Group psychotherapy Westchester ny is when treatment is delivered by a therapist to a smaller group of people. Psychotherapy involves using certain psychological principles and methods to assist people in helping to change their thinking, behavior or the way they deal with emotions and of course working on communication skills.
The main advantages of group psychotherapy Westchester ny include:
- Group psychotherapy helps people understand that they are not alone, and that others also share their problems, behaviors, emotions and struggles. According to famous psychiatrist Irvin David Yalom, group therapy works so well because the principle of universality is so important
- Through group psychotherapy, individuals not only share their struggles and experiences but they can offer support to one another and learning to heal this way. Through offering support, individuals learn and grow while through receiving support from others they manage to bond with others in the group.
- Group psychotherapy allows for several points of view to become expressed- as opposed to individual therapy where the notions are not as broad
- Through group therapy, people learn to develop better communications skills and open up with more ease. At the same time, individuals involved learn to accept criticism and learn to better express their problems
- Self-awareness is also an extremely important component of group psychotherapy. Individuals involved in group psychotherapy are constantly exposed to listening to the experience of others and this is how self-awareness becomes more and more powerful
- Sharing problems, struggles, experiences and issues always has a therapeutic effect in itself. This is why group psychotherapy works better and often quite faster than individual therapy (where applicable)
- Group psychotherapy is always cheaper than individual therapeutic sessions. This is one of the reasons people like to choose this form of therapy. Besides meeting new people and sharing their experiences with others in similar situations, the cost implied is also lower.
Some of the groups have more than one therapist available, but this always depends on the situation. Also, when it comes to group psychotherapy the number of participants can be smaller or larger, depending. For example, couples therapy involves 2 people, while groups dealing with substance abuse can include even up to 12 or more people.