New horizons in group psychotherapy research and practice from third wave positive psychology: a practice-friendly review

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Date
2022-11-04
Authors
Marmarosh, Cheri L.
Sandage, Steven
Wade, Nathaniel
Captari, Laura E.
Crabtree, Sarah
Version
Published version
OA Version
Citation
C.L. Marmarosh, S. Sandage, N. Wade, L.E. Captari, S. Crabtree. 2022. "New horizons in group psychotherapy research and practice from third wave positive psychology: a practice-friendly review." Research in Psychotherapy, Volume 25, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2022.643
Abstract
Group psychotherapy has been shown to be equivalent to individual therapy for many disorders, including anxiety, depression, grief, eating disorders, and schizophrenia (Burlingame & Strauss, 2021). In addition to effectiveness in reducing symptoms, group offers members a sense of belonging, purpose, hope, altruism, and meaning throughout treatment (Yalom & Leszcz, 2020). These additional outcomes are especially important considering the COVID-19 pandemic and national/international conflicts, given the trauma, disruptions, and losses people have experienced. Applying recent developments in positive psychology to group therapy can enhance treatment. A practice-friendly review examined recent advances in the positive psychology literature, demonstrating how group therapy offers members unique growth opportunities in addition to reducing symptoms. Key findings from studies applying positive psychological constructs to group therapy outcomes are synthesized. Our review sheds light on the relevance of third wave positive psychology to enrich group therapy (Lomas et al., 2021). Specifically, group therapy can facilitate the development of vitalizing psychological virtues, and these can be used to assess treatment outcome: humanity, wisdom, transcendence, courage, temperance, and justice. Interrelatedly, we present support for including attachment theory and mentalization within a positive psychological group framework. Implications are explored for group therapy research, clinical work, and training.
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©Copyright: the Author(s), 2022 Licensee PAGEPress, Italy Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome 2022; 25:258-270 doi:10.4081/ripppo.2022.643 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.