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. It is easy to dismiss statistics or platitudes as further examples that most people do not understand our experiences. In group therapy, clients are inevitably in different stages of their recovery from mutual symptoms. Even seeing others make degrees of progress can inspire clients to change. And when setbacks happen, which is normal, clients get to see someone show up anyway, instead of hiding in shame. They also see clients who have setbacks receive acceptance from the group. Watching others slip and then get back on track shows group members that not only can they recover from regression, but they can confidently follow examples of people who have been through it before them and achieved those goals. Alternatively, reading success stories of someone on the internet can sometimes backfire, making a person feel worse because there is no true witnessing of real-time life struggles that have led to success.
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.
When I meet a new client struggling with depression or anxiety, I am quick to reassure them, saying "Nope! What you are describing is all standard therapy stuff!" However, it feels so much better and more believable to hear it from a room full of people who are in their own process towards recovery than to hear from just one therapist who you paid to discuss it. Instead of judging others or feeling shame, clients quickly sigh relief and start laughing at themselves. A handful of "me too's" is a great antidote for shame.
3. Imparting Information
This is what some new-to-group clients expect from group. They imagine it as a classroom or a workshop setting. I am a proponent of psychoeducation in counseling. While coming to new insights and solutions organically can happen and is quite powerful, some things can simply be answered or addressed with suggestions of things to try.
An example would be information about what is known to be true, based on research about anxiety disorders or clinical depression. Other examples might be what strategies are helpful to stop a downward spiral, or how to identify your automatic thoughts, etc. Group is a great environment for these questions to come up and to learn information about the disorder. Other participants ask questions you might not even think to ask, which is where that group setting element is helpful. When someone thinks to ask a question or build on someone else's point, the information becomes available to everyone in the group. Cognitive Behavior Therapy and other methods shown to be helpful have many informational elements that function well in a group therapy setting.
4. Altruism
It feels good to help others. When it comes to secretive behaviors that go alone with anxiety and depression, it is rare to get such an opportunity "in the wild." A sense of purpose is developed when a person can turn their suffering into much-needed help for others. Clients don't have to be perfect or even in recovery to be helpful. We watch group members help each other each week, the receiver gets wisdom and/or comfort. The helper gets a sense of pride, competence, and meaning, as they were able to have a positive impact on someone's helplessness, worthlessness, and shame. Shame for both participants starts to dissolve. Sometimes it is specific advice or lessons learned the hard way. More often, it is a heartfelt disclosure, a moment of being real, without the intent of actually affecting others, that lands just right on the ears of the person that needed that message the most.
5. Social Skills
You can read about social skills and watch how-to videos, but lasting learning comes from practicing social skills first-hand. Group Therapy is a safe setting to work at building relationships with others and to interact awkwardly with opportunities for second chances. Practice communicating badly, without judgment, as you develop grace and tact. We discuss social elements from "real life" and curiously link them to patterns seen in "real time" during group. Are you using passive behaviors at the office and resentfully ruminating? 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. Group therapy will provide the support of the therapist and other members, who understand you, are also worried about being accepted themselves, and want you to succeed. 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. Corrective experiences come up in therapy in so many contexts. For example, most of us have had a relationship end unexpectedly and in an ambiguous way. Having a relationship end in a therapy setting, such as a group member finishing and saying goodbye, allows us to have a healthy goodbye. It's not a big a major life loss, but just a meaningful enough grief to provide an opportunity to learn how to experience healthy closure as a personal relationship ends.
Also, boundary-setting is a huge corrective relational experience in group therapy. How often in your childhood and current life are you wishing you could ask for your needs to be met? Or express feelings of resentment over non-reciprocated support? It can become a default reaction to freeze instead of speaking up, speak in a way that others can ignore, or get stuck in situations in which your boundaries are habitually not respected. In group therapy group members are encouraged to practice their assertiveness skills in real time and set boundaries.
Participants learn what it is like for the group to hear and respect such needs so that they can learn to project self-worth outside of the group. It is a safe setting to learn to do this for the first time, to do it badly, and to tiptoe and stumble until you figure it out. Wouldn't it feel nice to suddenly find yourself asking for what you need at home and at work! You might find it's not nearly as scary as you once imagined. There are so many subtle ways that interpersonal dynamics influence anxiety and depression, which can be shifted towards health in group therapy.
7. Social Microcosm
One of the key differences between group and individual therapy is the social microcosm. In individual therapy, you may retell stories from social interactions and some may be seen between you and the therapist. Ultimately the therapist has to guess at some level what is observed and thought by the other parties involved. 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. But instead of seeing that tension lead to screaming matches across the dining room or avoidance and political games of the office, you get to discuss what is happening in a mature fashion.
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. It is easy to dismiss statistics or platitudes as further examples that most people do not understand our experiences. In group therapy, clients are inevitably in different stages of their recovery from mutual symptoms. Even seeing others make degrees of progress can inspire clients to change. And when setbacks happen, which is normal, clients get to see someone show up anyway, instead of hiding in shame. They also see clients who have setbacks receive acceptance from the group. Watching others slip and then get back on track shows group members that not only can they recover from regression, but they can confidently follow examples of people who have been through it before them and achieved those goals. Alternatively, reading success stories of someone on the internet can sometimes backfire, making a person feel worse because there is no true witnessing of real-time life struggles that have led to success.
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.
When I meet a new client struggling with depression or anxiety, I am quick to reassure them, saying "Nope! What you are describing is all standard therapy stuff!" However, it feels so much better and more believable to hear it from a room full of people who are in their own process towards recovery than to hear from just one therapist who you paid to discuss it. Instead of judging others or feeling shame, clients quickly sigh relief and start laughing at themselves. A handful of "me too's" is a great antidote for shame.
3. Imparting Information
This is what some new-to-group clients expect from group. They imagine it as a classroom or a workshop setting. I am a proponent of psychoeducation in counseling. While coming to new insights and solutions organically can happen and is quite powerful, some things can simply be answered or addressed with suggestions of things to try.
An example would be information about what is known to be true, based on research about anxiety disorders or clinical depression. Other examples might be what strategies are helpful to stop a downward spiral, or how to identify your automatic thoughts, etc. Group is a great environment for these questions to come up and to learn information about the disorder. Other participants ask questions you might not even think to ask, which is where that group setting element is helpful. When someone thinks to ask a question or build on someone else's point, the information becomes available to everyone in the group. Cognitive Behavior Therapy and other methods shown to be helpful have many informational elements that function well in a group therapy setting.
4. Altruism
It feels good to help others. When it comes to secretive behaviors that go alone with anxiety and depression, it is rare to get such an opportunity "in the wild." A sense of purpose is developed when a person can turn their suffering into much-needed help for others. Clients don't have to be perfect or even in recovery to be helpful. We watch group members help each other each week, the receiver gets wisdom and/or comfort. The helper gets a sense of pride, competence, and meaning, as they were able to have a positive impact on someone's helplessness, worthlessness, and shame. Shame for both participants starts to dissolve. Sometimes it is specific advice or lessons learned the hard way. More often, it is a heartfelt disclosure, a moment of being real, without the intent of actually affecting others, that lands just right on the ears of the person that needed that message the most.
5. Social Skills
You can read about social skills and watch how-to videos, but lasting learning comes from practicing social skills first-hand. Group Therapy is a safe setting to work at building relationships with others and to interact awkwardly with opportunities for second chances. Practice communicating badly, without judgment, as you develop grace and tact. We discuss social elements from "real life" and curiously link them to patterns seen in "real time" during group. Are you using passive behaviors at the office and resentfully ruminating? 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. Group therapy will provide the support of the therapist and other members, who understand you, are also worried about being accepted themselves, and want you to succeed. 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. Corrective experiences come up in therapy in so many contexts. For example, most of us have had a relationship end unexpectedly and in an ambiguous way. Having a relationship end in a therapy setting, such as a group member finishing and saying goodbye, allows us to have a healthy goodbye. It's not a big a major life loss, but just a meaningful enough grief to provide an opportunity to learn how to experience healthy closure as a personal relationship ends.
Also, boundary-setting is a huge corrective relational experience in group therapy. How often in your childhood and current life are you wishing you could ask for your needs to be met? Or express feelings of resentment over non-reciprocated support? It can become a default reaction to freeze instead of speaking up, speak in a way that others can ignore, or get stuck in situations in which your boundaries are habitually not respected. In group therapy group members are encouraged to practice their assertiveness skills in real time and set boundaries.
Participants learn what it is like for the group to hear and respect such needs so that they can learn to project self-worth outside of the group. It is a safe setting to learn to do this for the first time, to do it badly, and to tiptoe and stumble until you figure it out. Wouldn't it feel nice to suddenly find yourself asking for what you need at home and at work! You might find it's not nearly as scary as you once imagined. There are so many subtle ways that interpersonal dynamics influence anxiety and depression, which can be shifted towards health in group therapy.
7. Social Microcosm
One of the key differences between group and individual therapy is the social microcosm. In individual therapy, you may retell stories from social interactions and some may be seen between you and the therapist. Ultimately the therapist has to guess at some level what is observed and thought by the other parties involved. 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. But instead of seeing that tension lead to screaming matches across the dining room or avoidance and political games of the office, you get to discuss what is happening in a mature fashion.
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.
Benefits of Group Therapy
- Affords the opportunity to be real with others in an environment of safety and respect.
- Counteracts feelings of isolation and a sense of being alone with ones feelings.
- Members are able to try out new behaviors.
- Provides members with diverse views, responses, and feedback.
- Members often see their usual patterns of relating to people, allowing for an opportunity to challenge these patterns.
- Allows members the chance to explore and better understand themselves.
- A space to practice new social techniques, ways of relating, and learn how to better cope with difficulties.