Welcome to PC, Sidony!

I've been in several therapy groups over the years and was in one for 10+ years. It can take time to "bond" with others, how long have you been going to this group?

One thing that might help with your "response" to the other people is to discuss things that are personal to you :-) I find it's always easy in every situation to talk to someone else about their problems but getting my problems and experiences out there to be discussed is another matter. Bring up some of your own issues, your fears about getting close and try to make things "personal" to the members in your group. I think you're thinking of each individual member too much as being part of the overall group and not as "themselves" in that group? See the slight diffence? I think you're "choosing" to see them as coworkers because what "coworker" means to you is a more comfortable position for you.

I was fortunate in my last job to have started to work in a group of 6 women who were very bonded together personally; we had a sister pair, the young daughter of the company owner, a friend of one of the other workers, a woman who was one of the first employees of the company, etc. Several of the women had been there over 10 years and the sisters had had a third sister who had been there before! So I entered this group and was fortunate to work my way into personal relationships with several of the women. We had group crises (one of the sisters developed breast cancer) and I learned a great deal in the seven years I was there both about group processes and me with individuals.

But think of something to say to a specific individual in the group either about yourself/your experience or about how you personally feel about something they say? That's kind of what your therapist meant about talking to the new girl about being new (since you were the previous "new" girl :-) I remember when I started my group I was in for 10 years, one guy (who I ended up dating much later :-) said, "So, you're the new kid on the block" and it sounded so friendly and I wished I'd been able to respond to that comment and say something like, "My, how friendly, you remind me of my brother" or something (he did, he LOOKED like my brother :-) as well as sounded/said things like him.