Harm Reduction Therapy Groups: Engaging Drinkers and Drug Users in a Process of Change

Harm reduction psychotherapy is the newest approach to engaging and working with substance users and abusers. It combines public health principles and interventions, motivational interviewing, and psychiatric treatment with psychodynamic psychotherapy to create an integrated model of treating individuals with substance abuse and psychiatric or emotional problems. In groups, harm reduction psychotherapy exposes group members to the continuum of drug use and abuse and to the continuum of motivation to change addictive behaviors. Members are encouraged to work through their impulses to use alcohol or other drugs in the context of a diverse group. This paper focuses on an ongoing psychotherapy group of men and women who use or abuse different drugs and are at different stages of change and is well-illustrated with examples of group interactions. (C) 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.