Article: "Why Group Therapy Worked"
by David Payne
New York Times, August 11, 2015
Why Group Therapy Worked is a personal reflection on how group therapy led to meaningful change in his life when individual therapy did not.
He first entered individual therapy in the late 1980s, finding it intellectually enriching but ultimately ineffective in fostering real behavioral change. Despite six years of therapy, he remained in an unhappy relationship and continued struggling with alcoholism. He describes this experience as gaining erudition but not transformation.
In 2004, facing deep personal crises—an unhappy marriage, the death of his younger brother, and worsening alcoholism—he reluctantly joined group therapy. Initially, he struggled, frequently “erasing” others’ contributions and resisting emotional dependency. The group’s candid feedback forced him to confront his patterns of avoidance and self-deception, particularly in his marriage and relationships.
Unlike individual therapy, which focused on past wounds, group therapy illuminated his current behaviors and their impact on others. Over time, this confrontation led to genuine change: he achieved sobriety, reevaluated his marriage, and eventually left it in search of a healthier, more fulfilling life. Payne concludes that group therapy’s effectiveness lay in its multiple mirrors—offering unfiltered perspectives—and its emphasis on present actions rather than past injuries. This painful but necessary self-awareness was what
ultimately enabled his transformation.