The Impact of a Weekend Group Experience on Individual Therapy

Counteracting the Deviance of Depression: Peer Support Groups for Victims

“…Of these, 92.5% reported that the groups had been an overall success, and only 20% reported that any participants had been negatively affected. Interestingly, these failure and casualty rates are quite comparable to those for more professionally directed therapy groups (Yalom et al, 1977;. However, we were still interested in finding out how the victims themselves reported being affected by support groups.…”

Negative outcome in psychotherapy: A critical review.

“…There is one other source of information on outcome that is specific to groups and possibly inpatient settings. Yalom et al (1977) noted that the most effective raters in identifying patients who deteriorated in group therapy were other group members. Other patients were more effective at identifying casualties than were therapists or even the casualties themselves.…”

“…Much psychotherapy is administered to a wide variety of patients with the assumption that either psychotherapy is helpful, or at least, it won't harm the patient. The proposition that psychotherapy is always harmless has frequently been called into question (Bergin & Lambert, 1978; Beutler, Crago & Arizmendi, 1986; Mohr et al, 1990; Strupp et al, 1977; Yalom, Bond, Bloch, Zimmerman, & Friedman, 1977). Although the issue of whether or not psychotherapy is actually responsible for the deterioration seen in treatment remains an open question, it is at the very least unable to halt deterioration in some patients.…”

“…In a study that compared outcomes in affect‐arousing weekend encounter groups and a meditation control group, the affect‐arousing groups produced some negative outcomes while the control group produced none (Yalom et al, 1977). Out of 23 patients, the affect‐arousing group produced 2 severe “casualties” (9%) by patient reports and 4 (17%) by reports of the patients’ regular individual therapists.…”

Predictors of deterioration among patients with substance‐use disorders

“…Shapiro and Shapiro (1982) found that 11% of 1828 effect sizes were negative. In a series of studies of group therapy, Yalom and colleagues (Lieberman, Yalom, & Miles, 1973;Yalom, Bond, Bloch, Zimmerman, & Friedman, 1977;Yalom & Lieberman, 1971) noted that between 8 and 17% of participants experienced negative effects, such as increased depression and anxiety, and poorer interpersonal functioning. Mohr (1995) summarized more than 40 outcome studies in which patient deterioration was identified; the percentage of patients who deteriorated ranged from less than 3% to as high as 80%.…”