Modified Sociometric Technique Facilitating Group Psychotherapy:

Using a Sociogram with Sharing and Reverse Sharing in a Process Group Psychotherapy Session

Authors

  • Shelley Firestone, MD, FAGPA, PAT Author

Keywords:

ambivalence, cohesion, pen and paper sociogram, process group psychotherapy, reverse sharing, sharing

Abstract

Psychodramatists often use structured techniques for creating cohesion in psychotherapy

groups, but process group psychotherapy is ordinarily unstructured. When one group

member in an ongoing psychotherapy process group voiced her ambivalence about being

in the group, the therapist introduced a structured exercise of a pen-and-paper sociogram

and directed the sharing both forward and in reverse. The result was greater connectedness

among group members, as well as increased liveliness and cohesion in the group as a

whole. This article presents the use of this directed technique and discusses the rationale,

the intervention, and the outcome.

References

Korshak, S. J., & Shapiro, M. (2013). Countering the sociodynamic effect: Using

reverse sharing to choose the unchosen. Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry, and

Group Psychotherapy, 61, 7–15.

Shapiro, M., & Korshak, S. J. (2010, March 18). Choosing the unchosen: How choosing

changes us. Paper presented at the ASGPP Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA.

Downloads

Published

2024-03-19