Group therapy brings several people together, usually six to ten, with one or two facilitating therapists, to work on similar difficulties in each other's company. It sounds daunting to many people before they try it — and is often the part they value most once they have, because hearing someone else say what you thought was unsayable is powerful in a way one-to-one work can't quite replicate.
Groups typically meet weekly, run for a set number of sessions or on an ongoing rolling basis, and focus on a shared theme — anxiety, bereavement, addiction recovery, social confidence — or run as an open process group where the relationships between members are themselves the material. The therapist manages safety and pace; members do a great deal of the supporting.
It suits people who feel isolated in their difficulty, who want peer support alongside professional guidance, or for whom cost makes ongoing individual therapy hard to sustain. Group facilitators listed with ABCAP have verified qualifications and insurance.
ABCAP is not a regulatory body. Listing in the ABCAP directory is not an endorsement of a therapist's competence, fitness to practise, or conduct. We recommend verifying a therapist's qualifications and professional body membership directly before booking a session.
Most people feel that way beforehand and describe it very differently afterwards. Groups build trust gradually, confidentiality is agreed at the outset, and you're never forced to share more than you're ready to.
For many conditions — social anxiety in particular — research finds outcomes are comparable, and the peer element adds something individual therapy can't. Some people do both together.
Usually six to ten members plus one or two facilitators — big enough for varied perspectives, small enough that everyone gets space and is missed if they don't turn up.
Friction is normal and often becomes useful material rather than a reason to leave — working through it with the facilitator's help is part of what group therapy offers that individual therapy doesn't.