4 Ways Group Therapy Sessions Help You Feel Connected and Empowered
At some point in your life, you’ve likely heard the adage about strength being in numbers. Most people think of an army or even a group of faithful followers.
No matter the mental picture the saying paints for you, the truth remains intact. There is an empowering strength when a group of people bands together for one cause.
For this reason, group therapy sessions can often be more impacting than other therapeutic methods or just individual therapy. Mostly, because a unique connection exists in a therapy group. One that promotes emotional healing and overall recovery.
And that’s just for starters. Here’s how group therapy sessions can help you feel more connected and empowered.
1. Offer Validation
When you struggle with any sort of mental health condition—anxiety, depression, eating disorders, etc.—your mind likes to play tricks on you. In other words, it’s not uncommon to doubt what’s really going on inside of you.
Some struggling with depression may feel guilt because they can’t “just snap out of it.” Or those facing daily anxiety frequently minimize their feelings to push through another day.
Group therapy sessions tend to put an end to these doubts.
When you’re surrounded with others battling similar struggles, you take yours a bit more seriously. The group quickly validates your feelings, empowering you to overcome them.
2. Normalize Your Particular Struggle
As well as validating your struggle, group therapy sessions can also make you feel normal for struggling in the first place. Thus, empowering your recovery.
So much of the time, folks hide their struggle. However, in the safe and supportive haven of a group, it often all spills out. And that’s perfectly healthy. In fact, that’s exactly the point!
No matter what you’re dealing with, the members of your group therapy are there to listen, accept, and support you.
3. Forge a Unique Bond Between Members
Unsurprisingly, members belonging to a specific therapy group harbor a special bond. It’s not necessarily that every person experienced the same struggle, or even gleaned the same support from the group therapy sessions.
Rather, it is that each person chose to take steps to heal. And you chose it together.
Let’s face it, it’s not easy to confront your demons and win. Doing it alongside others, though, forms an unrivaled bond.
This connection is so unique, in fact, that it’s often hard to describe it to folks who haven’t undergone an experience such as group therapy. But, there’s an inner-circle kind of understanding at play.
4. Present an Opportunity to Practice New Skills
Recovering from conditions like anxiety, depression, or another issue altogether requires acquiring new skills. And putting these skills to practice in your everyday life.
In group therapy sessions, members are taught new coping skills and encouraged to use them.
Probably the most significant advantage to group therapy is that you get to practice using these skills in a safe space opposed to the real world.
Think of group therapy sessions as the rehearsal before the actual show. You get to make mistakes, forget your “part,” and stumble through your role surrounded by folks who completely expect and accept that from you.
Members of your therapy group motivate you as they offer you feedback and support. This results in higher levels of self-confidence, empowering you to use these new skills outside of your group.
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If you’re dealing with the weight of a difficult life experience or struggling with an ongoing mental battle, consider group therapy sessions to help you recover.
Please, contact me for a free 15-minute phone consultation so that I can help you decide whether group therapy is the right choice for you. Or, visit my group therapy page to learn more about this unique healing experience.
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All images are used for illustrative purposes only. Any person shown is used as a model only.