Recovery is a long process that uses many different treatment methods. One of these methods includes group therapy. Group therapy can provide peer support and help you work through the steps of your recovery.
Spero recovery wants to help you on your recovery journey through the use of alumni and group sessions.
What Is Group Therapy?
Group therapy is when people going through similar situations get together to discuss their experiences and work through their treatment. It can be used to treat a variety of conditions or situations, including substance use disorder (SUD) and family sessions.
Benefits of Group Therapy
Group therapy can be very beneficial for you, especially while working through your recovery. Some of the ways it can help in your recovery process include:
- Ensures you have a supportive community that you feel you can belong to
- Provides an unbiased, safe, and nonjudgmental place to share your experiences
- Gives you the chance to see that you are not alone and that others have gone through similar situations as you
- Helps you work through problems and concerns with others that understand what you are going through
- Gives you hope to watch successful peers stay determined and hopeful
- Unveils lessons and advice on what to do next on your recovery path and how to cope with triggers
- Teaches role-playing situations so that you can be prepared to confront different steps of recovery
- Helps teach you communication skills
- Reveals the mistakes of others that you can learn from
- Helps you work on relationships with your friends and family when they are brought in on the session
- Holds you accountable for attending and keeping on the right path for your recovery
How Can Group Therapy Help Me Turn Inward?
Group therapy can help you rediscover yourself and look internally through the following.
Helps You Understand How You Normally Respond
Group therapy can help you evaluate and change, if necessary, the way you respond to others and the situations you are in. It does this by giving you others’ perspectives on similar things to learn from. You can listen to how others responded to similar scenarios and the outcome that came from that response. This helps you choose how to modify what you want to say or do to work through your situation.
It can also help in improving your coping techniques by listening to what methods the other people in the group utilize. You hear and understand the reasoning behind their methods. This gives you the opportunity to evaluate your techniques and determine if they are adequate or need improvement.
Exposes Triggers
Hearing someone else’s triggers allow you to look inward to realize what yours are, even ones that may be hard to admit. Triggers can include places, people, smells, foods, or anything that reminds you of your substance use. Sometimes it can be hard to confess how much your addiction has a hold over you because of the number of things you now have to avoid. Hearing what others have to stay away from helps you feel confident in admitting yours.
Uncovers False Thoughts and Beliefs
Hearing others’ feedback about your thoughts and beliefs can help you weed out the valid ones from the distorted ones. This allows you to know what is accurate and what false thoughts your brain is creating during recovery. It helps stop negative thoughts from taking over and potentially leading to a relapse.
Reveals What’s Missing in Your Relationships
Feeling the support and positive environment that group therapy can provide can help you see that those things might be missing from your other relationships. These relationships can be with coworkers, family members, romantic partners, or friends. Seeing what is missing can help you confront the problem and work to change it. It can also be a push for you to distance yourself or end a relationship altogether if that is what will be best for your recovery.
Discovers New Activities to Try
Participating in group therapy can help you find new hobbies and coping skills to try that you might enjoy. Hearing what other people have participated in can help you look inward to find new productive outlets.
What Are Productive Outlets to Help With Self-Exploration?
Finding healthy and productive ways to perform self-exploration is an important part of recovery. It helps you to understand and discover who you are becoming in your recovery journey. You will continue to change as you work through the stages of your recovery, so being able to look into yourself and see who you are becoming is vital for your new sober lifestyle.
Why Spero Recovery?
Spero Recovery uses alumni-led experiential therapy. This means that they use participation in new activities to help in the recovery process. These activities are led by peers that have been through the program to help you see that recovery is possible and the alumni can give back to their community. Some of the activities include:
- Hiking
- Cooking classes
- Biking
- Woodwork
- Meditation
Group therapy can be a vital part of treatment and provides you with different support you did not even realize you needed. The use of peer support helps you feel like you are not alone and be able to understand that there are others experiencing similar struggles. This peer support can also help you rediscover yourself by exposing you to new activities, hobbies, and people that you enjoy and relate to. You are not alone in your struggles. If you feel like you are struggling and searching for hope, reach out to Spero Recovery at (303) 351-7888 for more information today. We want to help you in your adventure of self-exploration.
