title: Working at the Periphery: A View of Group Psychotherapy in Australia.
abstract: Australia is a vast country with a relatively small population living in cities separated by long distances. It is a wealthy country with a highly developed mental health system in which psychotherapy has a limited, but recognized, place. Group psychotherapists are a small but active community within that mental health world. Limitations in numbers, influence, and authority have left group psychotherapy on the margins of universities and major mental health organizations. A commitment to thoughtful clinical work, a willingness to reach out to vulnerable people, and some signs of flexibility in clinical approaches promise a strengthening of the role of group psychotherapy in Australia.
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland, and in private practice. He is a former president of the Australian Association of Group Psychotherapists.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: O'Brien
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D006801:Humans; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends