The Benefits of Group Therapy in Substance Abuse Treatment

We believe at Carrara that addiction is best confronted through holistic therapy treatment. Part of this strategy involves receiving one-on-one individualized therapy in your suite, where you reveal your deepest traumas and the thoughts you feel you can never share with anyone.

You’ll also be attending our process group where you share your stories with the rest of the residents in our facility. Addiction group therapy is perhaps one of the most powerful tools in your recovery plan because it connects you with people in a similar situation as yourself.

Work your way through it together; beat any obstacle that tries to challenge your newfound sobriety and band together, helping each other in the tough times of your recovery.

At first, this may sound somewhat intimidating, but in group therapy, you get to build associations with people around you. You find a community that casts out the isolation and makes you realize you aren’t totally alone in your battle against addiction.

What Are the Types of Therapy Groups in Addiction Recovery Programs?

Addiction group therapy programs differ between treatment centers, but they usually revolve around the following three models.

Psychoeducational Groups

These groups discuss the mechanisms of addiction and how the disease affects your body and mind. It educates you and your loved ones on the personal impact of addiction in your life and how it affects the people around you.

You’ll learn about the co-occurring mental health problems associated with addiction and how to identify the characteristics of these disorders in your behavior and thinking. The goal here is to give you a complete understanding of how addiction plays out in your life and the risks associated with continuing down this path.

Interpersonal Process Groups

Being part of a group gives you further insights into your addiction that you might not have uncovered with individual therapy sessions alone. Carrara group therapy for drug addiction starts a conversation, and you can choose to participate and share your story or sit back and listen to others share their experience with addiction.

You’ll discuss each other’s problems and seek solutions under the guidance of your therapist. As your treatment progresses, you’ll notice that the group starts to act as a mirror of your relationships outside of treatment, and you might interact with the group the same way you would with your loved ones. It’s a chance to leverage this group dynamic and apply what you learn in your therapy sessions to your relationship dynamics to inspire better communication.

Skills Development Groups

As an addict, you feel powerless to control your compulsion to use, and that traps you in a perpetual cycle of addiction that’s tough to break. Skills development groups teach you coping strategies you can use when you feel weak and prone to relapse. You’ll learn how to identify and overcome the triggers for your addictive behavior and implement strategies that teach you how to control emotional responses like anger and sadness.

The Unique Benefits of Group Therapy for SUD and AUD

There are so many benefits of group therapy for addiction. While many people who are new to recovery find process groups challenging to assimilate into at first, all it takes is time, and you’ll start to feel the difference it’s making in your treatment. Here are a few benefits you can expect from group therapy sessions at Carrara.

A Safe Space for Shared Experiences

Carrara group therapy for addiction recovery gives the group a safe space where they can share their story and be heard in a non-judgmental environment. Everyone is on the same page, and you’ll feed off each other’s shared experiences, pointing out solutions and ideas that progress the group forward individually and as a collective.

Stop Isolation and Loneliness

Addiction can lead to you withdrawing from communication with friends and family as your SUD or AUD worsens. You’ll carry these feelings of loneliness and isolation into your recovery, and being part of a process group brings you back from the edge as you start to form new relationships with the people in your treatment program. Group therapy for addiction treatment gives you a new avenue of support you can use to heal and grow.

Learn from Other People’s Stories

Drug and alcohol addiction group therapy at Carrara gives everyone a chance to share their story. Sit back and listen to other people talk about their battle with addiction and see if you notice any commonalities with their problems in life. When it’s your time to share, you can expect the group to give you feedback on your situation and help you towards achieving the breakthrough you need to change your life.

Build Accountability and Empathy

Your process group holds you accountable for your actions along your journey to making a lasting recovery. When you have five other individuals who want to see you get clean as much as they want it for themselves, they’ll keep you on-track to achieving your goal of getting sober. You’ll learn how to empathize with others and create a sense of understanding between you where you all push each other forward along the path to recovery.

What’s Discussed in Group Therapy Sessions?

Your therapist leads the group therapy session, keeping everyone on track. They’ll let you all do the talking and stop you from straying off track. They might ask you to expand on certain topics where they feel you’re close to making a breakthrough, and they keep the flow of conversation organic and flexible to the needs of the group as the session unfolds.

Group therapy sessions generally tackle old problems first that were left unresolved at the last meeting. They’ll move on to discussing new topics, covering as much ground as they can while ensuring everyone’s getting value from the session. Some of the topics covered in the sessions include relationships, trauma, codependency, conflict resolution, impulse control, and stress management, to name a few.

Your therapist will teach the group coping strategies to deal with stressors surrounding the topic of conversation. If the group is discussing how stress makes them feel like relapsing, the therapist will teach techniques that help you quiet the mind and drive away the stress and your compulsion to use. The therapist might ask you about the last time you experienced stress, how it made you feel and how you dealt with the situation.

Understanding Group Therapy Etiquette

At Carrara, your group therapy sessions are a foundational part of your recovery program, and understanding how to behave in the group is crucial to creating an environment where everyone gets the most out of the time they spend in session.

Our primary goal is to give you a safe space where you can reveal your difficulties with addiction and receive support from the people in the group. There are a few dos and don’ts to group therapy, so let’s unpack the etiquette you need to follow during your session.

The Do’s of Carrara Group Therapy Sessions

Feel free to share your story with the group and open up on the struggles you experience with your addiction.

Proactively listen to the other people in the group as they share their story. It’s all about building an environment of respect where people feel they can share without judgment.

If the other members of the group are battling to keep it together, show them support – they’ll do the same for you.

Take mental notes on what you’re feeling and thinking so you can reflect on them later when you’re alone.

Don’t be rigid, stay flexible to other people’s perspectives and ideas.

The Don’ts of Carrara Group Therapy Sessions

Never talk over someone when it’s their turn to speak. Let them have their say.

Never belittle someone or discount what they’re saying or feeling.

Don’t doxx other people in the group, keep their personal information out of your private conversations with others. What’s said in group stays in group.

Support Groups Vs. Group Therapy

There’s a significant difference between support groups and group therapy sessions. While they’re similar on many fronts, there are clear differences that you need to understand. Substance abuse support groups are led by the attendees in the group, not a therapist. While that might give the impression that they’re ineffective, it’s not the case at all.

Addiction recovery support groups surround you with other people who are struggling with addiction and on the path to recovery. You’ve no doubt heard about public support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA). These groups save countless lives each year, sparing attendees from relapsing into AUD or SUD.

You’ll develop relationships with sponsors and the members of the group who attend regularly. This relationship forms the bedrock of your support program, giving you someone to speak to when you’re weak, vulnerable, and in danger of relapsing. They’re there for you when you need to lean on them, and you’ll do the same for them.

Addiction support groups usually meet at public places like community centers, churches, or online. The group may invite a guest speaker to give an inspiring or informative talk, but for most of your meetings, it will just be the group sharing their recovery experience. While support groups are an important part of your aftercare when leaving an addiction treatment center, they won’t replace your need for ongoing psychiatric care and counseling.

Group therapy gives you a more intimate setting, with the chance to develop deeper relationships and a level of understanding and trust with the rest of the group.

Group therapy gives you the chance to work through more complex issues that you wouldn’t discuss in a support group. Mental health problems, traumatic situations, or deeper insights into the origins of your addiction are all topics tabled during group therapy meetings.

At Carrara, the therapist takes control of the session and keeps the group on track to achieve the best outcome from their time spent together. You don’t have to sacrifice one for another; both group therapy and support groups are crucial both to detox and aftercare programs, and really integral if you want to achieve a recovery that will last a lifetime.

Group Therapy at Carrara: Gateway to Discovering a New You

You’ll attend group therapy sessions at Carrara as part of your inpatient treatment program. We’ll also provide counseling on an ongoing basis through an aftercare program designed to help you fit easily back into your family unit, workplace, and life. There’s someone to call for support, and the group will keep you accountable throughout.