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In reconstructive therapy the thrust is to resolve as much of a patient's problems as can be achieved though procedures may vary from traditional psychoanalysis, to psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy and psychotherapy in groups, to combined group and individual therapy. In the treatment of homosexual patients, it has been my practice to conduct individual therapy and at an appropriate point introduce into a group those for whom a group experience holds promise. In combined therapy, individual and group treatment are concurrent and the events in each setting articulate to provide an integrated, therapeutic experience for each patient.
The first therapy group that included homosexuals only was formed in 1955 by Samuel Hadden (1958), a pioneer in the field. He found that this kind of homogeneous group had greater advantages than a mixed group and my own experience entirely confirms this. In private practice, however, one usually does not have a varied enough patient population to form this or that type of group but because colleagues know of my work with homosexuals, I have had numerous enough referrals to permit me to organize an open-ended, continuous, homogeneous group of homosexual men. Many fewer lesbians have requested treatment. I treated only one such woman in a group and it was comprised of heterosexual men and women. By the time she joined it following individual analysis, she was no longer homosexual and no especial problems arose.