Is Group Therapy Awkward? What Actually Happens in an Interpersonal Process Group
Group therapy can sound intimidating when you picture sitting in a circle with strangers and being expected to reveal your deepest experiences. Interpersonal process groups work differently: they offer a supportive space to understand how you connect with others, practice new ways of relating, and discover that you may not be as alone as you feel.
The idea of group therapy can bring up a lot of questions.
Will I have to tell strangers everything about myself? What if I do not know what to say? What if no one relates to me? What if I become emotional—or, perhaps even more uncomfortable, someone else becomes emotional and I do not know how to respond?
You might imagine sitting in an awkward circle while everyone waits for someone to speak. Or you may worry that the group will feel forced, overly structured, or like a conversation you could have had with friends.
Some awkwardness is possible, especially at first. Any unfamiliar relationship can feel uncomfortable before trust begins to develop. But interpersonal process groups are designed to help members explore those very experiences of uncertainty, connection, vulnerability, and belonging.
What Is an Interpersonal Process Group?
An interpersonal process group is a form of group therapy that focuses on relationships and what happens between people in real time. Members may discuss events outside the group, but they also pay attention to how they experience one another inside the group.
You might notice that you become quiet when someone disagrees with you. Perhaps you make jokes when you feel exposed, rush to reassure other people, or assume that silence means someone is upset with you. You may discover that you give thoughtful support but struggle to receive it, or that you want connection while simultaneously protecting yourself from being fully known.
These patterns are not flaws. They are often understandable ways of navigating relationships based on what you have learned about trust, conflict, vulnerability, and emotional safety.
The group offers a place to become curious about those patterns while receiving honest, compassionate feedback from other members.
What Actually Happens During a Group Session?
Most interpersonal process groups begin with members deciding together what feels important to discuss. There may not be a predetermined topic or weekly lesson. Instead, members bring experiences, feelings, relationship concerns, or reactions that feel meaningful in the moment.
Someone might talk about conflict with a partner, loneliness after a move, tension with family, uncertainty about a friendship, or feeling left out at work. As the conversation develops, the group therapist may invite members to notice how that experience connects with what is happening in the room.
A therapist might ask:
What was it like to share that with the group?
What are you noticing as you hear this?
Did you want something from the group that you did not receive?
Is this feeling familiar in your relationships outside the group?
What made it difficult to say that directly?
How did you interpret the other person’s response?
These questions are not meant to put anyone on the spot. They help members slow down and understand relationship dynamics that often happen too quickly or automatically to notice in daily life.
Do I Have to Share Everything?
No. Group members choose what they share and when they share it.
A healthy group does not require immediate disclosure, forced vulnerability, or sharing experiences before you feel ready. Trust develops over time, and participating can include listening, reflecting, asking questions, expressing reactions, or simply noticing what comes up for you.
At the same time, consistently remaining silent may become something worth exploring with curiosity. You might ask yourself whether you are taking the time you need to feel safe or repeating a familiar pattern of staying invisible, avoiding judgment, or believing your experiences are less important than everyone else’s.
The goal is not to pressure you into talking. It is to help you develop greater awareness and choice.
Why Can Group Therapy Feel Awkward at First?
Group therapy can feel awkward because relationships sometimes feel awkward. You are entering a new space without knowing exactly how other people will perceive you, respond to you, or understand your experiences.
Many people manage this uncertainty by observing carefully, presenting the version of themselves that feels most acceptable, or waiting until they understand the unspoken rules. For BIPOC, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, immigrant, first-generation, and other marginalized people, reading the room may also be an important and practiced form of self-protection.
You may be accustomed to code-switching, minimizing your reactions, or determining whether a space is safe before letting more of yourself be seen. A culturally responsive process group does not assume that hesitation reflects resistance. It makes room to explore how identity, power, culture, past experiences, and actual safety shape the ways people enter relationships.
The early discomfort of group therapy can eventually become meaningful information. Instead of treating awkwardness as proof that you do not belong, the group can help you explore what you fear might happen when you allow yourself to be known.
How Is a Process Group Different From Talking With Friends?
Friendships can provide essential love, companionship, and emotional support. Group therapy offers something different.
Friends may understandably try to reassure you, offer advice, take your side, or move the conversation away from discomfort. In a process group, members are encouraged to slow down, remain curious, and talk more directly about what they are experiencing with one another.
For example, if you share that you feel overlooked in your relationships, another member may compassionately tell you that they sometimes experience you as difficult to read. Someone else may notice that you quickly dismiss praise or change the subject when attention turns toward you.
This kind of feedback can be vulnerable, but it can also reveal patterns that are difficult to see alone. The group gives you an opportunity to ask questions, clarify your intentions, express your emotional response, and try something different while supported by a trained group therapist.
What Can You Work On in an Interpersonal Process Group?
People join process groups for many different reasons. You do not need to be in crisis or have a particular diagnosis to benefit.
A group can help you explore:
Loneliness or difficulty feeling connected
Social anxiety and fear of judgment
People-pleasing and difficulty expressing needs
Conflict avoidance
Challenges setting or maintaining boundaries
Fear of rejection or abandonment
Difficulty trusting other people
Feeling responsible for everyone else’s emotions
Trouble receiving care, attention, or support
Recurring relationship patterns
Family and cultural expectations
Identity, belonging, and code-switching
Life transitions and uncertainty
The experience of feeling “too much” or “not enough”
Difficulty being vulnerable even when you want closeness
Group therapy can be particularly helpful when you understand your patterns intellectually but find that they continue to appear in relationships. Instead of only talking about what happens with other people, you can notice those patterns as they emerge in a supportive relational space.
What If I Feel Lonely Even Though I Have People in My Life?
Loneliness is not always caused by being physically alone. You can have friends, coworkers, family, or a partner and still feel as though few people genuinely know you.
Sometimes this happens because your relationships do not offer the depth or reciprocity you need. Other times, experiences of rejection, trauma, discrimination, masking, or emotional invalidation may have taught you to protect yourself by revealing only certain parts of who you are.
Our article on feeling lonely even when you have friends explores why social contact and emotional connection are not always the same. An interpersonal process group can provide a place to practice more authentic connection while noticing what makes closeness feel comforting, threatening, or both.
How Can Group Therapy Help Young Adults?
Young adulthood often involves significant transitions in identity, relationships, education, work, family roles, and independence. Friendships may change as people move, begin careers, enter partnerships, or develop different priorities.
You may feel pressure to build a successful adult life while privately wondering whether everyone else received instructions you somehow missed. Social media can intensify the sense that other people are moving forward while you remain uncertain, lonely, or stuck.
For young adults from Latinx, BIPOC, immigrant, first-generation, multicultural, or LGBTQIA+ backgrounds, these transitions may also involve navigating family expectations, cultural values, code-switching, identity, and competing definitions of success. Our article on feeling stuck in your 20s explores why this stage can feel so disorienting even when nothing is objectively “wrong.”
A process group gives young adults a place to talk honestly about these experiences while building relationships with people navigating similar questions. Members can practice expressing needs, managing disagreement, receiving feedback, and developing a clearer sense of how they want to relate to others.
What Is the Group Therapist’s Role?
The therapist helps create a group culture grounded in emotional safety, respect, curiosity, and appropriate boundaries. They pay attention to who is speaking, who may be withdrawing, which patterns are developing, and how identity and power affect interactions.
The therapist does not simply direct every conversation or provide all the answers. Instead, they help members communicate more directly, understand emotional reactions, address misunderstandings, and remain engaged when conversations become uncomfortable.
This does not mean that anything goes. A skilled group therapist intervenes when interactions become harmful, reinforces expectations around confidentiality and respect, and helps members distinguish productive discomfort from experiences that are unsafe or overwhelming.
Is Group Therapy Confidential?
Group members are expected to protect one another’s privacy and keep identifying information and personal disclosures confidential. The therapist explains the group’s confidentiality expectations before someone joins and revisits them as needed.
Unlike individual therapy, however, the therapist cannot offer an absolute guarantee that every member will always follow those expectations. This limitation should be discussed openly during the screening or pre-group consultation so that prospective members can make an informed decision.
Members are also encouraged to speak about their own experiences outside the group without sharing another person’s identity or story.
Is an Interpersonal Process Group Right for Everyone?
Group therapy can be transformative, but it is not the right fit for every person at every moment. Your current needs, comfort with the format, emotional stability, interpersonal goals, and ability to participate consistently all matter.
Before joining, you will typically meet individually with the group therapist. This conversation gives you an opportunity to discuss what you hope to gain, ask questions, learn about the other members and group structure, and determine whether the group feels appropriate for your needs.
Some people participate in both individual and group therapy because the formats support different kinds of work. Others choose one format based on their current goals, schedule, or financial circumstances.
Interpersonal Process Groups in Atlanta and Online
At Aguirre Center for Inclusive Psychotherapy, we offer culturally responsive and identity-affirming group therapy for people who want to better understand themselves in relationships, experience greater connection, and practice new ways of relating.
Our groups recognize that relationships do not exist separately from culture, race, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, family history, immigration experiences, or systems of power. Members are invited to bring their full identities into the room without treating difference as something that should be ignored.
ACIP’s In-Between Young Adult Process Group is designed for adults ages 18–30 navigating identity, relationships, family and cultural expectations, independence, and belonging. The group is especially welcoming to BIPOC, Latine, first-generation, multicultural, LGBTQIA+, and immigrant-family young adults in Georgia.
Group therapy may feel awkward at first. That does not necessarily mean it is going badly. Sometimes it means you are entering a space where you have the opportunity to be seen, take relational risks, and discover that connection can survive honesty.
If you are curious about whether an interpersonal process group could be a good fit, request a consultation. We can answer your questions and help you explore the available options.
Frequently Asked Questions About Interpersonal Process Groups
What do you talk about in an interpersonal process group?
Members may discuss relationships, loneliness, family dynamics, identity, boundaries, conflict, vulnerability, life transitions, or whatever feels emotionally important. The group also pays attention to how members experience and respond to one another during the session.
Will the therapist make me talk?
No. You choose what to share, and trust develops at a different pace for every person. Your therapist may invite you to reflect on your experience or participation, but a healthy process group does not rely on forced disclosure.
What if I become emotional during group therapy?
Emotion is welcome in group therapy, and you will not be expected to manage it perfectly. The therapist and other members can help you remain connected and supported while you understand what you are feeling.
Can group therapy help with social anxiety?
Yes. Group therapy can help people with social anxiety notice fears of judgment, test assumptions, receive realistic feedback, and practice participating in relationships within a supportive environment. The appropriate pace and type of group will depend on your individual needs.
Can I participate in individual and group therapy at the same time?
Yes. Many people use individual and group therapy together because each format offers different opportunities. Individual therapy provides focused one-to-one attention, while group therapy allows relational patterns to emerge and be explored with several people in real time.
How long does it take to feel comfortable in a process group?
There is no universal timeline. Some people feel connected relatively quickly, while others need several sessions before they begin to trust the group. Regular attendance and honest conversations about discomfort can help safety and connection develop over time.
Is online group therapy effective?
Online process groups can still provide meaningful opportunities for connection, feedback, and relational growth. Privacy, a stable internet connection, and a consistent confidential location are important for participating fully.
About the Author
Dr. M. Sophia Aguirre, Ph.D., CGP, FAGPA is a licensed psychologist, Certified Group Psychotherapist, and the founder and director of Aguirre Center for Inclusive Psychotherapy in Atlanta. A Chicana/Latina psychologist, she specializes in culturally responsive and affirming therapy for BIPOC, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, and high-achieving adults navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, identity, relationships, neurodivergence, and systemic stress. Learn more about Dr. Aguirre and her clinical approach.
