Group Psychotherapy

Group counseling: The best choice for you?

Counseling groups are often the best way to work on problems, especially when the problems deal with issues about your relationship with other people. A group gives you contact with a few of your peers, along with a counselor, who are not part of your everyday life and so can give you more useful feedback. It is also a safe environment where you can test out different ways of acting with others. The specific groups available each semester vary in theme and time, but in recent semesters we have offered groups for: students with eating disorders, students with general interpersonal issues, women over 30, graduate students in helping professions, and general graduate student interpersonal groups.

The following list of groups are frequently offered at CAPS.  For further information about group services at CAPS, please call the main office at 848-932-7884. 

Typical Group Offerings at Counseling, ADAP & Psychiatric Services:

4/20 Group:
This is a group for students who are looking to reduce their marijuana use.  This group will provide students with the skills and resources to reduce marijuana use in a four-week structured group experience.
Attention 101:
This is a one session workshop for students who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit issues or are in the process of being assessed for attention difficulties. Provides an overview of what impacts attention as well as providing an introduction to strategies and techniques to improve attention. 
Adult Children of Alcoholics:
This is a group for students who come from families where a member has a drug or alcohol problem.  this can be a parent, a sibling, a spouse, or a significant other.  The focus of this group is on understanding how the student's past experience influences their present relationships, academic functioning, and sense of self.
Dissertation Support:
This group provides a safe space for graduate students working on their dissertations to discuss strategies, obstacles, frustrations, advisor conflicts and concerns related to making progress on the dissertation.  Must be currently working on dissertation.  Only one student per department.
Early Recovery Group:
This is a group for students who have made a commitment to recovery and have been abstinent from alcohol and all other drugs.  This is a support group that gives students in recovery a forum to discuss life without alcohol and drigs in college (ie: triggers and urges, academics, relationships, family issues).
Eating Issues:
This is an interpersonal group with a focus on eating issues and body image concerns. The goal of this group is to provide a safe space to process relationships and how they connect to eating issues. We aim to encourage healthier ways of relating to others and to provide an opportunity for corrective interpersonal experiences.
Family of Origin:
This is a group for both undergraduate and graduate students interested in gaining a better awareness of of one's family of origin.  Members will learn how to improve their family relationships, and to adjust to transitions within the family structure as well as successfully negotiate separation issues.  Understanding our families can increase our understanding of ourselves.
First Year Transition:
This is a group for first year undergraduates struggling to adjust to university life.  Common adjustment issues such as homesickness, developing healthy routines, feeling uncomfortable in the dorm, feeling overwhelmed with academics will all be addressed in this support group comprised of like minded peers.  It really can get better!
Graduate (Co-ED) Interpersonal: 
This is an interpersonal group for both male and female graduate students.  The group will provide support and strategies for managing interpersonal, family and academic issues (including stress of program, peer-faculty relationships, isolation and life issues).
Grief and Loss:
This group provides a healing environment for any student who has experienced the loss of a loved one to illness, accident, suicide or homicide. Whether the loss occurred fairly recently or if it happened many years ago, if you are in any way struggling with your feelings about the death of someone who mattered to you, this group might be for you. The facilitators provide some psychoeducaton about the grieving process, but the group is highly interactive and thus flexible to the needs of its members.
Group for Mandated Students:
This is a group for students who have gotten into legal difficulties and need an alcohol and drug program to be compliant with a legal requirement, or for students who have been mandated within the university system.  The group will provide education, support and motivation to look at the real life impact and consequences of substance use with the aim of making postive changes.
LGBTQ Support:
This is a support/rap group that will focus on issues of sexual orientation. Issues related to coming out, dealing with family and friends, intimacy, and managing work relationships etc. will be explored. People at various stages of the “coming out” process are welcome. Open to undergraduate and graduate students of all genders. The emphasis is on support and exploration of LGBTQ issues impacting personal and interpersonal functioning.
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR):
An 8 week class that provides training in stress reduction, meditation, and mindful-movement to mobilize your mind/body resources to work with stress, anxiety, chronic pain, and chronic illness in new ways that can promote growth and healing. People who have participated in MBSR have found relief from a range of physiological and stress-related conditions such as chronic pain, IBS, migraine, and anxiety.
Moderate Your Mood - A Skill Development Group:
In this group you will have opportunities to learn about stress management skills to increase your tolerance for distressing feelings, and to improve your ability to cope with strong feelings. In group you will learn to better identify and improve your interpersonal skill set and gain increased capacity to appreciate your emotional world as a guidepost rather than a barrier to success. Format of the group involves education and training, combined with discussion. Between meetings you will have a chance to practice targeted skills and report back to the group about your successes and challenges. Please join us!
Peer Support:
This is a group for both undergraduate and graduate students who need support, tools and strategies for managing academic (course/work stress, transition to college) and interpersonal difficulties (isolation, social/personal challenges).  The goal of the group is to help students develop effective methods for improving social functioning and coping skills.
Problem Solving and Coping Skills Group:
This is a group for first or second year undergraduates interested in learning more effective problem solving and coping skills.  The group will focus on healthy ways to respond to stress and challenges, help improve communication skills, and will provide a forum for recieving support from other group members in order to reduce a sense of isolation.
Senior Year Transition:
This is a group for seniors approaching graduation and embarking on the next phase of their life.  Any type of change can challenge our resources and create stress.  This is a group to help seniors understand and plan for the many aspects of this change, both the frightening and exciting parts.
Sharpen Your Focus:
A 3 session workshop to learn simple techniques to train yourself to concentrate and focus your attention so that you can be more relaxed and more focused.
Social Anxiety:
This is a group for students who struggle with significant anxiety in social situations.  The group will provide both education and practice in social interactions, and in developing skills to manage the anxiety that interferes with smooth interpersonal functioning. 
Social Skills:
This is a group for undergraduate students who would like to become more comfortable interacting with others and develop a more satisfying social life.  The group will provide education about anxiety along with opportunities to practice coping skills and social interaction strategies in a safe and supportive environment.
Stress Management:
Workshop format focusing on ways to manage stress with an emphasis on mindfulness meditation and other stress management techniques. Can also be helpful for improving attention, decreasing anxiety, preventing depression relapse, and coping with chronic pain.
The Finish Line:
This is a group for students struggling to get through the semester.  Sometimes it feels like a race to the 'finish line' at the end of each semester.  If you are having difficulty getting your work done, staying motivated and focused, feeling overwhelmed with the work left to do.....then this group is for you.  Come to this four-session support and strategy group to help get you through the semester. 
Trust after Trauma:
This is an group for women healing from a sexual trauma.  The group provides members the opportunity to build trust with others as they continue to work through their sexual abuse history in a safe and supportive environment.  The group will provide some psychoeducation but will be highly interactive and thus flexible to members' needs.
Undergraduate Interpersonal:  
This is a group for both male and female undegraduate students seeking support and connection to other students.  It is also a place for students to learn more about themselves within an interpersonal/social context.  Concerns related to peers/friendships, romantic relationships, family, academic pressures, and general life as a student will be addressed.  
Women of Color: Graduate:
This is a group for graduate student women who identify themselves as a woman of color.  The group will focus on relationship issues, general interpersonal issues, family issues, academic and a variety of other college student concerns.  The group will provide a safe space for exploring the above issues, and how these issues are impacted by being a woman of color.
Women of Color: Undergraduate:
This is a group for undergraduate women who identify themselves as a woman of color.  The group will focus on relationship issues, general interpersonal issues, family issues, academic and a variety of other college student concerns.  The group will provide a safe space for exploring the above issues, and how these issues are impacted by being a woman of color. 
Women's Trauma:
This is a process group for women who have experienced physical or sexual abuse in their lives. The group’s purpose is to provide a safe environment for members to develop connections, to establish and maintain trust in one another, and to promote mutual healing and growth. Participants must be in individual treatment and be living in a safe place.
Working with Anger:
This group is a structured, 10-12 week group which helps participants better manage their anger through guided exercises, homework and group discussion.  Included is information on anger triggers, relaxation techniques and assertiveness as a positive alternative to anger.
 

If interested in participating in a group at CAPS, please call the main number at 848-932-7884.

For more info about groups, check out our Group Therapy Brochure