The development and maturation of group intervention techniques have conferred more and more to group
therapy the characteristics of an effective intervention technique on many pathologies and from the ‘70s there
has been a progressive application of this technique to the specific field of addiction therapy with a growing consensus
by specialists for the positive outcomes supported by scientific literature.
Also in Italy, the use of this work tool is a reality that is characterizing more and more the practice in different
clinical areas of addiction and group intervention has become one of the main therapeutic resources of outpatient
and hospital team for the wide range of possible strategies and for the high number of patients that is possible
to treat effectively, combining the criteria of efficacy and of efficiency.
This article highlights the specific processes and dynamics of psychodynamic oriented psychotherapeutic group
treatment, which aims to develop a better self-protective ability not only trough the identification and experimentation
of new psyco-behavioural strategies different from the dysfunctional ones of substance abuse but also
trough the acquisition of instruments and resources to find your own “welfare system”, affective, emotional,
physic and mental, and to try to keep it in balance as much as possible