TREATING ANXIETY IN GROUP THERAPY – ADVANTAGE OR DISADVANTAGE

October 13th, 2009 by author

About 6-15 anxiety disorder patients are normally treated together in an anxiety group therapy, contrary to consulting a therapist individually. However, dealing with anxiety in group therapy has some benefits, but disadvantages as well.

Because all the participants in a group have the same disorder experienced themselves, which will give the individual a more comfortable feeling. He or she will soon start to understand that their problem is not an isolated one. Once they realize that there are others in the same situation, it can turn out to be life-affirming for them, particularly if the anxiety disorder makes them believe that they are some sort of an outsider or being a “freak” or being different from, and therefore inferior to the majority of society.

One of the great advantages of anxiety group therapy is the input of the experience the fellow patients have. It can assist in discovering solutions to everyone’s problems. A therapist might not have established that by him- or herself.

The patient, when learning coping skills like the ones learned through cognitive anxiety therapy, can profit from understandings based on shared experiences of a situation which causes anxiety, suggested by the patient’s group members.

The easeof being in a group setting lessens anxiety and can relax the patient. It stimulates the individual to speak about goals, ambitions and likely solutions to the problems that cause the anxiety disorder. This a great advantage of anxiety group therapy over individual treatments.

Regrettably there are some obvious disadvantages that anxiety group therapy has over personalized treatment. Due to its character, a group setting might limit the therapist to approach the participants just in general, contrary to individual solutions required by each patient. Further, these settings might limit the time the therapist can find to deal with everyone’s distinctive problem appropriately. This can cause a feeling of being overlooked.

Because of this reason, group anxiety therapy programs are normally run in conjunction with individual sessions with a health care professional. Each patient is taken out of the group for a specific time each day to get his or her own advice by a therapist or a licensed counselor. Themes that cannot be appropriately handled in a group setting are discussed there, such as the individual’s medication. Both, anxiety group therapy and individual therapy together will guarantee that all the patient’s requirements are met.