Group Therapy

At Carolina Counseling Professionals, Group therapy provides psychotherapy treatment in a format where there is typically one therapist and four to eight participants with related problems. Sometimes a therapist may recommend group therapy over individual psychotherapy for a variety of reasons. It may be that the group format is better suited for the person or the concern they are dealing with, or that the specific type of treatment has a group therapy component.

People in group therapy improve not only from the interventions of the therapist, but also from observing others in the group and receiving feedback from group members. The group format, while not providing the one-on-one attention of individual formats, has several advantages.

Similar to family therapy, group therapy is a style that can incorporate any of the psychotherapy schools. The advantages of group therapy include:

• Increased feedback
  • Group therapy can provide the patient with feedback from other people. Getting different perspectives is often helpful in promoting growth and change.
• Modeling
  • By seeing how others handle similar problems, the client can rapidly add new coping methods to his or her behaviors. This is beneficial in that it can give the client a variety of perspectives on what seems to work and when.
• Improve social skills
  • Since so much of our daily interaction is with other people, many people learn to improve their social skills in group therapy (even though such an issue may not be the focus of the group). The group leader, a therapist, often helps people to learn to communicate more clearly and effectively with one another in the group context. This is inevitably leads to people learning new social skills.

In group therapy sessions, people can meet others who share similar experiences. One or more licensed clinicians will lead group therapy sessions offering guidance and support. There are many different types of group therapy models. However, most groups tend to focus on introducing members to new, more positive behaviors so that they can better cope with significant life events and mental health symptoms.