When you, or someone you love, enter substance abuse treatment, it’s typical to have both individual and group therapy. There are a number of benefits of group therapy that can help make the way to recovery easier. In addition, attending a group therapy program can also help you weather the inevitable bumps that recovery entails more easily.
At Santé Center for Healing, we use group therapy as a tool in many of our addiction treatment programs. This treatment can be particularly effective for those who feel that they are alone in their addiction. That sense of isolation can be difficult to overcome. As a result, group therapy can provide the perfect way to counteract it. To learn more about the treatment options available, please contact Santé Center for Healing today at 866.238.3154 or use our convenient online form.
What Is a Group Therapy Program?
In generalized terms, group therapy is exactly what you would think. Quite simply, it refers to counseling that occurs in a group. The members are all facing similar issues in life, such as substance abuse disorders. Group therapy is moderated and facilitated by a trained therapist or counselor.
While individual therapy has its place in addiction treatment for more personal matters, group therapy programs offer a chance to identify with others who know exactly what you’re going through.
There are four general types of group therapy that are used when treating substance use disorders. These include:
Skill Development
This type of group therapy teaches its members the skills they need to help them break away from addiction.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
A group that focuses on cognitive-behavioral therapy, often shortened simply to CBT, has a leader who is a trained therapist. During these group sessions, the therapist assists members in avoiding those negative thoughts that can make it easy to fall back into addiction. Instead, there is a focus on developing new actions and habits that you can use to help you continue your recovery.
Support Group
In the third type of group therapy, the support of the other members is crucial in your recovery. The other members support the constructive changes that you make in an effort to recover fully.
However, they aren’t there to simply give each other pats on the back. They are also there to keep each other honest. Consequently, they often challenge those excuses that you might use in order to pick up your former habits of coping, such as turning to drugs and alcohol. You also do your part to support the recovery of the other people in the group too.
Psychoeducational Group
There are many people who are struggling with a substance use disorder who can tell you a staggering number of ways that they can use to get their next high. They might have innovative methods of using their substances of choice in order to satisfy their cravings.
What might not be as obvious to them is the devastating effects of drugs and alcohol on every aspect of their lives. From the way it can permanently change the way the brain works to the effects it has on the body, the information learned in a psychoeducational group can often be an eye-opening experience for participants.
Benefits of a Group Therapy Program
The benefits of group therapy programs are well understood. In fact, the inclusion of group therapy programs has been a hallmark of substance use disorder treatment for several decades because of the mounds of research that point to its benefits. The following are just a few benefits of group therapy that you’re likely to experience:
Support
Struggling with an addiction to drugs and alcohol is often a lonely and isolating experience. You might feel as no one else understands what you’ve been facing. In group therapy, you’ll soon learn that many of the participants’ stories and experiences mirror your own. This realization can be a relief.
Experimentation
A key element in recovering from a substance use disorder is learning to substitute other coping mechanisms and skills that initially lead to you turning to drugs or alcohol. Being able to experiment and practice these new behaviors in a controlled setting can help them feel more natural to you when it comes time to put them in action.
Perspective
Even if you share a problem with another person in your group, it’s likely that you each see it from your own unique perspective. Being able to examine a problem in a new way can lead you to discover a solution that eluded you previously.
Seek Treatment at Santé Center for Healing
Santé Center for Healing offers a number of proven techniques that are designed to help you overcome substance use disorder. Our supportive group therapy program (and family group therapy for addiction) is just one of these. We utilize group therapy in many of our addiction treatment programs, including:
- Alcohol addiction treatment
- Heroin addiction treatment
- Cocaine addiction treatment
- Prescription drug addiction treatment
- Opiate addiction treatment
- Opioid addiction treatment
A group therapy program in TX could be right for you. Learn more about our approach by calling us at 866.238.3154 today.
