Group Therapy

Please contact Dr. Solomon for upcoming group therapy details, including topics discussed and availability.

Chronic Pain Group:
Time and date to be announced

The basic structure for this group is a 10-week program that combines teaching pain management skills and supportive psychotherapy. Skills such as identifying automatic thoughts and cored beliefs are taught. Patients are able to practice these skills between sessions. These skills serve to decrease anxiety, and decrease pain levels both indirectly and directly Patients can problem-solve together about impediments to using the techniques. For example, if one person reports difficulty in finding time to practice the techniques, others can share now they manage to do this. Patients also share variations of the exercises they’ve developed on their own and find more helpful.

There will be a screening of patients prior to group therapy. Patients with significant psychiatric symptoms, e.g. severe depression or suicidal thoughts, should be treated individually first, so they can reach a point where they can both benefit from a group and avoid harming the group dynamic.

A group program is often adjunct to individual work, where a patient’s personal situation can be explored in more detail. I believe group psychotherapy is a vital component of comprehensive treatment to help patients decrease their pain and reclaim their lives.

10-Week Group Psychotherapy Program

Session 1: The Stress-Pain Appraisal Connection. Learn about the stress-pain connection and the stress-appraisal connection.

Session2: Identifying Automatic Thoughts. Learn about the stews-appraisal-coping model of pain and identify automatic thoughts or images.

Session 3: Evaluating Automatic Thoughts. Learn how to evaluate and identify your automatic thought process.

Session 4: Challenging Automatic Thoughts and Constructing Alternative Responses. Learn how to challenge your negative, distorted automatic thoughts and construct realistic alternative responses.

Session 5: Intermediate and Core Beliefs. Identify general underlying belief systems. Challenge negative, distorted beliefs and construct new beliefs.

Session 6: Pain Specific Intermediate and Core Beliefs. Identify pain-related intermediate and core beliefs. Challenge negative, distorted pain-related beliefs and construct alternative beliefs.

Session 7: Coping Self-Statements. Construct and use positive coping self-statements.

Session 8: Expressive Writing. Learn and practice expressive writing.

Session 9: Assertive Communication. Learn about assertive communication. Plan an assertive communication.

Session 10: Final Session. Review concepts taught and skills learned. Provide feedback about helpful and challenging aspects. Continue to practice and include these techniques in Everyday life.