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Group Therapy-A powerful Place for Healing ©Ingrid Lawrenz, M.S.W. All over the country group therapy is growing as a beneficial and cost effective treatment for a variety of problems. NLR has been successfully running groups for over 15 years. Groups are exciting and very rewarding. They are powerful places of change. Seeing yourself clearly through the eyes of others and finding yourself no longer alone but supported and understood, can give a person the energy, motivation and strength to make real changes. Most people enter their first group session with some apprehension, but the good humor, camaraderie, and learning atmosphere soon put them at ease. There are usually 5-10 people in a group. The groups are relational based, goal oriented, and focused on problem solving. Group members are encouraged to be assertive with their own needs, while at the same time learning how to listen, empathize and share truths with each other. It is not a take-a-turn process of listening to other people's problems nor is it a pity party. Groups are interactive, rather fast paced, socially motivating, and provide opportunity for personal growth and change. In groups people share on different levels. Occasionally past traumas need to be processed, so the person can move on, and let go of the past. Often current life issues--job, family, emotional reactions during the week, etc.--are the focus for problem solving. People can derive benefit from groups in other ways as well. They benefit both by sharing their own issues and getting feedback, as well as by listening to others and recognizing the application to themselves. A markedly powerful point of learning is to see how they are relating in the group through the eyes of others: defenses, communication patterns, lack of trust, lack of awareness of feelings or lack of assertiveness, etc. Groups then provide the opportunity to teach and practice new skills. The groups may also use prayer as a way of ministering to each other. Groups are much more like learning to swim in the middle of the pool with able-bodied life guards, than standing on the side discussing swimming techniques. Sometimes groups are recommended as a graduation from individual therapy because it provides so much real life interaction. Groups may be recommended for the person who has plateaued in individual or marital therapy, and just seems to need the added stimulus to deal with the problems at hand. Finally, groups may be the most feasible therapy option because of financial restrictions. We find that most everyone can benefit from group treatment, with the exception of clients in such deep crisis that they need the additional focus and safety provided by individual therapy. People who seem to derive the most benefit from groups are those who have been hurt in relationships, or have learned unhelpful ways of human relating. Groups frequently are able to turn around such relationship patterns. Shame, low self esteem, depression, anxiety and a poor sense of identity are often symptoms of dysfunctional training. People vary in how long they need to stay in group. The range is typically from six months to two years or more. "Graduating" from group means to have come to a point where your goals are basically met, the group validates your growth, you've built adequate support outside of the group and you have the life tools necessary to move on. There is often a tearful and thankful good bye. Frequently "old" group members continue to get together for support and fellowship long after they've graduated from group. Groups are powerful places of healing. Our hope is that people who have been helped by their group experience at NLR, will take what they've learned into their family, church and small group studies so that they may help others to be more real, better communicators and more loving. The Testimony of a Group "Graduate" August, 1996 "When I first came to group, I was afraid and very mistrusting of all people. Group eventually became almost like a family... a place to be challenged and to be loved and accepted for who I really was, not for what they wanted me to be. I found a safe place to grow as a person, to find out who I was and to learn to trust again. I tried my hardest to make them dislike me. I thought by telling them all the deep, dark and ugly secrets about me, that they would be as disgusted with me as I was with myself. It didn't work. They loved and accepted me anyway. They nurtured and encouraged me, and walked alongside me through some really tough times. Group taught me how to be an active member in a family, not just a survivor. It was a place to experiment with being vulnerable, to challenge old beliefs and learn new healthy ones. I found I wasn't alone in my struggles. When I shared something I saw heads nodding-- that they did know what it was like, because they had been there too. I learned to love and to be loved, to give and take. In group I learned to live joyfully and completely as the person that God created me to be. I received a taste, a vision, of what family is really all about...and for that I am grateful." |
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