Balint groups in cognitive behavioral supervision

Abstract

The Balint group, initially created as a psychoanalytical supervisory approach for clinicians to explore and express their personal experience in daily practice, can be successfully adopted in CBT supervision: assessment, conceptualization, intervention's finding, exploring the relationship and enhancing self-reflection. The Balint group, preferably consisting up to 16 therapists or students, takes place in a nighty minutes group format, with safe and emphatic, curious atmosphere during case explanation, questions, fantasies of the group about case, other essential persons and about practical solutions and reflection of the case presenter (protagonist). The group can achieve goals of CBT supervision using positives of group work and emphatic, less defensive and curious way. Although the Balint group have substantial cognitive work, emphatic and caring atmosphere, fantasies, but not statements, and emotional impact give experiential work features. This topic is less known in the literature of CBT supervision, yet from our personal practice can be an essential method of developing for the therapist. In the last few years, there have been efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of Balint groups of clinicians in changing their attitudes and values and preliminary results show increasing psychological skills, tolerance, and reflection in uncertain situations.