How do I decide: Time-limited or Long-term Group Therapy?
Fall 2018 Group Therapy Offerings at GT Therapy Group
Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash
We have some awesome group therapy offerings this fall! We’ll have an elementary-age Friendship Circle group as well as a time-limited GirlTalk Therapy group for middle school girls. Both will start around Labor Day and will be eight weeks long. Georgia Denny will be leading these groups, so if you are interested in either group we will happily put you in touch with her in order to get the process started.
We have open long-term groups available for middle and high school teens, including ongoing GirlTalk Therapy groups, mixed gender Identity & Relationships groups, and newly forming parent support groups and group therapy for college students & young adults.
LONG-TERM OR TIME-LIMITED GROUP? HOW DO I KNOW WHICH IS THE RIGHT FIT?
Most of our groups are long-term, open enrollment, developmentally-appropriate process groups. This means that members can join and graduate from group at different times, and the group can keep going. These types of groups mirror our experiences in the world, where we are often having to navigate relationship transitions and learning how to enter into established groups as well as how to say goodbye when people leave. These groups are, at their core, about establishing healthy peer attachments.
Our time-limited groups are more focused on practical learning and skills-acquisition and are great when your child or teen needs a primer on social-emotional development. Sometimes a child can participate in a time-limited group to build some language around the social and emotional skills we teach, and then might join an ongoing group for the long-term.
While both groups teach skills and incorporate age-appropriate topics for discussion around emotions, sense of self and social relationships, the open groups are much more about the long-term process and experience of the group itself, and can adapt as the members grow. The needs of these groups might look different over time, and members can stay for different lengths of time depending on needs and goals, but they are based in the latest neuroscience that teaches us that interpersonal relationships are how we form our identity, how we regulate our emotions, and how we learn how to organize ourselves in the world.
In both time-limited and long-term group therapy, you will:
- gain tools for emotion regulation
- develop interpersonal skills
- learn about yourself & how to relate to others
- use developmentally-appropriate games, exercises and activities to foster learning and connection
In short-term groups you will:
- focus on skills using activities
- have a little more "teaching time" from the group therapist
In long-term groups you will:
- focus on building healthy relationships with other group members
- incorporate skills in a more emergent way (less formal teaching time, more about what's happening in the moment)
Short-term groups can be best when you want to get a quick primer on some social & emotional skills and have a chance to practice in a safe environment. Long-term groups can be best when you've been struggling for a while and need some ongoing support mixed in with some skill-building.