A group psychotherapist runs therapy for several people together, usually six to eight members meeting with one or two therapists present. Rather than the therapist being the sole source of insight, much of the actual work is done by the group itself: members recognise their own patterns reflected in others, sometimes more clearly than they could see them alone, and the relationships that form within the group tend to surface exactly the kind of difficulties that brought people there in the first place.
A different mechanism from individual therapy
This is a genuinely different mechanism from individual therapy, since a pattern that only shows up in relationships, difficulty trusting others, a tendency to withdraw under pressure, a pull toward conflict, has somewhere to actually play out and be worked with in real time, rather than being described secondhand to a therapist.
A British tradition, and a practical advantage
Group analysis, developed in Britain by S.H. Foulkes, is the main UK tradition within this field. Group therapy suits relationship difficulties, isolation, and long-standing patterns particularly well, and it costs considerably less than individual therapy, which makes it a genuinely practical option as well as a clinically effective one for many presentations.