Modified Group Therapy for Substance Abusers:A Psychodynamic Approach to Relapse Prevention

The psychological factors that predispose an individual to substance abuse are the same factors involved in relapse, a major threat to recovery from a reliance on substances. Modified Dynamic Group Therapy (MDGT) is a group therapeutic approach that is sufficiently supportive and structured to provide the safety and comfort that such patients require, but unstructured enough to allow a natural unfolding of their vulnerabilities and characterological defenses that need to be identified and modified. MDGT targets and focuses on four areas of self-regulation vulnerabilities involving difficulties with feeling life (affects), self-esteem, relationships, and self-care, and the defensive, charactemlogical traits that compensate for, while they also reveal, these vulnerabilties.