- Group Cohesiveness — strong positive connections and feelings between group members based on being a valued member of an emotionally close-knit group
- Universality– awareness that “it’s not just me”, that many other good people struggle with similar issues
- Venting Feelings — relief of tension & anxiety by expressing strong feelings in words to other safe, interested people
- Giving Hope — seeing, saying and sharing possible paths to relief, improvement and happiness
- Information — learning & re-learning facts about life problems: forgotten, or not yet known
- Altruism — supporting and helping others feels Very good, & lasts a long time, similar to the “Volunteer Effect”
- Learning Socializing Techniques –absorbing the repeated positive outcomes of experiencing more satisfying ways of presenting one’s self & of relating to others
- Imitative Behavior — using behavior patterns “modeled” by the therapist and other group members
- Existential Factors — learning to deal appropriately with the un-avoidable experiential themes of human life — for example: life, death, loss, freedom, and individual responsibility for one’s self.
- Corrective Family Recapitulation — “growing-up again” emotionally , this time in the functional “family” experience of the Group.
- Interpersonal Learning/Social Microcosm — experiencing the Group as a clear representation (in small) of the rest of “real, everyday life”, and recognizing one’s impact, influence on, and sometimes distorted perception of other people.
Adapted from I. Yalom – Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy (1995)
