Group Therapists’ Experience of Group Impasse Author:Shu-Chun Lin, Li-Fei Wang, Pey-Ling Shieh
Research Article
The current study was to explore the group therapists’ experience of group impasse. There were 22 group therapists (4 males and 18 females, age 25-46, mean age=34.4) with mean group counseling experience of 7.3 years and mean counseling experience of 9.5 years. Data were collected by individual in-depth interviews and analyzed by a discovery-oriented qualitative method. The findings indicated that there were five major types of group impasse experience: (a) group atmosphere impasse, (b) members’ resistance against group therapists; (c) conflicts between members, (d) members’ problematic characteristics, and (e) conflicts amongtherapists and co-therapists. The effective interventions were: (a) restraining negative feelings, (b) focusing on here and now, (c) directly facing group impasses and members’ affects and needs. The detailed results and suggestions for further research and practice were discussed.