Group Psychodynamic-Interpersonal Psychotherapy in Practice

In this video program, Drs. Samuel F. Mikail and Giorgio A. Tasca discuss and demonstrate their approach to group therapy with Group Psychodynamic Interpersonal Psychotherapy (GPIP), a model that uses a transdiagnostic approach to conceptualizing disorders and problems that bring patients to seek psychotherapy.

This approach effectively integrates psychodynamic, attachment-based, and interpersonal models to foster client personality functions under a coherent framework. The model conceptualizes Malan’s triangle of conflict as a triangle of adaptation, such that unmet attachment needs or problems with adaptive emotions lead to inhibitory affects, which in turn may require maladaptive defense mechanisms as a means of coping.

In this video, Dr. Cheri L. Marmarosh interviews both Drs. Samuel F. Mikail and Giorgio A. Tasca about the development and efficacy of their approach, while Dr. Samuel F. Mikail conducts a group therapy session with five African-American male clients with ages spanning three generation groups.

The clients featured in the therapy demonstration discuss various issues and life events, while Dr. Mikail demonstrates how individuals with different attachment histories may navigate their initial experience in a group.

This intrapersonal dynamic has interpersonal consequences in terms of maladaptive cyclical relational patters (CRP; Strupp and Binder, 1984) that can cause interpersonal distress and lower social support.

In a pregroup preparation and assessment, individual case conceptualizations are formed based on the triangle of adaptation and the CRP; treatment goals are developed and discussed; and the client is socialized to the norms of group therapy including self-disclosure, self-reflection, and interpersonal feedback.

A key aspect of GPIP integrates a group development approach into the model to guide therapists’ interventions. That is, in early sessions GPIP therapists focus on creating a sense of security and group cohesion as well as group norms, in middle sessions therapists help clients change their intrapersonal and interpersonal patterns by examining in-group interactions facilitating interpersonal feedback, and in late session therapists help clients to consolidate these changes and work through issues related to termination and relapse prevention.

Giorgio A. Tasca, PhD, is a professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa, and holds a cross-appointment in the Department of Psychiatry. He is the director of the Psychotherapy Practice Research Network, whose mission is to improve psychotherapists’ effectiveness and patient mental health outcomes.

He is a past president of the American Psychological Association Society of Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy (Div. 49), and is the incoming editor of the journal Group Dynamics.

He is also a visiting professor at the University of Bergamo, and Scientific Director of the Scuola di Psicoterapia Integrata Bergamo.

His publications include clinical trials of Group Psychodynamic Interpersonal Psychotherapy, and research on the role of attachment theory in predicting group therapy processes and outcomes.

Samuel F. Mikail, PhD, is senior consultant, Mental Health with Sun Life Financial and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Waterloo, Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment.

He also maintains a private practice in Newmarket, ON. He is board certified in clinical psychology with the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Dr. Mikail has served on the Board of Directors of several professional associations.

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Hewitt, P. L., Mikail, S. F., Flett, G. L., Tasca, G. A., Flynn, C. A., Deng, X., ... & Chen, C. (2015). Psychodynamic/interpersonal group psychotherapy for perfectionism: Evaluating the effectiveness of a short-term treatment. Psychotherapy,52, 205-217.

Hewitt, P., Flett, G., & Mikail, S.F. (2017). Perfectionism:A relational approach to conceptualization, assessment, and treatment. New York: Guilford.

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Tasca, G.A., Ritchie, K., Conrad, G., Balfour, L., Gayton, J., .... Bissada, H. (2006). Attachment scales predict outcomes in a randomized controlled trial of two group therapies for binge eating disorder: An aptitude by treatment interaction. Psychotherapy Research, 16, 106- 121.

Tasca GA, Ritchie K, Demidenko N, Balfour L, Krysanski V, Weekes K, ... Bissada H. (2013). Matching women with binge eating disorder to group treatment based on attachment anxiety: outcomes and moderating effects. Psychotherapy Research, 23, 301-314.

Tasca, G.A., Koszycki, D., Brugnera, A., Chyurlia, L., Hammond, N., ... Balfour, L. (2018). Testing a stepped care model for binge-eating disorder: A two-step randomized controlled trial. Psychological Medicine. Published online May, 2018: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291718001277

APA Videos

• Attachment in Group Therapy: Facilitating the Group Climate
  Cheri L. Marmarosh
• Attachment-Based Psychotherapy in Practice
  Peter C. Costello
• The Therapy Relationship
  Charles G. Gelso
• Using Client Feedback in Therapy
  Barry L. Duncan
• Family Therapy With Patients Having Physical Health Problems
  Susan H. McDaniel
• Mindfulness for Well-Being
  Rezvan Ameli
• Intimate Partner Violence
  Casey T. Taft

APA Books

• Group Psychodynamic Interpersonal Psychotherapy
  Giorgio A. Tasca, Samuel F. Mikail, and Paul L. Hewitt
• Attachment in Group Psychotherapy
  Cheri L. Marmarosh, Rayna D. Markin, and Eric B. Spiegel
• Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Depressed Adolescents
  Guy S. Diamond, Gary M. Diamond, and Suzanne A. Levy
• Attachment-Based Psychotherapy: Helping Patients Develop Adaptive Capacities
  Peter C. Costello
• Grief in Childhood: Fundamentals of Treatment in Clinical Practice
  Michelle Y. Pearlman, Karen D'Angelo Schwalbe, and Marylène Cloitre
• Inside the Session: What Really Happens in Psychotherapy
  Paul L. Wachtel
• Insight in Psychotherapy
  Edited by Louis G. Castonguay and Clara E. Hill
• The Real Relationship in Psychotherapy: The Hidden Foundation of Change
  Charles J. Gelso