What is group therapy?
Explore these pages to find out more
or set up a free 1-1
What to expect
A small group - up to 8 people
It’s confidential - no surnames, no contact between sessions
Continuity of group members from week to week
The freedom to try new openness. To say what’s really on your mind
Consistency
Group therapy relies on consistency. A place in a group is precious and members make space in their lives to attend
Sessions last 90 minutes. Groups run weekly or twice weekly
Most people find that attending for at least a year gives them lasting benefit
Group therapy is non-judgemental
Group therapy welcomes people from all walks of life and cultural traditions
Group members may uncover prejudices or animosities in themselves that they had not known were there
Understanding these issues helps us become tolerant. Ready to connect with others
Face to face
All groups are offered face to face currently; we ask that participants bring an extra layer so we can keep the windows open
What happens in a session?
There is no agenda. Just free-floating conversation
The way you are in life comes out in the group and this is thought about
You begin to get to know yourself
Plus how others see you
You also see where familiar roles and feelings came from, and how you map the past onto the present
This understanding releases you and leads to new possibilities
In the group you get to experience yourself differently with trusted others - can you be a confident, relaxed person, happy in your own skin?
New clients meet with the group analyst individually before joining
Everyone arrives a few minutes before the session starts and chooses a seat. People may chat until the therapist arrives
When the therapist arrives the group has formally started
There’s usually a brief silence. Then someone begins to talk
Perhaps about something that’s on their mind, from the week just passed or the last session
It may sound mundane but something about it did not feel quite right. The others listen. They may ask for more detail to try to help the person make sense of what happened
This opens a way to bring in something more important. Is there a link back to a familiar pattern or role?
“When difficult or confusing things happen to us our language ‘goes on holiday’ - we employ words but we fail to express the experience”
— John M Heaton
Words join feelings
Different perspectives emerge in the conversation. Usually affirming the speaker’s experience, but perhaps challenging it too
A group member might add support. “Just hearing that makes me so cross! “
The speaker starts to consider a new way of looking back
“Yes. I was upset too, but I’ve somehow lost touch with that?”
Feelings have joined words on holiday
Other group members in turn see that they may be caught up in similar ways in their own lives
What’s it really about?
The person who started talking gets in touch with what long-lost feelings they are mapping onto the present
Putting words to that moment may elicit a rush of buried feelings. This is the start of a grieving process. Talking about it, and feeling the feelings are ultimately a means of letting them go
So they don’t keep popping up as anxiety or stress or confusion - triggers
When a group member sees why they think and act as they do, and the feelings are no longer raw but manageable, they are freed up to act differently. More honest with themselves. More open with others
They have the confidence to start being more relaxed and free in the group before changing in their relationships outside.
This is reported back at a later session. New group members grow more optimistic. Open to new thinking
Groups that meet twice a week get these results more quickly simply because there’s more time to explore