Guidelines for Group

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The transformative power of group therapy lies in its focus on the present moment. Rather than investigating your history, group focuses on how present relationships may mirror insecurities or trauma rooted in your past. During sessions, you will be directed to tune into your thoughts and feelings in the moment, particularly the emotions you experience toward your fellow members and group leader.  Emotional communication, boundary setting, self-regulation, frustration tolerance, assertiveness, and authenticity are among the tools the group helps to strengthen and develop.

To enrich your way of communicating and connecting with others, in group therapy, you’ll be encouraged to:

  • Voice your thoughts and feelings toward fellow group members.
  • Share any associations or memories brought to light by relationships in the group.
  • Respond candidly to group members’ responses to you.
  • Express frustrating feelings maturely, refraining from verbal attacks.
  • Strive to take emotional risks; step outside your comfort zone.

A consistent and structured environment is maintained in the group. Toward this end, group members are directed to:

  • Refrain from outside social contact with group members.
  • Respect confidentiality.
  • Arrive at sessions on time.
  • Pay for sessions on time.
  • Attend sessions with minimal absences.

To ensure maximum emotional freedom with your group therapist, you’re also encouraged to:

  • Express feelings toward the therapist (i.e., frustration, anger, affection, etc.).
  • Voice fears and concerns about the group to the therapist.
  • Reach out for help or direction from the therapist as needed.

Group Therapy: Schedule, Attendance & Billing

For a group to be effective, consistent attendance is essential. Group members are permitted two excused absences per year (Sept.-August). Excused absences require a 24-hour advance notice. All other absences will be charged.

For an up-to-date schedule of weekly therapy groups, visit: http://www.seangrover.com/group-schedule/

More Group Therapy Articles:

For more information about group therapy, see Sean’s Psychology Today Blog: 5 Ways Group Therapy Empowers You in Relationships, How Group Therapy Can Help Empty Your Basket of Troubles, and 3 Ways Group Therapy is Better Than Individual Therapy.

Also see David Payne’s excellent New York Times article, What Group Therapy Worked.
Still curious? See The Group Therapy Experience, by Louis Ormont, the father of American Group Therapy.