Individual vs Group Therapy
You’re in the thick of it and you recognize you want to start exploring your options for therapy. What are your therapy options? And then you start Googling therapy options. Before you know it, you’re down a rabbit hole with no clear answer. Ask yourself this: based on your current situation, what kind of therapy is best for you? During your search, you may have found some results that talk about individual therapy and group therapy.
What’s the difference? What might make one a better fit for you than the other? Let’s dive into individual vs group therapy - how they differ, and the pros and cons.
Difference Between Individual and Group Therapy
The main difference between individual therapy and group therapy is who is present during therapy sessions.
When you choose individual therapy, it’s just you and your therapist.
If you decide group therapy sounds appealing, you’ll have one therapist meeting with you and a few other clients together. If the group is a bit larger, it may also have more than one therapist.
How communications are handled, and what is discussed, will vary depending on the therapy style. Individual therapy is catered specifically to you and the outcomes you want for your therapy - called “treatment goals”. The focus is helping you build knowledge of yourself and learning skills you can use in your life between sessions. The things you’ll discuss with your individual therapist can be a wide variety of issues based on what your short and long-term goals are for therapy.
Group therapy you are one of several clients and the focus of the group is the collective needs of the group, not a single individual.
Often groups center around one specific topic, such as a type of trauma, an issue you want to improve, or grief. It brings a group together dealing with one topic. You discuss your challenges and feelings but also get to hear the struggles and victories of others in the group.
Group sessions can often bring about insights individual therapy might not, and you can accelerate your therapeutic skill building because you can utilize the practices in the group sessions. You are together with others who are going through similar experiences which helps form positive relationships, new coping mechanisms, and reduce loneliness or isolation.
Therapy Benefits for Trauma-Healing
Therapy with Green Circle Collective, both individual and group, provides short-term, goal-oriented, trauma-focused therapy that will treat symptoms and causes of traumatic stress. But which one is the best option for you in your journey? Let’s explore further.
Individual Therapy Benefits
Individual trauma therapy is helpful for acute and chronic issues. It’s beneficial for things that bother you and prevent your best functioning. Green Circle Collective often recommends starting with individual therapy, like EMDR therapy to reduce negative symptoms & neutralize the emotional impact of trauma and stress.
Sessions are designed as short-term and goal-oriented trauma-focused therapy. Once a professional mental health clinician has you focused on healing from the impact of your stress and trauma, moving into group therapy to work further on the skills you have developed to handle your stress and trauma is advised.
Group Therapy Benefits
Though many people start in individual therapy, you don’t have to. Participating in group therapy from the start is a great way to begin your healing process. Group therapy brings those dealing with the same type of trauma together to focus on specific pain points.
Groups build a community of folks who understand what each member is working on, and are meant to super-charge your healing process. As a group, members use their relationships with each other, along with therapists, to:
practice coping skills
process new insights
experience connections with others that have similar struggles
Our groups provide a secure place to experience your thoughts, emotions, and triggers while getting immediate feedback from peers and the professionally trained group facilitator. The immediate feedback replicates real life, so the experiences of group therapy can be applied to the relationships and situations you encounter in your real life.
Green Circle Collective is Unique for Trauma-Based Group Therapy
Green Circle Collective group therapy for trauma and stress is unique since our facilitators are trained in not only conventional group therapy practices, but also in group conflict transformation and nonviolent communication. It allows you and each member of the group a secure place with peers. You can feel safe knowing you’ll be able to work on specific points of pain in your life.
