Group Counseling
What is group therapy?
In group therapy, five to eight people meet weekly for 90 minute sessions with one or two trained group therapists and talk about what is troubling them. Rules are established to maintain a safe, supportive, and confidential environment. Members also give feedback to each other by expressing their own reactions about what someone says or does. This interaction affords group members opportunities to try out new ways of behaving and to learn more about the way they interact with others. Group therapy is confidential: the identity of group members and what members talk about is not discussed outside the group.
Why is group therapy recommended for many of our clients?
Clinical research clearly indicates that group therapy is equally effective to individual therapy for many types of problems and is superior to individual therapy for problems of an interpersonal nature and substance abuse/dependency issues. The fact is that many of the problems that clients come to the counseling center for have an interpersonal basis, so that group therapy is really the therapy of choice.
How is group therapy helpful?
Many clients have in common the basic difficulty of establishing and maintaining close, healthy, and gratifying relationships with others. Group serves as a social laboratory in which honest interpersonal exploration can be done in a safe and supportive environment, and honest feedback can be received from other group members. When you can understand and work out your relationships with other members of the group, there is enormous carryover to your relationships in the outside world.
What are the different types of groups?
In therapy groups, the emphasis is on change: changing problematic behaviors, attitudes, and emotions. Participants explore personal problems and concerns with a group of persons who have had similar experiences. Discussion includes both present issues and troubling past events and the negative consequences of those events. Therapy groups are safe, confidential, and supportive environments to work through problems, heal old hurts, express emotions, learn more about yourself, receive feedback on how others perceive you, and acquire more effective interpersonal behaviors. Therapy groups meet weekly, year round.
In support groups, the emphasis is on coping more adaptively with current difficult situations. Participants give and receive support, learn more effective coping skills, share information, and talk with other persons who are experiencing similar circumstances. Discussion focuses strictly on current events and coping with those events. Support groups are safe, confidential, supportive, and affirming environments, and meet weekly, year round.
In psychoeducational groups, the emphasis is on education and skill development. Participants engage in semi-structured discussions and exercises, role-play, and giving and receiving feedback, with the group leader functioning as a teacher, trainer, and facilitator. The focus is on acquiring information, learning new skills, and refining existing skills pertaining to a specific topic. Psychoeducational groups meet weekly for 8 to 12 weeks depending on the topic.
What are some of the common misperceptions about group therapy?
• “I will be forced to tell all of my deepest thoughts, feelings and secrets to the group."
No one will force you to reveal your deepest, most personal thoughts. You control what, how much, and when you share with the group. Most people find that when they feel safe enough to share what is troubling them, a group can be very helpful and affirming. We encourage you not to share what you are not ready to disclose. However, you can also be helped by listening to others and thinking about how what they are saying might apply to you.
• "Group therapy will take longer than individual therapy, because I will have to share the time with others."
Actually, group therapy is often more efficient than individual therapy for two reasons. First, you can benefit from the group even during sessions when you say little, but listen carefully to others. You will find that you have much in common with other group members, and as they work on a concern, you can learn more about yourself. Secondly, group members will often bring up issues that strike a chord with you, but which you might not have been aware of or brought up yourself.
• "I will be verbally attacked by the leaders and by other group members."
It is very important that group members feel safe. Group leaders are there to help develop a safe environment. Feedback is often difficult to hear. As group members come to trust and accept one another, they generally experience feedback and even confrontation as positive, as if it were coming from their best friend. One of the benefits of group therapy is the opportunity to receive feedback from others in a supportive environment. It is rare to find friends who will gently point out how you might be behaving in ways that hurt yourself or others, but this is precisely what group can offer. This will be done in a respectful, gentle way, so that you can hear it and make use of it.
• "Group therapy is second-best to individual therapy."
Group therapy is being recommended to you because your intake counselor believes that it is the best way to address your concerns. We do not put people into group therapy because we don't have space in individual therapy, or because we want to save time. We recommend group when it is the most effective method to help you. Your intake counselor can discuss with you why group is what we recommend for you.
• "I have so much trouble talking to people, I'll never be able to share in a group."
Most people are anxious about being able to talk in group. Almost without exception, within a few sessions people find that they do begin to talk in the group. Group members remember what it is like to be new to the group, so you will most likely get a lot of support for beginning to talk in the group.
What are the ground rules for participating in group therapy?
If group is to be effective, your commitment to the following is essential:
• The group sessions are confidential. The identity of the members of the group and what they say in group is not to be talked about with anyone outside the group at any time.
• Attend regularly and punctually. If you are going to miss a session or be late, please let one of the leaders of the group know.
• While you are a member of a group, we ask that you not socialize with other members outside of group. This affects the safety of the group environment.
• Mutual respect is essential to maintaining the safety of the group. It is okay to disagree with others. It is not okay to treat other members disrespectfully.
• Having a feeling and acting on it are two different actions. Acting out your feelings in group is not acceptable, whether you act them out upon yourself or on another member. The way we most respect ourselves and others is by experiencing our feelings and then talking about them.
• It is your responsibility to talk about your reasons for being in the group as honestly as you are able.
• If you decide to leave group, because you have met your goals for treatment or because it isn't the most appropriate treatment method for you, we ask that you come to the group and say good-bye.
How can I get the most out of my group therapy?
• attend regularly…in joining the group, you have made a commitment to the other group members as well as to yourself.
• make the group part of your life…don’t think of group as something that happens once a week and then forget about it in between. Between group sessions, think about what happened in group and about how you felt during and after group, and try to figure out why you had those feelings.
• take responsibility for your counseling and your group…it’s your group, so if it is not moving in the direction you want, say so.
• participate actively…you will make more progress if you get actively involved in the group discussions.
• experiment with new forms of behavior…until you begin to act differently, you won’t change.
• take some risks in group…it is structured to be safe and supportive.
• be as honest and open as you are able in group…it allows other group members to get to know who you really are.
• speak in the first person…speaking in the first person makes what you say much more personal and powerful.
• accept responsibility for your own experience and allow other to be responsible for theirs…don’t foster dependency by assuming responsibility for others in the group.
• learn to listen to others attentively…if you are formulating your response while someone else is speaking, you are not really hearing what is being said.
• learn to differentiate between thoughts and feelings…when you say “I feel that…”, or “I feel like…”, you are moving away from expressing feelings to expressing thoughts.
• speak directly to individuals in the group rather than about them to others.
• be honest and direct with your feelings in group in the present moment, especially your feelings toward other group members and the therapists.
• be spontaneous…often we wait our turn to speak, try to be polite, or think about what we want to say for so long that the moment to say it has passed.
• be specific and direct with your feedback
• share both positive and negative
• don’t give advice and suggestions
• don’t try to solve other member’s problems for them
• don’t blame or judge others
• be respectful even when you don’t agree with a person’s position or behavior
• phrase your feedback so it is about your experience of the other person, and not a judgment of how they are
• ask for feedback when you need it…seek clarification and avoid becoming defensive or making excuses.
|