Behavioural therapy in a group — Review of research on behavioural therapy and group psychotherapy indicates that both therapists and investigators are interested in a combination of these methods of psychotherapy.
One can find two different ways: a behavioural therapy program suitable for several people at a time and application of learning principles (mainly operant conditioning) in a group therapy. An attempt is made to combine both methods without losing the benefits of both.
A two-year experience in a therapy group is presented: 8 phobic patients come together once a week for 1% hour. They are supposed to talk about their problems and they learn to apply the principles of behavioural problemsolving to their own and other members' problems. Every patient develops his own program; desensitization in vivo, assertive training, etc. It is an open group: a patient leaves when he can handle his problems on his own. The advantage of this group in comparison with individual treatment is the recognition of phobic problems by phobic people. Only they realy know what it is to be phobic. The therapist is not useful for this purpose: he doesn't know what real anxiety is. Main reason to continue this group therapy are the results. It is possible to combine behavioural therapy and group psychotherapy without losing the benefits of both of them.