GROUP THERAPY: WHAT IS IT AND WHY DOES IT WORK?
\nPeople seek psychotherapy for many different reasons. Many come because
\nthey have problems establishing and maintaining close and gratifying
\nrelationships. Often, they wish that they understood their relationships better and
\nthat they could be honest about their positive and negative feelings with
\nsomeone. In return, they would like honest feedback. Group therapy sets up a
\nsituation where this type of close, interpersonal exploration can occur.<\/p>\n
WHY DOES GROUP THERAPY WORK?
\nThere are a number of reasons why group therapy works:
\n1. When people come into a group and interact freely with other group members,
\nthe difficulties that brought them to individual counseling are likely to come up in
\nthe group setting as well. Under the direction of a group therapist(s), the group is
\nable to give support, offer alternatives, or gently confront the person in such a
\nway that the difficulty is resolved and alternative behaviors are learned.
\n2. Participating in group therapy allows an individual to develop new ways of
\nrelating to people.
\n3. During group therapy, people begin to see that they are not alone and can be
\nhelped. Many times people feel like their problems are very unique, and that
\nthey are alone. It is encouraging to discover that others have similar difficulties
\nor have already worked through a problem that deeply disturbs another group
\nmember.
\n4. Within this climate of trust, people feel free to care about and help one
\nanother.<\/p>\n
Inevitably, members will experience others in the group in ways similar to how
\nthey experienced intimate others outside the group, or family members, while
\ngrowing up. All group members should be open to learning about themselves
\nand their relationships. To this end, all members must be committed to the goal
\nof expressing their thoughts and feelings as they occur within the group. The
\nway in which members can learn the most in a group is by being honest and
\ndirect with their feelings at that moment, especially those feelings toward the
\nother group members and the therapist(s). Members\u2019 thoughts and feelings in
\nthe present are the database from which group psychotherapy flows. To foster
\nthese goals, there are several rules which are important:<\/p>\n
RULES THAT HELP MAKE GROUP THERAPY SUCCESSFUL
\n1. Members will make a commitment to attend the group regularly for at
\nleast 4 sessions before making a decision about whether or not this is the
\ngroup for them. It takes a minimum of four weeks for members to feel
\ncomfortable enough to begin to evaluate the usefulness of a particular
\ngroup. The course of therapy is expected to be longer than this.<\/p>\n
2. Members agree to be present each week, to arrive on time, and remain
\nthroughout the entire meeting. As a member, it is your responsibility to
\nnotify the group leader in advance when it is absolutely necessary for you
\nto be away or to be late for a group.<\/p>\n
3. Members will treat matters that occur in the group with utmost
\nconfidentiality. That is, members agree to keep to themselves the names
\nand personal sharing of all group members.<\/p>\n
4. Members have a commitment to share feelings, reactions, and
\nthoughts during group meetings as a way of increasing their
\nunderstanding of their own interpersonal dynamics. Talking about present
\nor \u201chere and now\u201d feelings is usually the most helpful way to solve
\nproblems.<\/p>\n
5. Members agree to work actively on the problems that brought them to
\nthe group. At times this involves talking about important issues in one\u2019s
\nlife that cause difficulty in relating to others or in living life fully. At other
\ntimes it may entail choosing to listen supportively and to speak less.
\nGroups work best when all members have a share in the group time.<\/p>\n
6. Members will notify the group in person if they are considering leaving
\nthe group. It is important for everyone to have an opportunity to express
\nhis\/her feelings about the departure and to have enough time to explore
\nthis fully.<\/p>\n
7. Members agree to use relationships in the group therapeutically\u2014not
\nsocially. The group provides an opportunity for learning about one\u2019s
\nproblems in social relationships; it is not meant to be a gathering in which
\npeople meet to make friends. If used in this manner, the group loses its
\ntherapeutic effectiveness. However, if by chance members do meet
\noutside the group, then it is their responsibility to discuss that interaction
\ninside the group. Contact outside of group via social networking sites
\n(Facebook, Instagram, etc.), email and text messaging is strongly
\ndiscouraged.<\/p>\n
(Adapted from University Counseling & Psychological Services \u2013 Lehigh
\nUniversity)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GROUP THERAPY: WHAT IS IT AND WHY DOES IT WORK? People seek psychotherapy for many different reasons. Many come because they have problems establishing and maintaining close and gratifying relationships. Often, they wish that they understood their relationships better and that they could be honest about their positive and negative feelings with someone. In return, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":119763,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-119760","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/counseling-and-psychological-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/counseling-and-psychological-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/counseling-and-psychological-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/counseling-and-psychological-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/counseling-and-psychological-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/counseling-and-psychological-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119765,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/counseling-and-psychological-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119760\/revisions\/119765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/counseling-and-psychological-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/counseling-and-psychological-services\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}