The psychological factors that predispose an individual to substance abuse are the same factors involved in relapse, a major threat to recovery from a reliance on substances. Modified Dynamic Group Therapy (MDGT) is a group therapeutic approach that is sufficiently supportive and structured to provide the safety and comfort that such patients require, but unstructured enough to allow a natural unfolding of their vulnerabilities and characterological defenses that need to be identified and modified. MDGT targets and focuses on four areas of self‐regulation vulnerabilities involving difficulties with feeling life (affects), self‐esteem, relationships, and self‐care, and the defensive, characterological traits that compensate for, while they also reveal, these vulnerabi