Irvin D. Yalom - The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy

Existential Psychotherapy

Every Day Gets a Little Closer: A Twice-Told Therapy (with Ginny Elkin)

Encounter Groups: First Facts (with Morton A. Lieberman and Matthew B. Miles)

Inpatient Group Psychotherapy

Concise Guide to Group Psychotherapy (with Sophia Vinogradov)

Loves Executioner

When Nietzsche Wept

Lying on the Couch

Momma and the Meaning of Life

The Gift of Therapy

The Schopenhauer Cure

Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

Creatures of a Day

Becoming Myself

A Matter of Death and Life (with Marilyn Yalom)

Treating the Elderly with Psychotherapy: The Scope for Change in Later Life (with Joel Sadavoy)

Psychotherapy Essentials to Go: Achieving Psychotherapy Effectiveness (with Clare Pain, Jon Hunter, Robert Maunder, and Paula Ravitz)

F IFTEEN YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE THE FIFTH EDITION OF this textbook was published. Our task in this sixth edition is to describe the new and significant innovations in group therapy that have emerged during these years. We are pleased and grateful to continue our long collaboration, which began forty years ago at Stanford University. We have approached our work together as seasoned co-therapists and in writing this edition have sought to support and challenge one another. We write largely as we, with an interweaving of both voices. At certain points, to identify an experience personal to one of us, we switch to first person and include a parenthetical abbreviation to indicate which of us is taking over the narration (IY or ML).

Our aim is to provide our readers with a synthesis of new knowledge and accrued wisdom in the practice of group therapy. We make extensive use of clinical illustrations to bring these concepts and principles to life and make the book both practical and instructive. Like previous editions, this one is intended for students, trainees, and frontline practitioners as well as supervisors and teachers.

Since group therapy was first introduced in the 1940s, it has continued to adapt to reflect changes in clinical practice. As new clinical syndromes, settings, and theoretical approaches have emerged, so have corresponding variants of group therapy. The multiplicity of forms is so evident today that it makes more sense to speak of group therapies than of group therapy. The evidence is consistently strong, across all ages and clinical needs, that group therapy is effective, generally with outcomes equivalent to those of individual therapy, and far less costly. This is true both for mental health and for substance use disorder treatment as well as for the medically ill.

The Internet makes group therapy far more accessible today than it was in the predigital world. Geography is no longer the barrier to therapy that it once was. New technological platforms create new opportunities and challenges for group therapists: What is the same and what is different as group therapy moves from the group room to the group screen? These are questions we will address in this volume in a new chapter focused on online psychotherapy groups (see ).

Now, as clients from diverse ethnocultural backgrounds access group therapy, whether in North America or elsewhere, it is important for therapists to develop a multicultural orientation as well as sensitivity and expertise in cultural adaptation. Therapy groups have always been settings for difficult dialogues and discourse; race and gender identity issues can be effectively addressed in a responsive therapy group environment (see ). Group therapy is a powerful vehicle for working with traumatized and displaced individuals.