The practice of Modern Group Psychotherapy: working with past trauma in the present

Modern Group Psychotherapy offers specific techniques for aiding the pre-oedipal patient to speak, connect, and achieve emotional growth. This article illustrates the use of such therapeutic group tools as joining, mirroring, bridging, contact functioning, the object-oriented question, the insulation barrier, and transient identification, through case vignettes. It demonstrates how such techniques protect fragile egos and assist them on their journey to maturity. Emphasis is placed on the creative components of countertransference as a valuable supplement in patient treatment. The power of the group as an agent for change is portrayed.