Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life

Group therapy originated in 1905, when American doctor Joseph Hersey Pratt held a group class on treatment for eight tuberculosis patients and found that they benefited emotionally from the experience of discussing their common situations and problems (Ezhumalai, Sinu, et al. “Group Interventions." Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 60, Feb 2018). In the following decades, group therapy was used for prison inmates, psychiatric patients, people struggling with addiction, World War II veterans, and children and adults experiencing mental illness (Ezhumalai, et al.). In 1970, Irvin Yalom published The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy and defined seven “therapeutic factors” of group therapy, namely, instillation of hope, universality, imparting information, altruism, the corrective recapitulation of the primary family group, development of socializing techniques, and imitative behavior. This work is still widely used today, as group therapy continues to be a popular and effective treatment strategy in many healthcare settings.

Tate experiences most of these therapeutic benefits throughout the text. For example, her all-female group helps her to feel universality and catharsis when they discuss their dislike of their breasts. One day, after noticing that Christie is wearing three bras, Dr. Rosen asks her, “Do you hate your breasts?” and Christie knows he will not understand her feelings (122-23). However, she can discuss the issue with her all-female group: “They all nodded when I described my lifelong hatred of my breasts and shared their own stories” (124-25). Hearing each woman’s difficult experience validates Christie’s own and makes her feel less alone. She cries after hearing their stories: In a moment of catharsis, she lets go of some of her emotional pain because she feels seen. This is just one example of Tate’s many positive experiences with group therapy, which replaces loneliness with community for its participants.