional Analysis Group and
Individual Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety. Transactional
Analysis Journal, 45(1), 63-74.
Yalom, I. D. (1995). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy.
