A healing herd: benefits of a psychodynamic group approach in treating body-focused repetitive behaviors.

Body-focused repetitive behaviors, such as trichotillomania and skin-picking, are not well understood in clinical communities. Research and practice with a population exhibiting these behaviors have focused almost exclusively on the usefulness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in symptom reduction. The author specializes in treating patients with body-focused repetitive behaviors and suggests that a holistic, psychodynamic model of treatment for this population creates possibilities for deeper change. Group therapy can be an important component of this work, helping clients to overcome resistance to change, ameliorate shame, work through dissociation, and regulate emotions. This process is explored in an examination of a psychodynamic therapy group with pickers and pullers.