What is Group Therapy?
Group counseling can be incredibly effective in supporting growth and change. It is often a more powerful tool for change than individual therapy alone. While initially it can make people anxious to think about talking about personal issues in front of strangers, once a group is up and running group members typically find tremendous support in the group and group process. Groups offer you the opportunity to receive understanding, support, and encouragement from others facing similar issues and gain different perspectives, ideas, and viewpoints on those issues. Most personal problems are interpersonal in nature. Very often they stem from our relationships or from our personal patterns of relating. Group therapy offers the rare opportunity to explore and understand how you relate to others and get specific feedback on how others react to you.
Group therapy is when about 3-12 clients, who do not know each other outside of the therapy setting, meet weekly with a therapist to participate in a therapeutic experience that is designed for individual enrichment. Group therapy can address issues that are as broad as the human experience or as narrow as a specific, shared symptom. Interventions range from psychoeducation to observations of how individuals interact with others in the here-and-now intimacy of a group. Group therapy is a faster, cheaper way to help clients develop the ability to connect with, hear, and trust others.
The most common question is "Why would someone subject themselves to talking about their deepest secrets with a group full of strangers?!?" Conversely, clients sometimes ask, "Why would I want to listen to other people's problems? Wouldn't that just make me feel worse?" In both cases, the answer is that group therapy is an opportunity for clients to identify with what is universal about their life experiences, reduce feelings of shame, and develop resilience by witnessing resilience in how others work through shared life experiences.
Seven Benefits of Group Therapy
1. Hope - Most of us are impacted by real stories of real people. In group therapy, clients are inevitably in different stages of their recovery from mutual symptoms.
2. Universality - Clients tend to feel so alone, isolated, and ashamed, as if they are the only people with their problem. Group therapy shows clients that they are not, in fact, alone. A handful of "me too's" is a great antidote for shame.
3. Imparting Information - An example would be information about what is known to be true, based on research about anxiety disorders or clinical depression. When someone thinks to ask a question or build on someone else's point, the information becomes available to everyone in the group.
4. Altruism - It feels good to help others.
5. Social Skills - Group is a great place to learn about assertiveness, among other social skills, and to practice actually asking for what you need directly from others in the room. Everyone involved will have the opportunity to experiment with new behaviors without fearing rejection.
6. Corrective Relational Experiences - Failure is an excellent teacher, but so is success. It is a safe setting to learn to ask for what you need or set boundaries for the first time, to do it badly, and to tiptoe and stumble until you figure it out.
7. Social Microcosm - In group, there are enough other personalities participating that relationship dynamics that you struggle with at home, work, with friends, or even within your family will start to evolve amongst the group members.
Ready to Join a Therapy Group? Group therapy helps with so many issues, even beyond mental illness, and improves general wellness and relationship health. Contact us now to sign up for a CBT therapy group.
The most common question is "Why would someone subject themselves to talking about their deepest secrets with a group full of strangers?!?" Conversely, clients sometimes ask, "Why would I want to listen to other people's problems? Wouldn't that just make me feel worse?" In both cases, the answer is that group therapy is an opportunity for clients to identify with what is universal about their life experiences, reduce feelings of shame, and develop resilience by witnessing resilience in how others work through shared life experiences.
Seven Benefits of Group Therapy
1. Hope - Most of us are impacted by real stories of real people. In group therapy, clients are inevitably in different stages of their recovery from mutual symptoms.
2. Universality - Clients tend to feel so alone, isolated, and ashamed, as if they are the only people with their problem. Group therapy shows clients that they are not, in fact, alone. A handful of "me too's" is a great antidote for shame.
3. Imparting Information - An example would be information about what is known to be true, based on research about anxiety disorders or clinical depression. When someone thinks to ask a question or build on someone else's point, the information becomes available to everyone in the group.
4. Altruism - It feels good to help others.
5. Social Skills - Group is a great place to learn about assertiveness, among other social skills, and to practice actually asking for what you need directly from others in the room. Everyone involved will have the opportunity to experiment with new behaviors without fearing rejection.
6. Corrective Relational Experiences - Failure is an excellent teacher, but so is success. It is a safe setting to learn to ask for what you need or set boundaries for the first time, to do it badly, and to tiptoe and stumble until you figure it out.
7. Social Microcosm - In group, there are enough other personalities participating that relationship dynamics that you struggle with at home, work, with friends, or even within your family will start to evolve amongst the group members.
Ready to Join a Therapy Group? Group therapy helps with so many issues, even beyond mental illness, and improves general wellness and relationship health. Contact us now to sign up for a CBT therapy group.