The Benefits of Group Therapy
Even after 35 years of doing therapy, I’m still surprised by society’s narrow conception of the field. It seems that the traditional picture of a therapist listening to her patient on the leather couch is still what comes to most peoples’ mind when they think of therapy. While it’s true that one-on-one counseling is very common, this image misses out on a great deal of what therapeutic environments have to offer. For people looking to work on relationship issues, improve their interpersonal skills, or even just reinvigorate their sense of personal growth, there are a variety of approaches out there. Many look less like the traditional image of therapy and more like, well, real life.
One of the more exciting options, and most misunderstood, is group therapy. One of my patients, after finishing a group, came up to me and described how the group experience had far exceeded her expectations. “Basically,” she said to me, “I thought I was going to be ‘encouraged’ to share my intimate secrets with a bunch of strangers. I didn’t have to do anything like that. What I did do was discover what I wanted to get out of my relationships, and how to ask for it. These were quality-of-life changing insights for me.”
Group therapy is unique in that it combines the real world experience of interpersonal interaction with the support and guidance of therapy. Practical exercises and resources are used in a group setting. It’s sort of like your life with a handbook, instant replay, and a behind-the-scenes team rooting you on.
It’s hard to predict exactly what you can expect from group therapy – mainly because the outcomes are so different for each person. However, over the years I’ve noticed the general things participants get out of the experience. You get an opportunity to really see what you’re doing with other people. You get information on how you look to others (which may be different from how you think you look). You figure out what sort of behaviors and styles of communication work best for you. You begin to understand how past relationships still impact your life and how this realization can positively change your present and future relationships.
One of the most important things to point out is that group therapy can be a lot of fun. For an hour or so each week, you enter an atmosphere of understanding, acceptance, and honesty in which to play and work. While you might not hear everyone else’s intimate secrets, odds are you’ll discover a few wonderful ones about yourself.