Group is an opportunity available to students who are in need of a supportive environment that assists them in establishing and maintaining close and gratifying relationships with others. Group can give students more understanding of their relationships with others and how they could be honest about their positive and negative feelings with someone in exchange for honest feedback. Group therapy attempts to create a situation where this type of honest, interpersonal exploration can occur.

Group FAQ

WHY DOES GROUP THERAPY WORK?

For many reasons, including:

  1. When people come into a group and interact freely with other group members, they usually recreate those difficulties that brought them to therapy in the first place. Under the direction of a group therapist, the group is able to give support, offer alternatives, or gently confront the person in such a way that the difficulty is resolved and alternative behaviors are learned.
     
  2. The group allows a person to develop new ways of relating to people.
     
  3. During group therapy, people begin to see that they are not alone and can be helped. Many times people feel very unique in their problems. It is encouraging to discover that other people have similar difficulties or have already worked through a problem that deeply disturbs another group member.
     
  4. Within this climate of trust, people feel free to care about and help each other.

 

IF MY COUNSELOR SUGGESTS THAT I JOIN A THERAPY GROUP INSTEAD OF SEEING ME INDIVIDUALLY, IS THIS A SIGN THAT HE/SHE DOES NOT WANT TO WORK WITH ME?

No. Group therapy is often the counseling modality of choice for students. Here students have a unique opportunity to explore interpersonal difficulties in a social situation, and can share and be supported by peers who may have similar experiences.