Group Therapy

If an individual is suffering from a mental problem or a mental disorder, he could be treated with the help of any of the psychotherapy techniques in the context of an individual. I understand that these techniques are very effective in treating the individuals of mental disorders. One of the aspects that these techniques do not focus on enough is that the area of individuals behaving in a social context is relatively unknown.

An individual after undergoing a psychotherapy technique (comprising of several psychotherapy sessions) would in all probabilities be considered as an individual not having any mental disorders. But the aspect of how he would behave in the society is still unexplored. In some cases, it has been found that an individual meets the expectations of a psychotherapy technique just for him to come back and complain about being a misfit in groups.

Group Therapy allows psychotherapy techniques to be practiced on individuals in a social context thus giving the therapists and the individuals a feel of how they would behave in a group. As per Group therapy, a group of individuals are treated and mostly, all the individuals in the group are administered the same psychotherapy technique to analyze the behavior of the individuals effectively. Interaction between the individuals within the group is highly advocated by therapists as this would give them critical data for them to analyze how the individual behaves in a social context. Providing therapists with more data would be the individuals providing the therapists with information on their past experiences outside the therapeutic group.

How does Group Therapy function?

  • Group therapy starts with the therapist forming a group of individuals who wish to undergo Group Therapy. For all practical purposes, this group is referred to as a Depression support group or mental health support group. Therapists may decide on having a group of individuals who think alike which is entirely discretionary to the therapist.

  • The individuals of the group are given situations/events on which they need to interact within the group. The events could be real-life problems in a social context. The interaction by the individuals of the group is gauged by the therapist.

  • Feedback is given by the therapist to the individuals in the group advising them of their reactions. In most cases, individuals are also suggested the way they should have reacted in a group.

We all must realize that man is a social animal. His individual behavior is important to him as an individual, but what would determine his cohesiveness with the society would be his behavior in the social context. For individuals who have issues on behavior in the social level, group therapy helps individuals to overcome this issue.