Co-therapeutic team as the integrative constituent of group psychotherapy for patients with psychosis on acute psychiatric ward

Abstract

Background:Basic features of group psychotherapy for patients with acute psychosis are:focus on the sharing of psychotic experiences;different ways of interactive connections and transpersonal relations between patients and staff members;different realities represented, realized and interpretated by the participants;high risk of self stigmatization;paradoxical tension between the urgency readiness of psychiatric environment and the reflective attitude of group work.Methods:A modified group analytic technique with free-floating discussion (Foulkes) is used to understand psychotic experiences. Group processes and symbolic contents are analysed on structural and communicative perspective.Results:The maintainance of complex group work clAims:clear and stable boundaries;creative possibility of potential space (Winnicott);relational capacity of the stuff;and high level of integration between the group and the institutional system.Conclusion:Co-therapeutic team facilitates integration in both direction:as a part of the group it helps the socialization of group members on the field of psychological work;as a part of the whole stuff of the department it supports connections around the group.The individual team member takes double role in the reality of the group: co-therapist and group member. The integration and conflicts between these roles should be interpretated in the context of the group.