Group support offers clients a chance to hear different perspectives and share thoughts. Let’s start by talking about the benefits in which attending a group can be helpful. Group therapy can help bring people together who are going through a difficult time or have shared similar experiences. Participating in a group can offer insights that you may be too close to the situation to see. Processing and opening up about past traumas or uncomfortable feeling around others helps to take the power out of the pain, then making it easier to work through in an individual therapy session. Like we hear in the program, what we can’t do alone we can do together. Generally speaking, a clinician facilitating a group will choose a topic or theme which will prompt clients to begin sharing on the said topic relating their experience, which often brings up painful or joyful memories for the client to focus attention and awareness to how they behave as a result of their past. It is important to practice mindfulness and grounding exercises when someone begins to talk about a dangerous or traumatic experience, which should allow the client to share without re-living the whole situation. This can include being in the here and now, rather than living in the past or feeling shame behind previous experiences. Like we often hear in 12 step support groups, what we can’t do alone we can do together. There is power in numbers, which is why I recommend to getting in the middle of the circle.

Also Read: Family Support in An Aftercare Program!