What Is Group Therapy?
Group therapies were initially developed to help patients who suffered from tuberculosis (TB). However, they’ve since been expanded to treat various mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and eating disorders as our personal lives and everyday life have become too hectic today. Group therapy programs help people with mental illness learn new effective methods for dealing with stress, depression, substance abuse, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and feelings of fear! Originally this form of psychotherapy was called “psychodramas.” During recovery, people acted out their conflicts by playing roles and improvising scenes together. After World War II, these treatment methods, such as group therapy, became increasingly common for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Often we think about therapy; we think of individual therapy sessions. This is where the mental health professional offers one-on-one attention to their client. However, some clients may get several sessions from various therapists throughout their therapy program. A group therapy session usually includes diverse people with different therapy experiences, varying mental health conditions, and people who have worked with changing therapy techniques. Therapy sessions may involve anywhere from two to twelve people per session. Researchers who study psychological therapies tend to agree that the ideal choice for the number of participants in a therapy session is between 6 and 12 persons. In addition to research suggesting that having multiple classes of people working simultaneously could improve performance, some experts believe that having two separate teams might help each team focus better on its task.
Group therapy has several benefits over individual therapy, including fewer sessions, greater anonymity, increased social interactions, sharing multiple personal experiences, interpersonal learning, and reduced stigma associated with seeking help from others.
Some of the benefits of group therapy include:
In group therapy, people feel less isolated because others understand their feelings and experiences better than if they were talking to just one person. This leads to a greater sense of relief and hope in the individual.
People get help by receiving support from their peers; they offer support to each other. This built a greater sense of community. Supporting others helps them grow by allowing them to learn new things. Receiving support from others is essential because it creates an atmosphere where people feel safe to open up and share their feelings. This is vital in the treatment process.
Therapeutic alliances occur across different types of therapies. Groups provide an environment for people with similar experiences to form stronger bonds. It lets us incorporate multiple perspectives into our writing.
People learn to recognize their feelings through observing another person’s harrowing experience.
Sharing one’s experiences with others with similar problems is often therapeutic and leads to more emotional growth.
People tend to help people feel safer discussing personal issues; it could effectively address any concerns you might have regarding your mental health condition.
People share their personal stories, and members may learn from one another by modeling their successes and failures. Learning through modeling involves observing someone else’s behavior and then trying out similar behaviors yourself.
Significant benefit of Group therapy is that it is usually cheaper than individual therapy.
Several disadvantages to group therapy are:
Your job is not to focus on the client but on yourself. In addition, because group interventions tend to be less intensive than individual therapies, they’re often used when there aren’t enough resources available to provide unique treatment.
In group settings, there’s usually not enough time for each person to talk freely without worrying about eavesdroppers. Group members are typically told not to share any information outside of the group without permission from their therapist. However, there’s always a chance that someone could leak information from the group if another member feels threatened.
Social loafing refers to the phenomenon where people who participate in groups tend to underperform compared to when they would be working. While some people in groups may change their behavior without changing themselves, most people must take personal responsibility for making positive behavioral changes before they see results. A group allows people who don’t care enough to show up for meetings to get away without feeling like they’re missing out.
In group therapy, there may be less focus on the therapeutic alliance than in individual therapy because people tend to bond better in groups rather than one at a time.
Typically support meetings meet at certain times. Therapy sessions are shorter than individual counseling sessions because they’re usually scheduled at set times rather than by appointment.
Group therapy may be inappropriate for specific individuals, such as individuals who suffer from social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, extremely shy, impulsive, passive-aggressive, or psychotic.
When an alliance forms within a larger group, there may be times when one member targets another for reasons related to their plan. An influential therapy group must avoid having too strong an alliance between two people. However, there may be instances where two group members form stronger bonds than others.
There are many benefits of group therapy. Call our intake specialist to see if group therapy is the right choice for you!
Please call 911 if you are experiencing a medical emergency or call our admissions department for support at (801) 499-9316
