Conflict and Mediation

Dispute Resolution and Mediation

Mediation is a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution, where the mediator takes the role of a neutral third party in assisting two or more parties in dispute to seek some resolution.

Mediation is different from arbitration and conciliation, in that a mediator cannot impose solutions or decisions, however the mediator can facilitate the exploration of issues preventing any joint decisions being achieved.

Dispute Resolution and Family Dispute Resolution

It is now required by the law that separating families make an genuine effort to resolve disputes relating to separation and divorce as an alternative to court. This includes disputes about parenting arrangements and financial matters. A genuine effort to resolve disputes must be made before separating partners can apply to the Family Court. A certificate may be issued by the family dispute resolution practitioner allowing the way for an application to court. 

Family Dispute Resolution is a means of resolving the disputes without a third party (the family court) making a decision, and can save time, money and stress.

It is important to appreciate the fact that dispute, conflict, argument, difference and disagreement are an integral, healthy and ordinary part of everyday life.

It is also a fact however that some matters of dispute between people escalate to the point that the parties have less influence over the process and outcome than they would like. The interaction between the parties threatens to get out of hand and out of control. Such disputes are often emotionally paralysing and mentally all consuming for those caught up in the dispute itself. People often behave in ways that they regret and reflect poorly upon them. Aggression, verbal abuse and violence are not at all infrequent in such matters.

An expert mediator, conciliator or arbitrator is a professional and neutral third party who is able to genuinely appreciate the position and perspective of each side to the dispute. Balance is the hallmark of such professionals and they are able to work fairly and equitably with all to achieve a durable resolution of a matter that initially may have appeared intractable.

How does the group process work?

The Process:

A newcomer to the group is greeted by many transference reactions. Early relatedness in the group are those of maximal distortions; later, just before termination, these patterns are based on more real foundations, the departing members tending to see themselves as they actually are

During the early sessions patients are increasingly made aware of their relationships with family members and other influential figures. It is pointed out to the members how frequently they respond to another group member or the leader as though s/he were a significant person in either the present or past. There is a tendency for each patient to see the group in terms of his/her own family and others with authority.

Initially obvious attempts are made to turn the group into a classroom, this should be resisted by the therapist. Toward the end of therapy, as the person is about to leave, there is generally a much more real (actual) meeting.

The Use of the Interaction

The therapist initiates a search of the past reasons to be found for the present behaviour: an attempt to remember rather than repeat. This is the reflective stance, which the therapist does first alone, and later with the others when they develop co-therapeutic ability.

If the group is organised according to the homogenous nature of the members’ complaints, the members will meet only to discuss an impairment, hoping to get some relief from it, while at the same time getting the attention of the group and the therapist. When the group stresses the status of the therapist, making her their leader, they become her followers and avoid analysis of transference.

Worse still, if the therapist sees herself as leader, and the group members merely as her followers, analysis of transference-countertransference is avoided. Some special purpose groups, not therapy groups are run along these lines – I would call them educational groups. Here the therapist remains the leader throughout, constantly being directive. The group never becomes “member centered”, always remaining “leader-led”.

The therapist, through insistence on group therapy, indicates that she alone cannot help the patient and that they need the group to assist them. The group therapist, unlike the individual therapist, goes against her fantasy that she is the sole healer, and recognises the capacity of all people to help one another. Group members are accepted as “co-therapists” which enhances each member’s worth.

The group-analytic group can be described as a series of emotional states, thus the conductor can at all times ask: “What is the group really doing at this moment? Is it attempting to avoid, or to get to a problem?”

Provide the group with little structure or direction and the initial reactions of patients is anger or confusion – this is used as material for exploration. The emphasis is on the interpretation of group behaviour rather than on individual behavior.

Group psychotherapy experience represents a microcosm of the world, the loneliness and isolation that patients experience is part of the total anxiety the world experiences.

Some people advocate that patients undergoing long-term drug therapy should be seen in groups. 

Countertransference in Groups - definition

*Definition of Countertransference

Countertransference concerns the therapists relation to the patient. The term is often loosely used to describe the whole of the therapist’s feelings and attitude towards her patient. Such a usage is very different from what was originally intended, and as a consequence confusion has arisen about the precise meaning of the term.

Freud (1910) originally saw counter-transference as a sort of ‘resistance’ in the analyst towards her patient, a resistance due to arousal of unconscious conflicts by what the patient says, does or represents to the analyst. (Therapists blind spots – impose limitations on the work that the therapist does) e.g. if an analyst is threatened by her own unconscious homosexual feelings, she may be unable to detect any homosexual implications in the patient’s material, or she may react with undue irritation to homosexual thoughts or wishes in the patient, may sidetrack the patient, etc.

In 1950 Analysts started to focus on the positive value on counter-transference. Here the analysts emotional responses to the understanding of the patient are seen as a key to the understanding of the patient (yet the analyst does not necessarily discuss this with the patient).

Countertransference, the therapists’ psychopathology, is always present in group psychotherapy.

Because of the transference (and countertransference) the perception or conception of another individual is distorted. 

How does the group work - the theory

Transference and Countertransference as Basic to Analytic Group Therapy

Because the patient transfers onto the group members/therapist, it allows him/her to form an intensive relationship of dependence, and it reflects the degree of their maturity or the amount of psychopathology present. The therapist should use the transference constructively. It exists, even if he/she is not aware of it or doesn’t use it. The presence and recognition of transference establishes analytic group psychotherapy as distinct from the encounter and humanistic psychology movements. The therapist watches for the transference, uses it, and works it through before a patient leaves the group.

Transference and countertransference differ in the group from that in individual sessions, the definitions from Freud still hold.

* Definition of the Transference:

The concept of transference can only be appreciated in terms of its historical development, different schools emphasise different aspects.

Freud referred to transference as “an almost inexhaustible subject”. The patients’ modes of relating in the therapy group are similar to those they use outside of treatment.

Transference is the process in which a person projects  a pattern of adaption which was developed in a previous life situation to a current life situation; s/he then displaces the affect  from that situation to the present situation.

Although the intensity of the transference on any one individual is reduced, the total emotional feeling is multiplied and intensified by the group situation.

Transference can be observed, clarified, and reduced, with a resulting fundamental change in the personality of the patient.

Transference makes the other person appear to be what they are not. Transference makes the perceived appear to be another.

Characteristics are put into the other that they do not have. It can emphasise or de-emphasise a person out of all proportion. Success in group psychotherapy depends largely on making transference overt, and working through them.

Psychotherapy Group starting Shortly

Group Analytic theory provides a model that integrates the intrapsychic with the interpersonal

Group Analysis (or group-analytic psychotherapy) is an established form of group therapy based on the view that deep and lasting change can occur within a carefully constituted group, whose combined membership reflects the wider society.

The group provides a thinking and feeling space without the pressure of being goal directed. Personal issues are explored in an atmosphere of trust and confidentiality.

Through the relationships which develop within the group a living demonstration is provided of how past patterns of behaviour can reproduce themselves in the present, blocking growth and creativity. Analysis of this process opens the way for change.

The group also provides a nurturing environment within which it becomes possible to recover from traumatic life experiences. Other therapeutic effects arise from the opportunity to see oneself through the eyes of others, and to participate in the therapy of other group members. Everyone uses the group differently, at their own pace.

How to create a space for thinking and understanding, too much structure may take this away, but do need some management in groups esp kids groups

A structured group sacrifices the essentially analytic approach to the inner world of the child, it can obscure us getting to know the inner conflicts of the person.

A Psychoanalytic group therapist aims to follow the person’s communications and explore the inner workings of the their mind.

Watch out for our understanding yourself group.

Child Sexual Abuse:
The long term consequences for children who experience systematic or sustained sexual abuse are well known: issues with differentiation (development of identity and sexual identity), problems in attachment (in ongoing and future relationships), and development of mental health issues and substance use problems (Watkins & Bentovim, 1992). Perpetrators of child sexual abuse exploit and corrupt the normal attachment and differentiation processes (Isely, et al, 2008) and in doing so create significant challenges in the development of sexuality, sexual identity and future intimate relationships for the developing individual.
Men who have been sexually abused as children have not usually been well supported by the caring professions. Men who were sexually abused as children are less likely to seek treatment, and if seeking treatment, are less likely to disclose their abuse history, than women in the same situation (Gold, et al, 1999). The shame which is commonly felt by survivors of sexual abuse is often further compounded for men due to the differential impact of same-sex abuse (Nathanson, 1989). Often the revelation of abuse leads to fractures in the internal and external world of the adult survivor, worsening the challenges faced in recovery.

Depression and Relationships

Major Depressive Disorder impacts a significant amount of people across the world, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) predicting that by 2030 depression will account for the highest disability in the world (WHO, 2008). When focused on the Individual this is a staggering prospect, but it is even more severe when considered in the context of the individual’s social field. The impact of depression is not only felt by the individual who is diagnosed but also their families and those with whom they have significant relationships.

It is reported that depression and relationship problems commonly occur in a bidirectional fashion where depressed married individuals report poorer marital adjustment, and poor martial adjustment has been seen to predict increases in depressive symptoms (Whisman & Beach, 2012). Some researchers have suggested that the ability of females empathic accuracy (ability to infer and understand their partners’ thoughts and feelings) is reduced when depressed (Gadassi, Mor & Rafaeli, 2011). This finding is not seen directly in males; however partners of depressed females who display the reduced empathic accuracy do tend to show a similar reduction of their partner.  As such, couples therapy, and interventions that focus on the individual’s family system, is a promising therapeutic option for people in distressed relationships (Whisman & Beach, 2012)