Partnership in Psycho-Social Group Intervention for Cancer Patients: Factors to Creating Group Dynamics

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to conduct a psycho-social group intervention consisting of 3 parts, educate patients on methods to cope with stress and solve problems, hold group discussions and practice progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) for cancer patients, and investigate the way that group dynamics work in psycho-social group interventions in Japan. METHODS Three facilitators and 2 sub-facilitators who conducted the group intervention for breast cancer patients were qualitatively and inductively analyzed using a phenomenological approach. RESULTS As a result, "hard effort," "harmony of the whole group" and "collaboration between therapists" were extracted as the partnership functions of participants that work on the creation of group dynamics in psycho-social group interventions. There was a structure in which "harmony of the whole group" and "collaboration between therapists" coexisted based on the basic attitude of "hard effort." CONCLUSION It was considered that these 3 intervention forms are involved in group dynamics in which participants can easily hold discussions, and are techniques necessary for group intervention contributing to changes in the psychological distress and the coping of participants.