Nine people make their way into a room, each looking tentatively at others. Although each person has met the therapist during a diagnostic interview, no one knows any of the other clients. Some of the people seem reluctant, others enthusiastic. All are willing to follow the therapist's recommendation that group therapy might help each of them learn to cope better with their problems. As they sit down and wait for the session to begin, one thinks, ?Will they really understand me? Another wonders, ?Do the others have problems like mine?? Yet another thinks, ?Can I stick my neck out with these people??
Group therapy is diversified. Some therapists practice psychodynamic, humanistic, behavior or cognitive therapy. Others use group approaches that are not based on the major psychotherapeutic perspectives. Six features make group therapy an attractive format.
1.Information. Individuals receive information about their problems from either the group leader or the other members of the group.
2.Universality. Mainly individuals develop the sense that they are the only persons who have such frightening and unacceptable impulses. In the group individuals observe that others also feel anguish and suffering.
3.Altruism. Group members support one another with the advice and sympathy and learn that they have something to offer others.
4.Corrective recapitulation of the family group. A therapy group often resembles a family (and, in family therapy, the group is family), with leaders representing parents and other members? siblings. In this ?new? family, old wounds can be healed and new, more positive ?family? ties made.
5.Development of social skills. Corrective feedback from peers can modify flaws in individual interpersonal skills. A self-centered individual might see that he is self-centered if five other group members inform him about his self-centeredness; in individual therapy, he may not believe the therapist.
6.Interpersonal learning. The group can serve as a training ground for practicing new behaviors and relationships. For example, a hostile woman might learn that she can get along better with others by not behaving so aggressively.
If you think that you are also having some problems with people communication socially or anything like that, then you should be looking for a group therapy. However, you should know about the therapy before you go so that you could be able to do what is required to solve your problem easily.
"...it takes a lot of courage and fearlessness to join a men's group."
As psychotherapists working with men in therapy, we have found that men are looking everywhere but in. It takes a lot of pain, hurt and failures before men are usually willing to look at themselves. It takes a lot of courage and fearlessness to join a men's group and look at our selves and communicate honestly; a men's group creates a special space for men to talk about that we truly think, what we need, what we want, what we feel and what we are experiencing. In the company of men, men are able to make conscious decisions around what they want to change and what not to change. In an all- male group, men have the opportunity to form close relationships with other men, to realize that they are not alone with their problems, issues, and concerns; and to discover that other men also struggle with not being able to get in touch with their feelings, or to identify and know that they are, in fact, anxious or depressed, or full of anger or rage. Do you relate to or identify with this?
For many men, the idea of joining a men's group conjures up visions of dancing and drumming around campfires, or consciousness raising exercises, transforming them into soft, granola-eating, sensitive men. It's easier to make fun of your images of men's groups than to challenge your own fears in therapy.
Group therapy offers men a chance to observe and be observed by other men and a therapist in a social context. Men can bring up a concern from home or work and get honest and constructive feedback from a variety of perspectives.
Group also allows men to see how they present themselves in social interactions, and what personal and interpersonal issues emerge, that can be generalized to other parts of their lives. Direct, honest feedback is what you can expect from group therapy.
Why not see what men can learn from each other? Participating in a men's group will give you the opportunity to experience what men can learn from each each in a safe and supportive environment.
For more information on this therapist and other articles, visit www.therapylinx.com!
Both Mira Williams & Armand Lebovits, Msw, Lcsw are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Mira Williams has sinced written about articles on various topics from Personal Desktop, Tummy Tucks Before and After and Shopping. PathOfLove.net - Path of Love is a deep and challenging process that has produced life-changing and breakthrough results for thousands of people all over the world: