nificant experience in a basic human interaction group at the National
Training Laboratory in Bethel, Maine, expanded Holmes's interest in
using group therapy as a technique to promote psychological health
among adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Finally, for both Holmes and
Gordon, the 1978 Primary Prevention Conference on Social Competency
held at the University of Vermont confirmed the theoretical and practical
position that social competency development is a central ingredient in
adolescent group work.

Heckel's experience in basic human interaction at the National Train-
ing Laboratory played a major role in expanding his already established
interest in group psychotherapy. His early work in clinical practice,
which focused on children, adolescents, and parents' struggles, set the
stage for his strong interest in the adolescent developmental years and
for his later clinical work with groups of teenagers.

Gordon's clinical and teaching experience in systems-oriented family
therapy significantly shaped her view of adolescent "psychopathology"
and helped with the evolution of our group therapy approach. The theo-
retical perspectives of family therapists such as Haley, Hoffman, and
Papp encouraged Gordon and Holmes to explore and define problem
behaviors in terms of the adaptive or protective functions they served in
the adolescents' family and social systems.

The data for this book come from the research literature on group
dynamics, group psychotherapy with adolescents, the psychological
and psychiatric literature on adolescent development, and more than
one hundred adolescents seen in group therapy. The adolescent pa-
tients have been our teachers, and we have a strong feeling of kinship
with those young people and a sense of gratitude for what they have
given us during their time in group therapy. Consequently, we feel
there is a mandate operating for us to capture both the research liter-
ature and clinical data in a useful way for current and future practi-
tioners of adolescent group psychotherapy.

Appreciation is expressed to the Unversity of South Carolina School of
Medicine for Holmes's sabbatical in 1986, which enabled him to start the
process of writing this book. Thanks go to Josephine Evans, who typed
the initial version of the manuscript. Special appreciation and thanks are
tendered to Melissa Mills Herring for her skilled editing and typing of
the final version of the manuscript.

-x-