What Are The Benefits Of Group Therapy In The Treatment Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

All of the psychotherapeutic approaches that are most successful in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder — prolonged exposure therapy, cognitive processing therapy, EMDR, and stress inoculation training — can be delivered in one-on-one settings with only a therapist and client. And in fact, they usually are. 

What kinds of PTSD therapy can be delivered in group settings?

Therapeutic approaches that can take place as group therapy sessions include:

• Cognitive processing therapy, a kind of therapy that focuses on allowing you to get better by processing the trauma. This involves talking about your traumatic experiences in detail, and also learning to develop healthy rather than harmful coping mechanisms for your PTSD. It is among the most successful treatments for PTSD.
• Psychodynamic therapy, which seeks to uncover how your past influences your present and everything in it, has also been shown helpful in treating PTSD. It is a less structured therapy in which clients typically talk about whatever they want, so in group sessions, you may hear about a lot of different things, and not just other people's traumatic experiences and how they cope with them. 
• Interpersonal therapy groups for people with PTSD will focus on inner conflict, relationships with others in your life, and your coping mechanisms. 
• Some therapy groups for PTSD may simply have the label "cognitive behavioral therapy" (or CBT). These try to unveil thought patterns that are harmful to you and others and that you'd do well to change, and then work towards that, in turn also changing your emotions, mood, and ability to cope. CBT is a very broad category that includes a lot of different techniques. Many of the most evidence-based therapies for PTSD fall under this umbrella. These groups may also have an exposure therapy element, for instance, and that can be extremely useful for people with PTSD.
• There may also be peer-support groups that can be led by therapists, other medical professionals, or even laypeople in your area. Though these aren't strictly speaking psychotherapy, they can have a therapeutic effect. 

If group therapy is something you're interested in, just make sure that the therapeutic approach a group uses is one you think you can get on board with, and that the therapist is specifically running the group for trauma survivors. Most of these groups have four to eight members, though some can have more or fewer. You may find groups specifically in place for people who experienced the same kind of trauma as you, and that may be very helpful as there will be a lot of common ground there. 

Why would you choose group therapy for PTSD?

The many reasons to consider group therapy include:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder is very often a socially-isolating and lonely experience. Many people with PTSD feel alienated and detached from others (it's right there in the diagnostic criteria). Group therapy could be one way to break that social isolation, and with people from whom you may not feel as detached because — unlike others — they do, actually, understand what you are going through.
• This sense of belonging to a therapy group can play a big part in your healing. 
• Learning about the way in which others cope with their PTSD can be informative and even comforting. 
• You may well have coping tips or experiences to share that could truly help others who also have post-traumatic stress disorder (as well as getting the same from others in your therapy group). Knowing that you are useful to others is therapeutic in itself. 
• People with post-traumatic stress disorder may, after some kinds of trauma, feel very uncomfortable with individual therapy sessions. Group therapy may feel safer for some. 
• You don't have to talk about yourself all the time, and may just listen if that's what you're capable of in the moment — but still benefit from the session. 
• Group therapy is an effective use of healthcare resources, so choosing group therapy may mean getting off a waiting list and into treatment much sooner. 

What else do you need to know?

Current research doesn't suggest that group therapy is as effective as one-on-one therapy for PTSD sufferers, at the moment, though it is known that group therapy can indeed really help. If available, you should consider attending both group and individual therapy. 

What you share in group therapy should stay within the group, but you don't know whether the people you attend therapy with will share the things you say in therapy with anyone else. Therapists are legally bound to confidentiality unless you say or do something that suggest you will put yourself or others in danger, so individual sessions may be a better place to discuss specific details of your trauma for some people. 

If you're not ready for a full-on therapy group for PTSD, you may still benefit from a support group, or group therapy for a single aspect of your experience — such as anger management, or peer-support groups for substance abuse if you have a comorbid substance use disorder.