About Our Center

How Group Helps

How Group Therapy Helps

Group therapy can be powerful, highly effective treatment option, particulary if you are strugging with interpersonal or relational difficulties. Our groups provide the unique opportunity where you can receive honest, helpful, and challenging feedback from your peers allowing you to develop deeper awareness of your struggles and relational patterns ( ie, how they impede you from having more satisfying relationships with others and with your own self). Equipped with this new insights, the safe, supportive therapeutic atmosphere of a therapy group provides the ideal place to experiment with new, more effective ways of relating to others, with the goal being that you can then apply these insights and skills in your life outside of group.

There is a vast amount of research which shows that in many cases group psychotherapy is more effective that individual therapy, especially when interpersonal difficulties are a primary concern or when a person's alienation, isolation and lack of support exacerbates their symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Group Therapy Can Help If You:

Find yourself surrounded by unsatisfying or shallow relationships and year for meaningful connections with others
Avoid confrontation or conflict in your life and find yourself pleasing others at the detriment of your own needs
Keep choosing partners that are unable or unwilling to meet your needs
Struggle to identify or express your needs to others
Avoid emotional intimacy and closeness in your relationships
Experience feeling chronically misunderstood by others despite your attempts
Feel confused or frightened by your anger or the healthy expression of anger by others
Tend to be seen externally by others as "having it all together," but internally you feel empty or lost
Have difficulties asking for help and struggle with the idea of depending on others
Find yourself feeling anxious about trusting others with your "real" self and guard your real thoughts and feelings
Feel confused about aspects of your identity (gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.)
Feel depressed, anxious, or unmotivated, and are struggling to make changes in your life

Group therapy can be an excellent stand alone treatment to address your concerns, but it can also serve as an excellent adjust to your ongoing individual therapy work - particularly if you are feeling stuck in the same relationship patterns or struggling to implement the skills that you have learned. To enhance therapeutic experience for our clients, our groups are small (limited to 5-8 individuals) and meet on a weekly basis for approximately 90 minutes.

Groups Offered

Groups Currently Offered

Limited Number of Openings Available

An initial assessment session is required to assess if group therapy would be a good fit for your needs. These groups are intended to be a long-term groups, and require a10-session minimum commitment.

Young Adults Psychotherapy Group (Online)

Wednesdays

7:00-8:30pm EST

Supportive environment for high-functioning young adults (early 20s to mid 30s) to process their personal struggles and explore healthier ways of relating to others. The primary focus is on developing deeper insight about past relationship patterns so that members can establish healthier, more satisfying relationships in and outside of the group. Individuals experiencing depression, social anxiety, loneliness, relationship struggles, poor self-esteem/self-confidence, communication difficulties and trust issues can benefit from this group.

This group strives to be an inclusive space that is affirming of diverse identities; we welcome all cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, and gender identities.

$75 per session.

Facilitated by Dr. Sophia Aguirre

Consultation & Process Group for Latinx Therapists (Online)

Tuesdays

3:00-4:30pm EST

(Meets Biweekly)

For Latinx-identified therapists (and therapists-in-training) interested in furthering their personal and professional growth through meaningful connection with peers. Utilize the group process to cultivate a deeper awareness of relational patterns and learn about group therapy dynamics from the role of both member and leader. The here-and-now is a central focus: all thoughts, feelings and associations to the process are explored. Members share personal struggles and professional challenges (including countertransference concerns), exchange honest feedback, and practice relating in more authentic and emotionally vulnerable manner. Group will be facilitated from a relational, interpersonal and Feminist orientation grounded within an anti-racist, decolonized framework that promotes resilience and the development of cultural humility.

$85 per session. 90 minutes.

Facilitated by Dr. Sophia Aguirre

Consultation & Process Group for Latinx & BIPOC Therapists (Online)

Fridays

12:00-2:00pm EST

(Meets Biweekly)

For Latinx & BIPOC therapists (and therapists-in-training) interested in furthering their personal and professional growth through meaningful connection with peers. Utilize the group process to cultivate a deeper awareness of relational patterns and learn about group therapy dynamics from the role of both member and leader. The here-and-now is a central focus: all thoughts, feelings and associations to the process are explored. Members share personal struggles and professional challenges (including countertransference concerns), exchange honest feedback, and practice relating in more authentic and emotionally vulnerable manner. Group will be facilitated from a relational, interpersonal and Feminist orientation grounded within an anti-racist, decolonized framework that promotes resilience and the development of cultural humility.

$85 per session. 120 minutes.

Facilitated by Dr. Sophia Aguirre

READY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GROUP?

If what you have read about our groups has resonated with you, we welcome you to contact us to discuss if one of our therapy groups may be right for you. Request an appointment and our Client Care Coordinator will connect you to one of our group therapists who will follow up with you to schedule a complimentary phone consultation to provide you more information about the groups we offer.

Request A Free Consultation

What You Can Expect in Group

The Power of Group

Group therapy provides a unique opportunity to understand the relationships we have with ourselves and others. Our therapy groups (interpersonal process groups) focus on helping group members relate to one another more authentically and to deepen your experience of vulnerability, intimacy, and closeness with others.

The power of a group lies in that the group format allows for the creation of a person's social microcosm, where the patterns of how you relate to people outside of group are recreated inside the group. Thus, while you speak about your struggles in individual psychotherapy, you live out your struggles in group therapy. Furthermore, there is a vast amount of research which shows that in many cases group psychotherapy is more effective that individual therapy, especially when interpersonal difficulties are a primary concern or when a person's alienation, isolation and lack of support exacerbates their symptoms of depression and anxiety.

The Nuts & Bolts of Process Groups

The therapy groups that we run at ACIP are “interpersonal process groups” where the common elements that bring members together are the desire for self-understanding and a shared commitment to strive towards authenticity. These groups are comprised of 5-8 individuals and meet on a weekly basis for approximately 90 minutes. The groups are varied in their composition, but all members are psychologically-minded and have had previous individual psychotherapy (or are currently in individual psychotherapy), thus they are prepared to do the more advanced psychological work of an interpersonal process group.

During the group session, members are responsible for talking about what is currently troubling them. Discussion flows according to what members would like to talk about, and in general, there is not a specific theme or topic that the group is assigned discuss. Members are encouraged to give support and feedback to others, and to work with the reactions and responses that other members' contributions bring up for them. As individuals begin interacting freely with other group members, they usually re-experience or recreate some of the interpersonal difficulties that prompted them to seek therapy in the first place. Within the context of a safe, supportive therapeutic atmosphere, the group is able to point out these troublesome interpersonal patterns by providing honest feedback. Thus, the group provides members the opportunity to witness how their behavior impacts others and how, in turn, they are impacted by others. As individuals increase their self-awareness, develop new ways of relating to people, and learn to relate more authentically with others, they are then able to generalize those skills to "real world" outside of group.

Trust & Vulnerability

The first few sessions of a psychotherapy group usually focus on the establishment of trust. During this time, the group therapist will help the group members work towards establishing a level of trust that allows them to communicate openly and honestly. In a climate of trust, people feel free to care about and help each other.

New members are often amazed at how much their contributions help other members. Group trust is enhanced when all members make a commitment to the group as evidenced by their consistent attendance and their attempts to engage authentically, genuinely, and openly with one another. We utilize a here and now process: focusing on what is happening in the group through an exploration of feelings, thoughts, and desires. By examining these elements, we can deepen our experience of intimacy and vulnerability. This ongoing process of exploration and connection facilitates deeper insight about your past relationship patterns so that you can establish healthier, more satisfying relationships in and outside of the group.

Unexpressed Feelings & Conflict Resolution

Unexpressed feelings are a major reason why people experience difficulties in relationships and distress in their lives; often this takes the form of consciously or unconsciously avoiding disagreement, conflict or confrontation with others. However, if you are to have real closeness and honesty with others, then you will find that disagreement and conflict are natural outcomes of the process of understanding others. Group therapy offers you the experience of maintaining real connection with others not just despite disagreement or conflict, but through the experience of working through conflict in a healthy, appropriate manner. While it may seem counter-intuitive, it is the process of repairing ruptures in relationships that builds the sense of trust, closeness, and intimacy. Thus, with the guidance and support of a highly-skilled group therapist, our therapy groups provide a healing environment where you can learn to tolerate the discomforts of closeness and expand your capacity to experience the value of feelings of anger, frustration, resentment, sadness, disgust and fear. As we gently stretch and lean into these new and sometimes uncomfortable relational experiences, we begin to heal and to grow. In this way, our groups help you get "unstuck" and can help you develop the type of self-actualization you have been dreaming of and the deeply fulfilling relationships you have been yearning for.

If what you have read about our groups has resonated with you, we welcome you to contact us to discuss if one of our therapy groups may be right for you.