PHENOMENON-STRUCTURAL PSYCHOPATHOLOGY APPLIED TO PERIPATETIC GROUP THERAPY

Abstract

Peripatetic therapy, also known as therapeutic accompaniment, emerged as a form of supplementary secondary support for psychiatry, psychology and psychoanalysis patients that did not adapt to conventional clinical and hospital care modalities. The practice was notable for its non-stationary therapeutic setting, which went beyond the doctor's office or health care institution, and peripatetic group therapy has emerged as one of the ramifications of its evolutionary process. After maturing over the decades, it has now become an independent therapeutic alternative whose results often differ significantly from those of conventional psychotherapy by integrating the territorial element into therapeutic care. The study discusses a peripatetic group therapy project carried out with patients of a mental health day hospital in Brasilia, Brazil. Results are presented based on qualitative records of action research aimed at understanding the genesis and group dynamics processes involved and the application of phenomenon-structural psychopathology to the activity participants’ individual understanding of their lived experience of time and space, as well as of their own illness. The therapeutic activity, offered by the day hospital on a weekly basis (four hours per session), was observed over a period of six months. It was possible to identify that the transference relationships established between patients and therapists were a crucial element in allowing the activity to take place and participants to cope with the stress of being outdoors, far from the institutional therapeutic setting they were accustomed with. The group sessions also helped some patients exercise greater autonomy than in their households, including by providing care to other patients with less autonomy. It was also possible to note that working physically outside of conventional clinical settings makes it possible to acquire unique insights into patients and the different ways through which they experience the world. The positive results of patient interactions within and outside the group while carrying outdoor activities, their increased autonomy and the better understanding we have acquired of them allowed us to clearly envisage the importance of continuing research on what is still a little-explored topic.