In their own words: therapeutic factors for adolescents who have learning disabilities

A qualitative study explored the therapeutic elements in psychodynamic group therapy for adolescents with learning disabilities and related psychosocial problems. Four boys and four girls, diagnosed with learning disabilities, were interviewed on completion of group therapy, to obtain their subjective experiences. Therapeutic factors were identified, grouped, and found to be operative through an interpersonal process, termed mutual recognition. Mutual recognition is defined as the adolescents realizing that they saw themselves in the others and that the others saw themselves in the participants. The subcategories were trust, connection, and group issues/process. The subcategories were interactive: they contributed to, and were influenced by, mutual recognition.