When I initially discovered that I would participating in group therapy for my anxiety, I wasn’t entirely sure what to think.
I’ve undergone therapy in the past in several different manners. All of the therapy I’ve been subjected to up until group was one-on-one, and honestly, I figured this style was the only effective way to work through problems we experience with ourselves. I had never spoken with anyone who had tried group therapy, nor had I heard much about it, period.
I was a bit skeptical to say the least.
Once I attended a couple of group sessions, I started to gain a better understanding of the dynamic of it. At first, I thought it would resemble a classroom of sorts, but group therapy is the furthest thing from anything school-related. There’s roughly twenty or so people in my particular group, and in every session, we sit in a large circle with our group instructors at the front of the room. We typically start each session by discussing any issues we had with what we covered the previous week, and then delve into some new concepts.
The group therapy I’m enrolled in is specifically for people who experience anxiety. Do we all experience the same type of anxiety? Absolutely not. But, because we all have one major things in common, we’re able to support and assist each other by offering some alternate perspectives and coping strategies, which actually allows our differences to unify us.
I can say with complete confidence that group therapy, for me, is 100 per cent more effective than any one-on-one therapy I’ve had. I’m only about halfway through the program, but it’s helped me tremendously, and further, in more ways that I initially thought it could. I absolutely recommend group therapy, and I am pleasantly surprised with how much I’ve gained from it already.
ontheedgeofeverything 