Eating disorders characterize problematic relationship with eating and self image. Treatment should include multiple strategies, including the group approach. This study aimed to: present reflection on the dynamics of group therapy for eating disorder patients attended at a specialized service and investigate the patients' psychological dynamics, based on the countertransferential resonances the researcher experienced. Observation records in a field diary were analyzed, related to 21 consecutive group meetings. The material was submitted to thematic content analysis. The results were structured in three thematic axes: impacting experiences mobilized in contact with patients; patients' demand for help to find the words lost, as a way to access the representability of the feelings elided from the mental space through the unaffectedness operation; countertransferential feelings experienced by the researcher. The implications for treatment were discussed, with a view to seeking strategies that enhance a therapeutic environment that facilitates psychosomatic integration.
Group psychotherapy; eating disorders; psychosomatic medicine