What is a Balint Group?

It is a facilitated process of exploration for medical professionals to transform uncertainty and difficulty in the doctor-patient relationship into greater understanding and meaning. This nurtures a more therapeutic alliance between clinician and patient and it significantly improves the consultation process.

Michael Balint, a British psychoanalyst, developed a structure that enables reflection on clinical encounters. The benefits of his approach continue to be experienced worldwide in large part due to the work of the UK Balint society.

A Balint Group is a purposeful, regular meeting among clinicians, facilitated by trained leaders, who discuss the doctor-patient relationship and provide peer support. It is a tool for personal and professional resilience. These groups provide an opportunity to meet with other colleagues who are interested in Balint from many different disciplines including General Practice, Hospital medicine, Psychotherapy, Psychiatry, Psychology, Nursing, and other related disciplines.

An important by-product of this work is enhanced wellbeing for the participants through the provision of a dependable model for use in processing difficulty in their normal working week.