Both involve several people meeting regularly about a shared difficulty. That’s where the overlap ends.
The difference
A support group is organised around one shared thing — a bereavement, a diagnosis, a role, a stage of recovery. The purpose is mutual support: you’re among people who do not need it explained. Frequently peer-led, frequently free, frequently drop-in.
A therapy group is treatment. A licensed clinician is responsible for what happens, members are screened for fit, and the group is working on change rather than on getting through. It costs money, it asks for commitment, and someone is accountable for clinical risk.
Why it matters
Not for status. For what happens when something goes wrong.
In a therapy group, if a member becomes acutely unwell, discloses risk, or is harmed by something said, a licensed clinician is present, is trained for it, and is professionally responsible. There is screening beforehand precisely so the composition works.
In a peer-led support group, nobody is assessing anyone, nobody is responsible, and there may be no plan. That isn’t a criticism — it isn’t what the format is for — and it’s worth knowing before you take something serious into one.
What support groups are genuinely better at
Shared specific experience. A bereaved parents’ group, a group for people with the same diagnosis, a caregivers’ group. The value is that nobody needs the situation explained, and a therapy group of mixed presentations can’t deliver that.
Access. Free, often drop-in, frequently no waiting list, no screening, no commitment.
Duration. You can stay for years. Therapy groups end.
Practical knowledge. People who are further along know things no clinician does — which benefit to apply for, what the second surgery is actually like, what to say to your employer.
What therapy groups are better at
Change rather than endurance. Being told how you come across. Conflict handled rather than avoided. And anything where the difficulty is interpersonal rather than situational.
A support group will validate you. A therapy group will validate you and then, at some point, tell you something you didn’t want to hear. That’s the trade.
The honest advice
For a specific situation nobody around you shares — grief, illness, caregiving, a rare diagnosis — a support group is frequently the right first thing and sometimes the only thing needed.
For a pattern that follows you across situations, a therapy group is the one that touches it.
And plenty of people do both, for different reasons, at the same time. When you’re looking, ask directly which one something is — the words are used loosely, and “group” on a listing tells you nothing.