# Experiences with group therapy



## mellie (Feb 3, 2008)

My counselor suggested I try group therapy for SA people. Has anybody done this? I tend to not like getting touchy feely with groups and I'm wondering if this is how these things are, or what? And are they helpful at all?


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## candrnow (Jun 15, 2010)

yeah, i did it last year. it was very helpful. look in my sig for a log i kept in which i detailed some of those sessions.


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## candrnow (Jun 15, 2010)

i want to add that what you get from group is what you get out of it. when i was doing it, there were 5 other members. a couple of them missed many sessions and didn't have good results because i don't think she ever really had true belief that it would work for her. you have to stick with it and work hard and take leaps of faith. the skills that i learned in group therapy (based on the OSA CDs) changed my life.


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## droen (Jul 27, 2010)

Group therapy is good, but it really depends on who's leading the group and how much the members are willing to share their feelings. The group I go to now was a little rough at first since it was brand new and no one knew each other. Usually if there's at least one person willing to open up and tell their story, a few more will follow and start to get comfortable.

I've made some pretty good progress with group therapy. I can honestly say that it contributed to me being able to be open and authentic with my feelings.

My advice is to not go in with high expectations. Just think of it as a kind of exposure, soak in the knowledge they give you, and be completely honest with how you feel when it's your turn to speak.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

I did group therapy in a partial hospital program & I found opening up about my problems with a bunch of people actually very liberating & helpful. Everyone was very compassionate & giving advice or reassurance.

I say give it a try.


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## Kon (Oct 21, 2010)

I was in 3 slightly different therapy groups. The success depends greatly on the people in the group and on the person guiding the group. Get a bad group and it is useless. Same with a bad leader. Anything more than 15 or so people in the group also makes it much less useful. I liked the lecture and ask question format but I hated acting out stuff and all the formal stuff, like introducing oneself and talking about personal stuff and goals. I hated when people cried or clapped their hands or congratulated each other. I also hated having to remember people's names. I'm just very bad at stuff like that no matter how hard I try. 

Group therapy was particularly useful for me because:

1. It allowed me to speak in front of a group (I have public-speaking anxiety) in less scary environment. I was still very nervous.

2. It made realize how emotionally immature I was and how little I really knew about myself and my personality and other's psychology compared to everybody else in the group. I felt like I was sitting beside emotional "geniuses".


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## mellie (Feb 3, 2008)

candrnow said:


> yeah, i did it last year. it was very helpful. look in my sig for a log i kept in which i detailed some of those sessions.


Thanks for this, I read through and I'm going to try some of those tips. Reading your experience is probably as good as any therapy!


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## mellie (Feb 3, 2008)

Kon said:


> I liked the lecture and ask question format but I hated acting out stuff and all the formal stuff, like introducing oneself and talking about personal stuff and goals. I hated when people cried or clapped their hands or congratulated each other.


I think I would be the same way.. all of those things just feel a little cheesy for me and it's hard for me to take it seriously. But I guess overall it seems like it's worth a try at least.


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## mooseick (Aug 11, 2010)

i think itd be pretty good so that you can talk around people. i agree that it depends on the people in the group, the leader and yourself. i tried once and didn't like it cuz i had a bad day once and i didn't know what to say, but the leader kinda just made it worse. but i think it could be very helpfull with the right people.


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## Green Eyes (Sep 6, 2009)

It could be helpfull. I had group therapy, but it was with people with all sort of problems. I was the only one with sa and also the one who was the quiest. It didn't helped me at all. Maybe it had some to do with my age (18 years) but I think mostly it was the wrong therapy for me. Just sitting with 10 people and talking about your problems, it's was too hard for me. I could really concentrate and only thought about what I could say and how stupid that would be. And that there were some people who were irritated with me because I said so little didn't helped either. The therapist weren't helpfull. They had even said to me that they didn't know what to do with me. Stupid *******s! They knew I had sa and said they could help me.

I think you should try it. It could be helpfull if you have a good group and good therapist.


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