Practice Guidelines for Group Psychotherapy

Preface

It is a pleasure both personally and on behalf of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) to provide a preface for this important document.

This thoughtful, scholarly document has been developed by a blue ribbon Science to Service Task Force under the talented leadership of Molyn Leszcz, M.D. FRCPC, CGP, and Joseph C.  Kobos, Ph.D, ABPP, CGP, FAGPA. The Task Force was assembled in an effort to bridge the gap in the group psychotherapy field between research and clinical practice. The guiding thought was that developing a heightened awareness and capacity for integrating science with ongoing clinical practice  is not only consistent with national trends in health services, but also a useful means for persuasively demonstrating the effectiveness of group psychotherapy and  for improving the quality of care that is being delivered.   

           The Task Force was given the following broad charge: (1) formulating a relevant and useful set of practice guidelines for group psychotherapy; (2); building atop the seminal work of the CORE – R Battery Task Force by field testing the CORE-R Battery (Burlingame et al., 2006) and then supporting its wider implementation (3) developing a practice-research network; and (4) supporting AGPA’s commitment to its membership and to the field to accrue and demonstrate evidence for the effectiveness of group psychotherapy

This compilation of practice guidelines that follows constitutes our first integrated organizational response to address the challenge and growing demand for accountability.  By incorporating research findings as the bedrock for developing these guidelines, AGPA is seizing the initiative on behalf of both providers and consumers to establish more firmly evidence-based practices for conducting effective group psychotherapy.

All of AGPA can take pride in this important contribution. Assembling this comprehensive set of practice guidelines, coupled with a set of assessment tools to permit careful, standardized evaluations and feedback for ongoing clinical intervention, constitutes a giant leap forward for us and for the field of group psychotherapy.                                         

                                                            Robert H. Klein, Ph.D., ABPP, CGP, LFAGPA