Therapeutic Group: How Group Therapy Differs From Individual Therapy

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

So, what is the difference between individual and group psychotherapy?

I think group therapy is extremely helpful when you you feel that something is not right in your life, that it is time to change something, but it is very difficult to determine what specifically … Of course, in individual therapy this issue is also worked out, but the peculiarity of group therapy is that you hear other different stories of the group members, and some of them can resonate in your soul, and you will understand: "Oh, this is it!"

Also if you know what exactly you want to change in your life, but in fact you have no idea how to do it and from which side to start, the group can be very helpful here. You will hear the responses of several participants to your situation and thus, perhaps, get insight (awareness about yourself or about the situation), since the responses can be completely opposite and touch on parts of the issue that you did not notice before for various reasons.

By the way, about the reasons. In an interesting way, the group can reveal the reasons why you are now "gagged" in a certain area … For example, you are not very happy that your friends and family do not see you for who you are. And when you come to the group, the group notices that you are mostly silent, that you are "not enough" in the group. And this may indicate that in real life your loved ones do not know you, because you show little to them. Moreover, when you understand the reason, you can experiment in a group, doing something different for you and thus change your behavior in life.

After all, the therapeutic the group is a safe place where the probabilitythat someone will "hit" the sore spot is low enough. And even if this happens, you can, with the help of the group leaders, find out what exactly the person meant (maybe he did not want to offend you at all, but if he did, he will explain to you what exactly makes you want to offend you). And believe me, it doesn't hurt. Well, more precisely, it is not as painful as in relations with relatives or friends, in which, as a rule, when someone offends someone, there is a pause in communication and even if it resumes, as a rule, the relationship remains not clarified, but a sediment it stays on the soul for a long time.

By the way, another factor. After undergoing group therapy it will become much easier for you to communicate with family, friends and at work … You will be more ready for a direct conversation, for clarifications (not clarifications, but clarifications) of the relationship, and so on. And you will see how surprised people will be when you talk to them sincerely.

The main rule of groups is talk to each other directly and about your feelings … For example, instead of the text “last time she said hard-hitting things about me, she probably just doesn’t have a lot of intelligence to understand the height of my thoughts,” you will learn to speak about your feelings directly to a person: “Marina, you said last time about and it hurt and offended me, maybe you didn't quite understand what I meant by talking about that. Could you explain what you mean? Agree, to the first text there is a reaction of anger and a desire to interrupt communication, and in the second there is an understanding of the feelings of the other, and there is attraction to a relationship, even at such a difficult point. You will master this art of communication at the end of the group.

Of course, in individual therapy we also learn this kind of communication. But this often takes a little longer. In group therapy, communications are multifactorial, because there are many people, there are different attitudes towards you, there is a different attitude towards others, and accordingly you learn to express a variety of feelings to a wide variety of people. AND, when you encounter this kind of feeling or this kind of people in your life, you will already know what to do, how to react and what to say. You will have this skill.

And of course, what all the descriptions of the group are about is that a group can be compared to a family model … Why is it important? Probably, it is not a secret for anyone today that all our main difficulties in life are "buried" somewhere in deep childhood, and our ability to cope with these difficulties is largely related to our first attachment relationships - with mom, dad, siblings (brothers and sisters).

And the group is that unique place where a kind of regression happens - we unconsciously for ourselves and for reasons we don't understand, begin to react to each other and to the leaders of the group in a special way. Well, for example, we get angry or annoyed with someone for some unknown reason, or we feel tenderness just like that, for no conscious reason. And then we have the opportunity to realize these reasons "here-and-now", as well as to transfer them to our past. And thus old, ossified patterns of behavior (behavior models) are formatted and new ones come in their place.

The group creates a special atmosphere of safety, security, trust, support. And against the background of this atmosphere, it becomes possible for a deep self-disclosure to the group. And in the process of group work, participants learn to notice exactly how they organize and regulate relations in the group. Participants can understand to what extent they unconsciously transfer key impressions of their childhood and adolescence to a wide variety of social situations, and in such a way that this makes many current relationships significantly difficult. In the course of therapy in the group, free communication, free communication, collective association will become more and more possible, and thanks to this, communication with people outside of therapy will become more confident. Desirable behavior in the group arises spontaneously, and then receives support or encouragement from the group members, which reinforces the experience of the new behavior.

Also an important factor - often the leading groups explain theoretically the emergence and course of the complexity that the group member describes. It is clear that the same theoretical pieces can be found in individual work. But in a group, obtaining this knowledge turns out to be more voluminous.

For example, a participant has a certain difficulty, it is quite small, in his opinion, and he does not consider it necessary to work with this difficulty in personal therapy or designate it as the main one in the group. But for another participant, this complexity, for example, is presented in life in stronger experiences and he voices it, to which the group leader (or even the participants) responds. It can be both a theoretical piece and an exchange of experience between group members. And then it acts on the first participant like a "tangential" therapy, as one of my trainers used to say. For example, an unexpected understanding comes of why he is happening in life the way it is and what he can do about it (well, or not, but how to experience and live). It seems like a trifle, but with every such trifle our life becomes clearer, more conscious and interesting!

Another important factor, which is more represented in group therapy than in individual therapy, is universality of experiencethat Irwin Yalom spoke about. It is clear that everyone has their own life story and no one denies its uniqueness. But it's one thing when you come and tell your personal therapist about your difficulties, "strange" thoughts, fantasies, you hear the response of one person. It is a little relaxing, but often not completely soothing. But when you hear responses from several participants that they have similar difficulties, thoughts, fantasies, it becomes easier for you to accept your life situation and yourself as you are now. And this is one of the first steps in therapy. In addition, after listening to the worries of others who are similar to yours, you begin to feel more connected with the world and with other people, which in itself increases your trust in people (and not only in a group, but in general to people).

This is the main thing that I wanted to share with you today. Although there is a lot to say about the groups, I would be happy to continue the further description of the groups in a question-and-answer format. Therefore, satisfy your curiosity to the fullest in the comments to this article.