Benefits of Group Therapy
Back to the document's frontpageOne of the single largest benefits offered by group therapy in drug treatment is the support from peers struggling with similar battles, and the sense of hope and encouragement that recovering addicts can transfer between each other as they jointly overcome their addictions.
Strength in Numbers
While breaking free from an addiction alone can seem an overwhelming and impossible task, in a group session recovering addicts witness first hand what is possible, and from others in recovery very much like themselves. Without hope, discouragement and self defeat quickly lead to relapse, but when the hope of sobriety is nourished, abstinence becomes more probable.
Another very beneficial aspect of group therapy in drug treatment is that when recovering addicts speak with the authority of like experiences, it can be difficult to deny the value of what is said. While recovery group therapy sessions will vary in the level of confrontation encouraged, most will allow fellow group members to speak when they feel that a recovering addict is being less than honest about their recovery. When confronted with the shared knowledge of other recovering addicts, it can be more difficult to maintain faulty cognitive processes or denial about personal dependence issues. The group as a whole carries respected and authoritative wisdom that can be very hard to deny.
Many addicts enter rehab suffering from a sense of isolation, and through the bond building process of group therapy, isolation leads to community and often friendship. Because all are compelled to participate, even members struggling with social interaction receive a forum of expression.
Group therapy sessions allow for a sharing of ideas and strategies for coping with the similar trials of withdrawal, addiction, temptation and recovery. Recovering addicts learn what strategies and techniques others use to overcome very similar feelings and temptations.
Group therapy in drug treatment allows any facility to maximize the available numbers of addictions professionals. Because during a group therapy session a single professional can guide up to 12 recovering addicts, through group therapy recovering addicts receive many more hours of useful and intensive therapeutic treatment.
