The Benefit of Group Therapy

Do you have one night a week free? Even just an hour of extra time? If so, you should try to join group therapy. I go to group therapy on my college campus, and it has changed my entire college experience for the better. It has been a great complement to my one-on-one therapy sessions. There are groups for each diagnosis, meaning everyone else in the group can relate to what you are going through. There is no judgement, and you can be assured that others in the group understand what it is like to juggle mental health and school requirements.

For the first few sessions, I did not speak much, and I just absorbed what others were saying. This helped me because before joining, I felt I was the only one on campus going through the struggles I was facing. But, as I started going more regularly, I began sharing my experiences. And I noticed that not only did my sharing help others feel less alone, but it also made me feel that I could finally vocalize my feelings. The responses I got from others in the group, often sharing of similar experiences, was very helpful. The moderators of the group always did a great job of steering the conversation so it would be a productive hour for everyone.

Group therapy has become a staple in my week. It is something I look forward to, and an hour where I can share anything I want and know I will not be looked at any differently for it. I will continue this coming semester, and it is something I am actually looking forward to.

Have you ever attended or considered group therapy? How do you think it’d be different than one-on-one sessions?