What Are the Benefits of Group Therapy?
Southeast Institute for Group and Family Therapy offers ongoing and short-term groups for the general public, for couples, and for therapists.
Southeast Institute for Group and Family Therapy offers group therapy for the general population, couples, and for therapists only. We offer ongoing weekly and monthly groups, as well as short-term groups. For therapists, we offer the opportunity to dive into deep personal work as a member of our monthly group therapy for therapists. Therapists may also take part in group therapy as part of the Postgraduate Training Program. Click here to learn more about the Postgraduate Training Program.
What is Group Therapy?
Group therapy takes place when a therapist meets with a group of people with the intention of helping them change therapeutically. Sometimes two therapists co-lead a group. Group sizes and lengths vary according to the developmental stage of the people in the group (children, teens or adults), the nature of the group (weekend intensive versus weekly), and the purpose of the group. In group therapy, any number of therapeutic theories/techniques can be applied.
At the Southeast Institute for Group and Family therapy, the primary therapeutic modality used for groups is redecision therapy, which incorporates transactional analysis and gestalt therapy into an experiential therapy that helps clients make lasting change in potentially short amounts of time. For group couples therapy, we combine redecision therapy, attachment theory, the developmental model, Emotionally Focused Therapy, and research by the Gottmans. For children and adolescent therapy, we incorporate play therapy, sand tray therapy, and the expressive arts. For more information about sibling group therapy or group play therapy, contact Emily Keller, PhD.
Group therapy can be anxiety-provoking at first. Most people, however, come to look forward to the group therapy and the group itself as it becomes a comfortable harbor to experiment with change and experience support. Group therapy provides a microcosm of the world in which you can experience how others see you and safely experiment with new ways of being.
Southeast Institute for Group and Family therapy offers:
- Weekly Tuesday Group, Co-led by Vann Joines, Ph.D.
- Monthly Tuesday Group, 1st Tuesday 1:15 – 3:00 pm, led by Vann Joines, Ph.D.
- Personal Growth Marathon, Co-led by Vann Joines, Ph.D.
- Couples Weekend with Vann Joines, Ph.D.
- Monthly Group Therapy for Therapists, Thursdays 9 am – 4:30 pm, co-led by Vann Joines, Ph.D.
Irving Yalom identified the therapeutic factors of group therapy. They are listed as …
Universality
The healing power of the realization that others have the same feelings and concerns. Universality normalizes experiences, validates us, and helps us feel not so alone.
Instillation of Hope: Because group members are in different places along their paths of growth, renewal, and healing, they inspire each other almost naturally and help instill hope into others.
Altruism
The experience that group members help each other. We benefit when others lift us and we benefit when we feel as though we are lifting others.
Imparting Information
Everyone brings their knowledge to the group. Through the process of sharing, group members get valuable information about available resources and other useful facts.
Socialization
Group therapy is ideal for helping people develop social skills or deal with the anxieties of meeting and learning to trust others.
Corrective Recapitulation of the Primary Family Experience
Group members bond in ways that are reminiscent of bonds they shared with family members growing ups, stirring up old feelings. The group therapist is trained at helping group members distinguish what is going on in the here and now from what went on in the there and then. This allows for insight, growth, healing, and corrective experiences.
Cohesion
Groups go through its own process of growth culminating in a sense that the group members are “in this together.” Group therapy bestows a sense of belonging–meeting a very fundamental human need.
Modeling
Group members learn by watching and copying the therapist and others.
Existential factors: Group therapy promotes the experience that we are responsible for our actions and their consequences.
Catharsis
The group serves as an emotional container. When group members join together and share their emotions and stories. They release them into the container of the group and leave feeling somehow “lighter.”
Interpersonal Learning
Group members learn from others’ feedback, verbal and nonverbal.
Self-understanding
One benefit of group therapy is that members gain insight into who they are and why they do the things they are doing.
