Group Psychotherapy for Survivors of Suicide to Go Beyond Support.

Abstract

Introduction

Survivors of suicide are generally supported by many kind of interventions focused on containing the pain and the grief of the loss at the most. The holding capacity of these approaches is essential but the experience taught us that survivors need more than just support. In many cases there is the possibility to work on the resources they have to go beyond and to resolve the dynamics that the loss had let emerge.

Aims

Aim of this paper is to present an experience of group psychotherapy with survivors of suicide.

Methods

The group was made of 6 survivors, weekly sessions, 12 in total, 1h 30m each, 2 psychotherapists with more than 5 years of clinical experience focused on suicide. The approach to the group was to understand and to resolve the dysfunctional dynamics that each of them had with the suicide and/or with the people around (family, parents, friends and so on) before and after his or her death.

Results

The emerging and the comprehension of the dysfunctional dynamics helped the survivors to manage in a better way anguish and pain, resolving the grief and mostly to find the possibility of beginning again a life even with such a dramatic loss always present.

Conclusions

The approaches to help the survivors of suicide are not only supportive. The elaboration of the dynamics that the loss had enhanced can require a targeted psychotherapy as our model of group psychotherapy showed.