Problem solving is useful, all of these things are useful, but useful in other contexts. In the group, when we have an interest in promoting feelings and an empathic understanding, these usual ways of understanding are a distraction from building trust. You said that group is a healing experience. The retreats have been going on for a number of years. The data from the retreats and the PMRI Ornish Programs around the country have shown that heart disease is reversed, meaning that not only is the disease arrested, but reversed.
Heart disease is because of excess.
Too much fat, cholesterol, too much stress, too much isolation, too many cigarettes, high blood pressure. The major problem is coronary artery blockage. If an artery is clogged with plaque, there's more of a chance of blood clot or hemorrhage and arterial spasm which produces a coronary episode. If your arteries are blocked, you are an accident waiting to happen. Stress, chronic and acute, produces the constriction of arteries.