Emotional pain can feel isolating, even when you’re surrounded by people who care. Group therapy offers support rooted in connection, shared experiences, and collective healing. It creates a space where you can be truly seen, heard, and understood by others walking a similar path.
Explore how group therapy creates connection, healing, and lasting change. Understanding how group therapy is structured can help you decide if it feels right for you.
What Is Group Therapy and How Does It Work?
Group therapy sessions typically bring together 5 to 15 people who meet regularly with a licensed therapist to exchange stories, build coping skills, and work through challenges. Some groups focus on teaching practical tools like mindfulness or communication strategies, while others create a safe place for deeper emotional exploration.
Each group looks different, but all share a core belief: real progress often happens together, not alone. Research backs this up—a 2023 article in the APA Monitor found that group therapy is just as effective as individual therapy for treating a wide range of symptoms and mental health conditions.
Group Therapy: How It Builds Connection and Change
The primary goal of group therapy is rebuilding trust in yourself, others, and the shared human experience. Mental health struggles often lead to isolation, but hearing others name emotions you’ve carried alone can bring relief. Pain and vulnerability are seen as human, not failure.
Group therapy also offers a place to practice setting boundaries, speaking needs, and building resilience, with help from both the group and the therapist. Encouraging others strengthens your own compassion, creating a sense of belonging—what Dr. Irvin Yalom, a pioneer in group therapy, called the healing force of “universality.”
More Ways Group Therapy Can Help
Building connection is just the beginning. Group therapy often sparks personal growth in surprising, life-changing ways.
Here are a few ways group therapy can help:
- Practice new behaviors. The group becomes a real-world setting to try things you might avoid elsewhere, like speaking up instead of withdrawing or setting healthy boundaries instead of people-pleasing.
- Build deeper self-awareness. Noticing how you interact with others—and how others respond to you—can reveal patterns you might not see on your own. Compassionate feedback from peers often sparks valuable insight.
- Stay intentional about growth. Setting small personal goals for group therapy, like talking more openly or sitting with uncomfortable emotions, helps keep your progress focused and meaningful. Celebrating these steps together strengthens motivation.
- Strengthen emotional resilience. Being part of a caring group makes facing challenges outside of therapy easier. Knowing you have a space where fear, grief, and uncertainty are met with understanding builds lasting inner strength.
Healing in group therapy often happens in ways you can’t plan or predict—but it always starts with the courage to show up.
Group vs. One-on-One Therapy: What’s the Difference?
While everyone’s healing journey is unique, understanding how group therapy compares to individual therapy can help you decide what might work best for you.
In individual therapy, you work closely with a therapist to explore your personal history, emotions, and goals. It’s a treatment where the focus is entirely on you.
Group therapy offers something different: seeing yourself through others’ eyes. It provides a real-time experience of connection, disagreement, vulnerability, and trust. For some challenges, especially social anxiety, relationship issues, and grief, group therapy can be even more powerful because it mirrors real-life interactions in a safe setting.
A study in Behavior Research and Therapy found that people with social anxiety showed significant improvement in group therapy. This is likely because it gave them a live environment to practice facing fears around judgment and connection.
Who Benefits from Group Therapy?
Group therapy offers support, insight, and healing for many people. You don’t have to be outgoing or ready to share your story immediately to find value in it—simply showing up and listening can be an important first step. Progress unfolds at your own pace, and every small step is respected.
People who find group therapy especially helpful include:
- Those battling anxiety or depression, ready to learn new coping strategies and reconnect with others
- People grieving loss, looking for a place to process emotions without being rushed or judged
- Survivors of trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) finding strength in each other’s stories of healing and recovery
- Individuals managing chronic illness who need emotional support alongside medical care
- People facing major life changes, like divorce, job loss, or stepping into new caregiver roles
- Anyone struggling with relationship challenges, whether with partners, family, or friends
- Those rebuilding social skills or confidence, especially after long periods of feeling isolated
Whether you’re hoping to manage daily stress or heal deeper wounds, the goals of group therapy center on growth, collective strength, and creating a lasting foundation for emotional strength.
Is Group Therapy Right for You?
Healing doesn’t have to happen alone. At ATX Counseling, group therapy offers a supportive space to connect, grow, and start real change together.
Our experienced team provides both in-person and online group therapy sessions from our private practice. If you’re looking for a therapist in Austin, Texas, to help you build resilience, strengthen relationships, and reconnect with yourself, ATX Counseling creates a welcoming environment where growth feels possible.
Book an appointment today to learn more about our current group offerings. Whether you prefer meeting in person or joining online, ATX Counseling can help you find a group that fits your needs and goals.
