Psychiatric residents’ experience about Balint groups: A qualitative study using phenomenological approach in Iran

Previous research has shown that Balint groupis effective in the professional and personal development ofresidents. The aim of this study was to investigate the experienceof psychiatric residents about Balint groups. This is a qualitative study using a phenomenologicalapproach. Seven sessions of the Balint groups were held witha number of psychiatric residents at Mazandaran Universityof Medical Sciences. Two of the leaders were psychoanalyticpsychotherapist. Finally, eight in-depth semi-structuredinterviews and focused group interview were conducted. Datawere collected by tape recorded interviews. Data were analyzedusing MAXQDA-10 software. Three main themes were obtained from the interviewsthat included “Early experiences”, “Touching the Balint group”and “Relationship with Balint group”. The category of “Earlyexperiences” included three categories of “defenseless”, “fire underthe ashes” and “deep feeling”. Touching the Balint group themeincluded categories such as “Empathetic”, “I am not the only one...”, “Releasing”, “Reading story”, “This patient”, and “Gettingcloser”. The relationship with Balint group theme included threecategories of “first of all”, “attachment” and “courage and time”. Based on the findings of this study, while someaspects of Balint group are stressful but ultimately improve theemotions and better understanding of the patient. This researchshows incorporating Balint group into the educational programand curriculum of psychiatric residents in Iran might be helpful,but more qualitative and quantitative research is necessary.