No abstract

Therapeutic factors in group therapy are a series of action mechanisms that contribute to change in therapeutic processes. They are inherent to group dynamics and interaction, yet are not necessarily associated with a therapist’s intervention. These factors are elemental components of a therapeutic change phenomenon derived from the group matrix. We present five studies that thoroughly evaluate these therapy factors within groups of patients diagnosed with psychosis. All factors are measured with the Yalom Q-sort questionnaire that defines factors based on their value given by the patients. We evaluate and report these value differences between group context, patient diagnosis, and therapeutic orientation. Therapeutic factors act independently of diagnoses, theoretical framework, and classification; they are intrinsic components of unique group dynamics. In general, the factor claimed to be most important in patients with severe mental disorders was the instillation of hope.

Although there is great interest and development in the investigation of group therapeutic factors, there are few studies regarding group psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients. Given the importance of both aspects in our work, the authors of this work have analyzed the therapeutic factors for schizophrenic patients in two types of group psychotherapy - inpatients and outpatients - based on Yalom's questionnaire of the therapeutic factors (altruism, cohesiveness, universality, interpersonal learning output and input, guidance, catharsis, identification, family re-enactment, comprehension, instillation of hope and existential factors) and applying the Q-sort method to analyze it. The aim is to learn the preferential evaluations of the therapeutic factors in each group in order to establish similarities and differences with regard to the type of therapy, group stage and type of patient, and to establish guidance to enable us to approach the psychotherapy with more specific and adequate techniques.