Group Therapy Comes Into Your Home

For 25 years, I’ve lead therapy groups in my office. Week after week, members gathered in circles and shared their heartbreaks, breakthroughs, irritations, frustrations, and victories. They fell in love with each other (or in hate with each other) and experienced so many feelings in-between.

Over time, the intimate relationships that they formed in group therapy transformed and healed them. After sessions, they often exited the office, laughing and chatting as they made their way to the elevator. It’s always a good sign when group members leave the group with more energy than they brought to the session.

The pandemic changed all that.

(To hear an interview with Sean Grover about the power of online group therapy click here.)

Online Therapy Groups

When the quarantine hit, I prepared to shut down my group therapy practice. After all, how could I allow 12 people in my office to sit in a circle and breathe all over each other? I thought my group practice was kaput, over and out, done.

Then a patient said to me, “My single mom’s group holds online sessions every week. You should look into Zoom.”

To which I replied, “What’s a ‘zoom?'”

A New Group Therapy Community

After a tutorial, I gathered my group members’ email addresses and scheduled my groups on Zoom. (Yes, I finally figured out what a “zoom” was). From the beginning, I felt trepidatious.

Will this work? 

Will people feel safe? 

Won’t this be a lousy substitute for sessions in the flesh?

I didn’t have high hopes. I decided not to charge for the first Zoom sessions because I was confident that online therapy groups would be a snoozefest. In other words, a complete failure.

I was wrong.

From the first session, I could see that group members starved for contact. They were thrilled to see each other. What’s more, every group had at least one member who had the coronavirus and several members who lost loved ones. I sensed that they craved the love and support their weekly therapy group provided. Due to the quarantine, we couldn’t meet in person, but to my surprise group sessions online were a damn good substitute.

3 Significant Benefits of Online Groups

Here are the top three benefits to online therapy groups I’ve noticed so far:

1. Members can participate in group sessions from any location (with wifi).

I have groups with members who are in different states, even different countries. In one group, I have members participating from New York City, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Florida, and San Francisco. In the past, if group members moved to out-of-state homes or traveled on the road, they had to stop their group. Now they continue from nearly any location.

2. Members who are sick or quarantined can continue to attend group sessions.

Recently, a member hospitalized with the coronavirus signed into her online group from her hospital bed. Her group members cheered when they saw her. She smiled, started to cry, and gushed, “Seeing you guys is the highlight of my week!” In the past, she could never have continued her group under such conditions.

3. Members in crisis can continue to attend group sessions.

Currently, I have several group members who are facing crises, such as caring for a sick parent or child. They are unable to travel. Yet they can still get the weekly support and encouragement from their group. In the past, those members would have had to suspend sessions or leave their group temporarily. Now there’s no reason for such interruptions. (See “How Group Helps“)