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Group therapy: good idea or waste of time?

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lightningandsnow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 01:58 PM
Original message
Group therapy: good idea or waste of time?
There's this kind of arts-based therapy group that I'm thinking of joining. One of the facilitators is a friend of a friend, and she's a really nice person and I'd feel comfortable with her. Both the facilitators are certified counsellors.

From the official description:

Our goal is to provide a group environment in which people who have traditionally been marginalized, pathologized, and/or excluded from therapy can participate in non-hierarchical, non-judgmental, anti-oppressive therapeutic experience.

This group will:
-promote self-exploration and expression
-encourage a broader sense of play
-facilitate the restorying of negative narratives
-recognize and challenge damaging life patterns
-celebrate the ways we have used creative resistance and resilience as coping strategies and strengthen those skills
-create a supportive network
-examine the ways that societal oppressions impact mental and physical well-being

Group therapy offers a unique opportunity to examine interpersonal relationships and allows us to investigate and engage with our strengths and allows us to investigate and engage with our strengths and limitations in relative safety. Trust, boundary-setting, coping skills, and self-exploration will be explored through discussions, experiential activities, art-based exercises, and group interaction.


Whaddya think? Should I go for it? (I'll probably be the youngest one there, but I'm good at interacting with people who are older than me, anyway).
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Droopy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 02:04 PM
Response to Original message
1. I'd do it
I've been in group therapy before and would be now if it weren't for my work schedule. The goal of the group for me was self-awareness.
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Iggo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 02:10 PM
Response to Original message
2. "Facilitate the restorying of negative narratives"?
I'm sorry, but....what the...?
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Giant Robot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 02:32 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. I'm the counseling biz myself and I have to tell you
I really hate it when other professionals use this kind of language. People don't understand it often, they may not understand what they are getting themselves in to and I think it just looks bad for us, cause some of it sounds silly. Writing like this is good for journals and grad school papers, but that's about it.

Back to the question at hand, all I can really tell you is go for it and see what happens! The good/bad of it will depend on the members of the group and the facilitators, so thats a lot of variables to predict. It can be really insightful and fun, so give it a try.
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zanne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-02-08 07:59 AM
Response to Reply #4
12. I think it can help you see yourself (and others) in a different way.
Most of us walk around with a certain image of ourselves and lots of assumptions about others. Group therapy can really help us see that we're all in this thing together and that we do share alot in common.
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Frosty1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 03:07 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. Translation
Looking at life from a different perspective.
:hi:
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Iggo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 06:44 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Thank you.
Now why couldn't they have just said that.

'Cause at first blush it sounds like telling your story differently so it won't look so bad...or what my mom used to call "Lying."
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Frosty1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 07:42 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. The purpose is to change the way we talk to ourselves.
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Frosty1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 07:43 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. The purpose is to change the way we talk to ourselves.
What we tell ourselves influences how we feel about things
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Haole Girl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 02:23 PM
Response to Original message
3. I went to my older sister's group session once when she invited me...
I thought they were going to kick me out in the middle of it! One of them said I was trying to psychoanalyze & another got really defensive because I said she felt guilty about something in her past. lol

So, I guess you could say it wasn't for me! LOL
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obamashow Donating Member (43 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 04:07 PM
Response to Original message
6. Waste of time.........
Waste of time........
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Nikia Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-01-08 04:44 PM
Response to Original message
7. For me, group therapy is best if lead by good counselors
Who won't someone who is extra negative to dominate. It is comforting to know that you are not alone in your problems and can share with others. For me group therapy as opposed to individual therapy makes me less self focused. It also gets some of the focus off the counselors themselves. In individual therapy, I have tended to think that either the counselors were judging me negatively or that perhaps the counselor was more messed up than me and one time both.
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Forkboy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-02-08 07:54 AM
Response to Original message
11. I guess that really depends on you.
:)
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bertha katzenengel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-02-08 08:11 AM
Response to Original message
13. It was a royal bitch, but it helped me.
It surprised me that it helped to talk about shared experiences.
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noonwitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-02-08 10:04 AM
Response to Original message
14. I tried it for a few weeks
An issue-specific group. I found that they were very angry, and I didn't want to be angry anymore. Sharing just "angered up the blood", and I wanted to move beyond that.
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soleft Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-02-08 11:20 AM
Response to Original message
15. In some ways is hastens work done in individual
Because any familial patterns or issues continually come to the front and get dealth with. Most of the catalysts that propelled me toward a deeper understanding of myself came from group.
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