Abstract

Patients with psychotic disorders are classified as ‘’severe’’ patients who, from the beginning in the therapy literature, have been considered to need treatment by multiple therapists. Although co-therapy is often used in psychotherapy with this category of patients, the literature on this type of treatment is scarce and mainly deals with the consideration of good and bad aspects of the co-therapy relationship in non-psychotic patient groups. In this paper we present the experiences of different types of co-therapy couples in the treatment of patients with psychotic disorders in long-term group psychotherapy within the outpatient program of the ‘’Sveti Ivan’’ Psychiatric Hospital in Zagreb. The co-therapeutic relationship of equally educated and experienced therapists in group psychotherapy with psychosis offers a greater possibility of continuity, facilitating the submission of regressive behaviors arising from primitive object relations and defense mechanisms; greater possibility of containment, better understanding of the therapeutic process, easier work with counter-transfer, and the ability to plan and distribute therapeutic interventions in difficult transfer-countertransference situations. An older and younger therapist’s co-therapy relationship is potentially a good educational framework.