Group Therapy

We welcome your comments, thoughts and reflections on group therapy.

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Group therapy saved my life..

Group therapy saved my life.  I worked out my anger, my grief, my fears and everything else in between as well as different facets of relationships, intimate, family, work.  I was part of a number of groups that my therapist facilitated over the years.  Her leadership together with my group colleagues, we worked toward a synergy that brought healing to many areas of my life.  I am not sure what would of happened to me if I had not been able to work out some of my dark emotions and deep wounding in a safe and caring therapeutic group setting.  I am grateful to my colleagues for their support and for my therapist's great leadership.

There is something different

There is something different about being in group therapy as compared to individual therapy. I am fortunate to be in both and for me they compliment each other. Being in a group is special. Different parts of me emerge in a group then in individual therapy, and I react to the different dynamics that other members bring in. When I am unconscious, my group members share with me how they experience me. It has been enlightening and enriching. Sometimes painful, but always with positive result. Sometimes their stories trigger my own suppressed memories or they help give me a deeper understanding of myself and the different perspectives of other people.

Most of all though, in my group, I have learned that all things can be worked through.  This has been revolutionary for me. In my own family, after a fight or disagreement, there was a winner, a loser, and afterward all the unresolved ugliness was buried. With my group members I have experienced disagreeable moments. I have said something hurtful, or reacted strongly to someone's story, or been hurt by someone else's reaction to me. When this happens, I feel deep, personal shame.The difference is, we are in a safe and loving setting. With help and honesty, we have been able to untangle our feelings and hurts. Both give and receive feedback.  As I have witnessed and experienced this level of openness, I have felt a greater acceptance of other people's differences, and a deeper love for my group members. My feelings of humiliation are softening. It is helping me to change my own unhealthy patterns of behavior, and improve my understanding and expectations in all my relationships. I feel more hope and joy in my life then in the past.

Jealousy/Sibling Rivalry

Thank you for your post, which was so honest and open and clear about your first year in group therapy. If you can believe it just reading your first sentence brought up a powerful feeling of jealousy in me. I have been in group therapy for years and I'm one of the longest-term members in my group. I am also the oldest child in my family, and my younger siblings are very close in age to me, but more than that I didn't get enough attention from my parents so when another child came along I got even less. 

Just reading about your group experience as a 'newby' I felt jealous and protective and angry. It's sibling rivalry rearing its ugly head. I can't believe these feelings were stirred up just from reading your post!

I guess it just goes to show that group therapy is very powerful and profound. My own family dynamics came to life very quickly in group therapy. I have found one of the challenges of group, one of the best challenges, is to separate my own family stuff from the people in the group, to learn to see the group members for who they are, as opposed to projecting my feelings and experiences onto them. This only happens when I talk honestly, and bare my deepest wounds...it's not easy, but it's so healing.

Congratulations on completing your first year in group therapy. 

Sibling rivalry and group

I really appreciate your honest sharing around the struggle to hold the feelings of sibling rivalry and how they get termendously stirred in group.  I can really relate.  Even though I was the youngest in my family, I struggled with the profound sense that there was no room for me - for my feelings, for who I was, etc...and these feelings often get stirred in group and I can fall back into my default of allowing myself to disappear, often in angry silence that can act like a vortex of energy in a room. 

These awareness have only come through my participation in a therapy group and my challenge to them also has had to be worked out in the group.  And this is the healing, truly...I agree with everyone in this posting that group has been an invaluable part of my therapy journey.

Group therapy has been a

Group therapy has been a really important part of my therapy journey.  I have struggled with speaking in front of people in a group setting and over the years of participating in lots of groups I feel less fearful.  I know for myself that my fears go back to my family experiences where I felt invisible and the message was children are to be seen and not heard from!  When I would try to speak I was often humiliated.  Group therapy has provided me with a totally different experience.  Members of the group have witnessed my story with love and kindness and mirrored back to me my strengths as well as my areas for development. Although we do not socialize between groups in order to keep the energy contained, the group becomes like a safe family and supportive community.  I also can explore my feelings and reactions to group members in a safe space which helps me to deepen my relationships with my friends and family. Meeting every week has provided me with a context which I look forward to. And any feelings I was not able to express in the group. I can always bring them back to my therapist.  I have come to appreciate group therapy as an important adjunct to my individual therapy.

New To Group Work

This past year was my first exposure to a group therapy type setting.  I have found the experience to be profoundly positive.  Initially, I was petrified as I tend not to handle the "unknown" very well.  I had no idea of what to expect.  I was unsure of the role of the facilitator, my role and the role of the others in the group.  As I reflect on the group I find it amazing at how organically it has unfolded.  I see the importance of sharing one's story and having that story truly heard and held by others.  I also understand how paramount it is to have feedback from members of the group. I admire the facilitator’s ability to "see" every person in the room and pick up on their feelings and reactions while still being able to focus on the individual who is sharing.  Probably one of the things that impacted me the most is the profound sense of caring that has formed for one another.  I have really come to see that group therapy is a very importance part of my therapeutic journey and am very grateful for this.