Guides
Guides to group therapy, from the inside.
What the first session feels like, what conflict in a group is actually for, and how to tell a therapy group from a support group. Free to read, no account, nothing sold.
Tools
Start here
- What group therapy actually isNot a circle of strangers taking turns. What the room is really like.
- Why group therapy worksThe mechanisms, including the one that is not available in individual therapy at all.
- Does online group therapy work?What the evidence says, and the two things video genuinely costs you.
- Group or individual — or both?What each is better at, and when the answer is honestly group.
- Your first sessionThe screening call, the first night, and how much you have to say.
- What group therapy costsA third to half of individual, and the insurance code that surprises people.
- How to actually find a groupGroups are badly marketed and fill by word of mouth. Here is where they hide.
- Is it confidential?The honest answer, which is not the same as in individual therapy.
The fear
- I could never talk in front of peopleThe single most common reason people decline, and what it actually looks like from inside.
- You do not have to speak on the first nightWhat is actually expected, and when that changes.
- What if I cry?You will not be the first, and it is not the disaster you are imagining.
- What if I know someone in the group?How screening handles it, and what happens if it comes up later.
- What if they do not like me?The fear that keeps people out, and the reason it is the most useful material in the room.
Kinds of group
- Process groupsThe classic, the strangest to describe, and the one that changes the most.
- Skills and psychoeducational groupsIt runs like a class. Handouts, homework, and a curriculum.
- Support group or therapy group?A distinction that matters more than almost anything else on this site.
- DBT skills groupsIncluding the option almost nobody is told about: joining one without the full programme.
- CBT groupsStructured, time-limited, and unusually well evidenced for anxiety.
- Open groups and closed groupsWhether people join mid-stream, and why it changes what the group can do.
- Peer-led or clinician-led?Both are valuable. Only one of them is treatment, and the difference matters.
- Twelve-step and therapy groupsDifferent things doing different jobs, and people frequently need both.
- How long does a group last?Eight weeks, a year, or indefinitely — and what the length tells you.
What groups are for
- Group for social anxietyThe strongest case there is, and the irony of the ask.
- Group for lonelinessPractising connection rather than analysing why it is not happening.
- Group for depressionBehavioural activation with people in it, and why withdrawal makes it the hard sell.
- Group for anxietyStructured CBT groups, and the exposure hiding inside the format.
- Group for griefThe room where you do not have to manage anyone else’s discomfort.
- Group and traumaWhere it helps, where it is premature, and the sequencing that matters.
- Group for drinking, using, and recoveryWhy this is the one area where group has always been the default.
- Group for ADHDStructure, accountability, and being among people who also lost the keys.
- Group for chronic illness and painWhat changes when nobody needs the situation explained.
- Group for caregiversThe most under-supported role there is, and the one groups suit best.
- Group for new parentsPerinatal groups, and why the isolation is the thing being treated.
- Groups built around who you areMen’s, women’s, LGBTQ+, and culturally specific groups — what the shared ground does.
Inside the room
- The person who talks too muchEvery group has one. What a good leader does, and what it is for.
- When nobody says anythingThe most uncomfortable ninety seconds in therapy, and why it is left alone.
- Conflict in groupIt is not a failure of the group. It is frequently the point.
- Being told how you come acrossThe thing you cannot get anywhere else, and the reason people flinch from it.
- Saying the difficult thing to someoneHow to do it so it lands, which is a skill that leaves the room with you.
- The rule about socialising with membersWhy groups ask you not to, and what happens when people do anyway.
- When someone leaves the groupIt lands harder than people expect, and it is worth understanding why.
- When you want to quitAlmost everyone does, usually around the same point. What that moment is.
Online specifics
- What changes on videoHonestly — what the format costs, and the two things it makes better.
- Do I have to have my camera on?Usually yes, and here is the reason rather than the rule.
- Where to take the callThe practical problem nobody warns you about, and what people actually do.
- How not to be the difficult one on videoSmall things that change the room, most of which nobody mentions.
- When to hold out for an in-person groupThere is one clear case, and it is worth knowing whether it is yours.