Group Therapy in Inpatient Rehab

Your addiction has probably left you isolated. It’s hard to maintain connections with others when your thoughts revolve around getting substances, abusing them, and continuing your high. Then, there is the secondary stage, when you come down from your high and have to deal with the consequences of your drug and/or alcohol use. There simply isn’t space in your life to keep relationships intact and functioning.

One of the things inpatient rehab will address is your social seclusion. Two forms of therapy are usually used to help. Individual therapy or counseling will give you the time to delve into the complex issues that underlie your addiction. This requires a one-on-one dynamic to really allow for the counselor to give you their full attention.

In addition, group therapy will usually be used. There are things that group therapy accomplishes more readily than individual therapy. It can be used to help you develop empathy that you may have lost during your addiction. You will receive motivation by watching others set and achieve goals. The interpersonal relationships that develop will help you practice social connections.

By preparing for group therapy, like you are doing by reading this, you can break down some of your resistance early on and place yourself in a more open state of mind. This will enable you to benefit from group therapy as soon as you begin.

If you still have questions, it may be time to call 800-430-1407Who Answers? for help. We can connect you with resources and direct you to an inpatient rehab facility that meets your criteria. You will be in group therapy and making sober connections before you know it.

Therapeutic Groups

Group therapy helps patients develop a sense of shared purpose in rehab.

Group therapy is a blanket term used to refer to a variety of treatment options. There isn’t a single, universal type of group therapy that works for all people or is used at all rehab centers.

The term group therapy broadly refers to groups with a trained leader that are intended to help you recover from substance abuse. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) identifies five models currently used in the treatment of substance use disorders:

1. Skills development groups: these perfect the skills needed to fight addictions
2. Cognitive-behavioral groups: these readjust thought patterns and behavioral habits that feed into addiction
3. Psychoeducational groups: these educate participants about substance abuse
4. Support groups: these create a forum where members can challenge each other’s excuses and support positive change
5. Interpersonal process groups: these enable participants to bring their pasts into the present of the group and to reconsider the social and other life problems that they have previously avoided by abusing substances

The first four are used fairly commonly and often in conjunction with one another. The last one is less common because it requires a lot of training for the group leader and both leader and participants have to show a high-degree of commitment.

The Early Stage of Treatment

You will want to be prepared for the way that you and the other participants in the group will feel when they first start.  SAMHSA asserts most clients will be in the “precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, or early action stage of change.”

No matter what the specific state is, most early members of a group will be uncertain about stopping their substance use. Even those fully dedicated to abstaining may not have a firm commitment to recovery.

In addition, you will still be suffering the effects of your drug addiction, especially those on your brain. The brains of an addict tend to become rigid in their thinking and find problem solving taxing.

It will be important for you to work to commit to your treatment and to the group, but when you do, you will feel the positive outcomes of the therapy.

Inpatient Therapy: DBT

Success

The American Psychological Association published a feature titles “Power in Numbers”; it discusses successful factors of group therapy that have been identified by research.

Group therapy works by:

• Exceeding the Society of Clinical Psychology’s standards of effectiveness
• Having the group influence the individual
• Developing a “common identity and sense of shared purpose”
• Tapping into therapeutic factors
• Translating peer interaction into real-world advantages

To take advantage of the many benefits provided by group therapy, call 800-430-1407Who Answers? and speak with an expert today.