When I joined my first-ever group therapy session via Zoom, I had no idea what to expect. I hadn’t sought it out, but when a new therapist I was talking to said she ran a group for women my age who were going through life changes, I decided to give it a shot, since I was dealing with a breakup, a move to a new city, a new job, a chronic knee injury and several other transitions.
By the time I logged off my last meeting over a year later, not only was I a bit emotional after a session of heartfelt goodbyes, I was filled with a new sense of empathy and understanding for myself, the group and everyone in my life.
In the group, I was able to connect with other women who were mirrors of me. They dealt with similar issues and, together, we wove a web of support and empathy for each other that I can still feel today.
The origins of group therapy
Since the dawn of time, people have been gathering in groups to heal each other; indigenous peoples in North America and around the world have used talking circles for millennia to resolve conflicts and connect.
Group therapy as we know it today began in the early 20th century when Dr. Joseph Hersey Pratt began working with a group of eight patients with pulmonary tuberculosis in a Boston hospital. He quickly noticed that patients’ morale improved significantly after group sessions.
Sean Grover, LCSW, an author and therapist who runs one of the largest group therapy practices in the United States, says that even today, most people are unaware of group’s mood-boosting effects.
“[Group is] always fun,” Grover says. “Because if you’re in a growth space, you’re having a growth experience. It feels good. My groups laugh a lot.” For many people, he adds, group provides “a lot of support that they never had, intimacy they never had, affection they never had.”
Group may be fun, but it can also be effective. A 2021 review of 329 studies concluded that group therapy had notable advantages over standard inpatient or outpatient therapies for patients with borderline personality disorder, depression and bipolar disorder. It also found that groups focused on substance abuse and obsessive-compulsive disorders were just as beneficial for patients as individual therapy. At a time when demand for mental health counseling is growing faster than the supply of therapists, group therapy could be a good way to close the gap.
How group therapy works
Groups generally consist of five to 15 people who meet for an hour or two weekly. They typically share either a common goal or diagnosis, such as having a substance abuse disorder or wanting help with relationship issues. The group may consist of people who share a certain identity, though this isn’t always the case.
There are two main types of groups. Psychoeducational groups specifically focus on learning certain skills, such as anger management. These sessions are more structured, sometimes follow workbooks or schedules and are usually short-term. Here, relationships are less important, and the therapist acts more like an instructor, though group members will usually still share about their experiences with the issue at hand.
Process-oriented groups usually consist of patients talking about their lives and the issues they share. These usually last at least six months, though many can go on for years. These groups have less input from the therapist, apart from minor facilitation and occasional guiding questions or insights.
Groups can be a powerful way to crowdsource transformational empathy and solidarity from peers, says Marian Liebmann, an art therapist who has written extensively on art therapy in group settings. They can also be a great way to learn strategies for solving different problems.
“If people have particular issues, there’s a kind of solidarity… and sometimes there are people who pick up tips [about] what to do [or] how to do it,” she says. For example, “women who experienced domestic violence [might] pick up tips from other people [on how] to be more assertive. [Group] might help them to think, ‘It’s not my fault.’”
What kinds of group therapy are there?
If talking about your feelings in a group of your peers sounds like a nightmare, you don’t have to discount the idea of process-oriented groups entirely. Liebmann says she has found that art can be a way to help people who have trouble communicating.
In an art therapy session, she says, members will typically start out by making art inspired by a specific theme, and then they’ll have the option to share about what they’ve made. The artwork can serve as a bridge towards deeper connections and help people become more open. Art could help them “explain themselves, which they weren’t able to do before,” she adds.
Another form of therapy, called psychodrama, is one of the oldest types of group therapy, and relies on group members acting out events from the past. In some cases, other members might act out certain roles, or one client might switch roles and play someone else in their narrative, which can allow them to see events in different ways.
Of course, if talking to your peers in a group setting is difficult, that would be a great thing to bring up and unpack in group therapy — and you might just discover you’re not alone.
How to know if group therapy is right for you
Grover notes that not every group will be right for everyone. A group discussing drugs might be triggering for someone in active recovery, for example. He also suggests that if you’ve never done therapy before, or if you’re dealing with something like a deep depression, individual therapy might be best to start out with. Ultimately, the therapist leading the group in question should be able to tell prospective members whether it will be effective for them.
Still, there are few people who can’t benefit from group. “I’ve worked with people that are so successful in their fields — amazing lawyers or politicians or celebrities — and then [you] look at their personal life, and it’s absolutely a disaster,” says Grover. “If you’ve done a lot of individual [therapy] and you’re still stagnant in certain areas, particularly in relationships or professional relationships… absolutely try a group. You have to be brave. It’s going to be a challenge. but if you’re looking for growth in those areas, you can’t beat the power.”
We as humans need each other to survive, and group is a prime example of how community support and connection can sometimes be the greatest teacher and healer of all.
Photo from SeventyFour/Shutterstock.com
