Group-Analytic Contexts, Issue 80, June 2018

54 Group-Analytic Society International - Contexts
A Third Way of Psychoanalysis: Individual
and Group Therapy - Both for one Patient
By Dorothe Türk
Main Idea
The patient should NOT have to fit the treatment, but the treatment
should be adapted to suit the patient’s individual need. Hayne (1999)
called it an “adaptive indication“.
I want to explore the idea that combined therapy is very
helpful and successful, not only for patients with personality
disorders, but also for other patients. Many patients can benefit from
concurrent treatment especially those who are in psychoanalytic
therapy for the first time and for those who are very afraid of joining
a group. In my opinion, in many cases, concurrent treatment is
superior to only individual or group therapy (Türk 2016). I want to
distinguish different ways to practice combined, concurrent and
conjoint treatment:
1. Combined: One individual session is added to one group session per
week; for example, often a few single sessions are necessary during
the first experience of group therapy;
2. Concurrent: Group treatment is added to individual psychoanalytic
treatment (for instance, two individual sessions per week and one
group session). Individual treatment is added to group therapy (for
instance, one individual session plus a group session twice a week);
3. Conjoint: Therapy with two psychotherapists working together with
one patient, group therapy with one therapist and individual sessions
with the other therapist;
4. Other: Group therapy is started after a completed shorter or longer
time of individual therapy; or individual therapy begins after finishing
group therapy.
Introduction
I have been working in private practice for nearly 20 years. During the
first ten years I only practiced individual psychoanalytic treatment,
patients having normally about 2 to 4 sessions per week. Sometimes
psychoanalytic therapy requires a lot of patience because of the
slowness of the process. I have to admit, sometimes I was bored and