New horizons in group psychotherapy research and practice from third wave positive psychology: a practice-friendly review

Group psychotherapy has been shown to be equivalent to individual therapy for many disorders, including anxiety, depression, grief, eating disorders, and schizophrenia (Burlingame & Strauss, 2021). In addition to effectiveness in reducing symptoms, group offers members a sense of belonging, purpose, hope, altruism, and meaning throughout treatment (Yalom & Leszcz, 2020). These additional outcomes are especially important considering the COVID-19 pandemic and national/international conflicts, given the trauma, disruptions, and losses people have experienced. Applying recent developments in positive psychology to group therapy can enhance treatment. A practice-friendly review examined recent advances in the positive psychology literature, demonstrating how group therapy offers members unique growth opportunities in addition to reducing symptoms. Key findings from studies applying positive psychological constructs to group therapy outcomes are synthesized. Our review sheds light on the relevance of third wave positive psychology to enrich group therapy (Lomas et al., 2021). Specifically, group therapy can facilitate the development of vitalizing psychological virtues, and these can be used to assess treatment outcome: humanity, wisdom, transcendence, courage, temperance, and justice. Interrelatedly, we present support for including attachment theory and mentalization within a positive psychological group framework. Implications are explored for group therapy research, clinical work, and training.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000061603 - John Templeton Foundation; Agmt dtd 8/11/2021 - Peale Foundationhttps://www.researchinpsychotherapy.org/index.php/rpsy/article/view/643/598Published versio

Exploring virtue ethics in psychodynamic psychotherapy: latent changes in humility, affect regulation, symptoms, and well-being

[Empirical exploration of a salutary role for virtues on both mental health symptoms and well-being has increased. Yet, tests for this role in psychotherapy have not matched research in other contexts. As such, we tested the virtue ethics premise that growth in humility could facilitate changes in symptoms and well-being in the context of contemporary relational psychotherapy (CRP; Sandage et al., 2020). CRP is grounded in three premises: (a) conceptualizing clients within their historical, familial and sociocultural contexts, (b) understanding distress as stemming from maladaptive intra- and interpersonal patterns, and (c) prioritizing a here-and-now focus within the therapeutic relationship. We proposed experiential avoidance as the mechanism whereby humility influences symptoms and well-being.]First author draf

Relational spirituality, intercultural competence, and social justice in systemic therapies

The Relational Spirituality Model (RSM) builds on relational, psychodynamic, and systemic approaches and serves as an orienting framework for clinical services and training. In this article, we provide an overview of the RSM, a pluralistic contextual approach to spirituality in clinical practice that (a) considers developmental dialectics of spiritual dwelling and seeking and (b) explores diverse ways that religious and spiritual dynamics can range from salutary to harmful. In light of growing attention to racism in U.S. society, we review salient research on justice-seeking spirituality and consider the roles of humility, differentiation, and hope in developing intercultural competence. Throughout, we consider implications for clinical practice and training.Published versio

Planting the TREE: A Faith-Based Program for Teen Dating Violence Prevention

In this case study, we describe Teen Relationship Education Empowerment (TREE), a faith-based prevention program to reduce teen dating violence (TDV). Faith communities have tremendous potential to address multilevel risk and protective factors for TDV. We first describe the program, which is a 2-session psychoeducational training for congregation members designed to encourage discussion and programming in their own faith communities on TDV prevention. We also outline lessons learned based on our experiences and the extant literature, including practical strategies for identifying and engaging potential church partners, as well as designing and delivering evidence-based, culturally resonant TDV education within faith communities. These strategies may help others who wish to contest the “holy hush” in churches around TDV and engage the larger community in important conversations about healthy, unhealthy, and abusive relationships. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed