[nessaea]

Hi all!

Was wondering who else here had done group therapy, and what they had thought of it? Some questions, if you want specific ones:

- Have you ever done group therapy?
- What type of group therapy was it? (skills focused, support, specific diagnosis, etc?)
- Who ran the group?
- What did the structure of the group meetings look like?
- What were the criteria and/or rules for the group?
- What did you like about it?
- What didn't you like about it?
- Would you do group therapy again (or ever, if you have never done it)?
- What would your ideal group therapy experience look like?

[junkDNA]

Originally Posted by nessaea

Hi all!

Was wondering who else here had done group therapy, and what they had thought of it? Some questions, if you want specific ones:

- Have you ever done group therapy?
- What type of group therapy was it? (skills focused, support, specific diagnosis, etc?)
- Who ran the group?
- What did the structure of the group meetings look like?
- What were the criteria and/or rules for the group?
- What did you like about it?
- What didn't you like about it?
- Would you do group therapy again (or ever, if you have never done it)?
- What would your ideal group therapy experience look like?

i am in group therapy right now. it is a womens trauma group that meets weekly. its a closed group which means no new members can join, but it opens up for a couple weeks every 6 months. my T runs it. its a process group which means we just talk about anything... our issues, our days, even whats happening in the group itself. sometimes we look over worksheets and talk about those.

the only criteria for the group is that its womens only, but all of us do suffer from effects of trauma. i like that i can hear other women's stories and even though they don't mirror mine i do find a lot of elements that i can really relate to... experiences, feelings, desires. what i dont like about it is it ramps up my anxiety to be open and vulnerable around other people. having my T there helps, though.

i cant really picture my ideal group therapy experience...

I participated in a group set up specifically for female survivors of CSA. It was set up by my individual therapist and one of his therapist colleagues who both saw the need for such a group among their own clients. They hand picked the 8 of us who participated as a group they felt would work well together.

It's been a few years, so my memory of exactly how the sessions were structured is vague anymore. It seems like most often the therapists started the session with some sort of focus question/topic and then the session evolved from that point.

It was a marvelous experience -- one of the most profound therapy experiences I ever had actually. What made it work was the fact that we were all there for similar reasons so no matter who was talking, it was as if it really did connect and apply to all of us. We were very respectful of each other and no one person dominated the group. Having two therapists co-lead worked really well.

I tried other groups, but found they weren't set up with the same care and attention to the mix of clients and just never worked as well.

[NowhereUSA]

Have you ever done group therapy?
Yes.

What type of group therapy was it? (skills focused, support, specific diagnosis, etc?)
DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) skills group.

Who ran the group?
Two DBT trained therapists. The first time I went through it seven years ago it was my T and another T and this last time it was two Ts in his clinic but not his particular skills group.

What did the structure of the group meetings look like?
Opened with a mindfulness exercise. Then we went over our skills homework (we usually had a skill we were focusing on that week). Anything that could be triggering was referred to as a "target behavior" and not explicitly mentioned - talking about it explicitly was for one on one therapy).

What were the criteria and/or rules for the group?
There's a list of rules that DBT groups are supposed to follow. The ones I remember off the top of my head:

- Not miss four sessions in each unit.
- Be in individual therapy.
- No discussion of self-harm or suicidal thoughts or other trigger behaviors (if they came up in discussion of homework we referred to them as "target behaviors" which kept some anonymity to what we were all dealing with individually)
- Sexual partners could not be in group together (unless it was a couples group which mine weren't).
- Don't come under the influence of drugs or alcohol (prescription drugs should be taken as prescribed, however).
- If you ask for help, be willing to accept help from whomever you ask.
- What's said in group remains in group.

What did you like about it?
That it wasn't a lot of processing. I prefer to do that one-on-one.

What didn't you like about it?
Honestly, they could have used better mindfulness exercises but I'm pretty hard to please in that department. I also didn't like the constant incoming and outgoing of people. I think it would have been nicer to start with a group and end with a group but that was probably not feasible.

Would you do group therapy again (or ever, if you have never done it)?
Only a DBT skills group. I have little interest in a therapy group that does actual therapy. I prefer my therapist for that.

What would your ideal group therapy experience look like?
I think my DBT skills groups got pretty darn close. Even the fluctuation of people wasn't that big of a deal for me to care all that much.

[scorpiosis37]

I have tried group therapy twice. One was a process/support group for grad students (when I was a grad student) and the other, which i am currently in (and deciding if I will continue or not) is a support group for queer survivors of trauma and sexual assault. The problem with both groups is that the facilitators have been inexperienced and the mix of participants isn't quite right. In both groups, I have found it difficult to be mixed with clients who are low-functioning simply because we do not have very much in common and cannot relate well to one another. I am not getting the experience of really "seeing myself" in anyone else's struggle. Because I am in a very different place, I feel uncomfortable sharing because I don't want sound a certain way-- like, if I complain about the stress of my job, I'm afraid how it will sound to the other members who are unable to find jobs and are afraid they will never be healthy enough to work. I would fit in much better with a group of other people who are struggling with the same issues I am-- job stress, stress of just keeping "all the balls in the air", relationship dynamics after experiencing sexual assault, etc. The other group members are struggling to find things to do to fill their day (other therapy programs, distractions, etc) so that they don't stay stuck in re-living their trauma. I'm so busy that I can't seem to find a free moment to even process my trauma. But, during group, we don't actually process trauma because it is "triggering" and the facilitators are not actually trained as therapists, so it doesn't really help with that. So, I may not stay with the group. The thing I liked about it was that it's specifically a queer group, and I don't really have a lot of queer spaces to go in my current city, so that part was nice. And it's obvious that everyone in the group really cares and wants to help/be helped-- we just aren't looking for the same kind of help.