An invitation to join in difficulty: realizing the deeper promise of group psychotherapy

Group psychotherapy has proven effective in treating an impressive array of specific problems. Clinical experience has also shown its utility in alleviating the more general, and very costly, alienation and pain with which the human condition is often fraught. Recent changes in health care delivery reflect a marketplace that emphasizes cost containment, brevity and specificity of treatment, and a narrowed focus of training. Techniques are often valued above relationships. In this climate, we are in danger of losing sight of group therapy's deeper promise; the experiential lesson that human beings must move toward each other with involvement and a commitment to understanding in response to the inevitable difficulties that arise as we share time, space, and resources.