Abstract
The term “sociotherapy” is used for interventions that emphasize modification of the environment, including interpersonal relationships, as a means of alleviating distress and facilitating wellbeing. Sociotherapy focuses on the social dimension of human experience rather than the intrapsychic, viewing change in external context and social relationships as powerful agents of internal change. Linking sociotherapy to social work’s person-in-environment perspective, the chapter explores the basis of sociotherapy in ecological and social identity theory. It then addresses the question of why and how environmental factors contribute to a theory of change. While there is no coherent theoretical or empirical basis to link specific aspects of environment to specific aspects of mental health, a major strength of sociotherapy lies in its capacity for integration into any clinical practice. Consideration of sociotherapy as a complement rather than a replacement for psychotherapy can also help to resolve the false dichotomy of internal versus external mechanisms of change and locate sociotherapy within person-centered models of healthcare.
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Probst, B. (2016). Person-Centered Sociotherapy. In: Mezzich, J., Botbol, M., Christodoulou, G., Cloninger, C., Salloum, I. (eds) Person Centered Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39724-5_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39724-5_20
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