Group Therapy for Teens

As a supplement to individual counseling, we also hold daily group therapy sessions at Red Mountain Colorado. Our offerings include:

• Beginning mindfulness.
• Advanced mindfulness.
• Body image.
• Step study.
• Trauma recovery.
• Process groups.

Our group therapy program for teens offers many benefits, such as obtaining social support, gaining a broader perspective, improving social skills, and strengthening one’s recovery. As our students spend more time together, they create strong bonds and grow closer. People working through difficult emotions can forge powerful relationships quickly, and group therapy provides an opportunity for this to take place. Clients often gain a perspective from their peers that they would not be able to achieve in individual counseling.

In addition, when a teen sees peers stepping up and working through an issue, they become motivated to do the same; group sessions can help a complacent client find the energy to buckle down and do some effective personal work. This is also an opportunity to develop social skills in a safe environment because groups can sometimes get uncomfortable, and the participants may have to work through a conflict or disagreement. The group facilitator can act as a mediator, and guide teens to a compromise if necessary.

Group therapy also has the potential to decrease the discrepancy between how a teen sees his or her self versus how others see them. A primary goal of group therapy sessions is to allow them to discover who they truly are, and each group participant functions as a mirror for the other members.

Over time, students will naturally gain insight into how they are perceived by others, which allows for a greater sense of authenticity, and deeper insight into other issues they may need to address.

Through group therapy at Red Mountain Colorado, students learn to:

• Resolve conflicts effectively,
• Develop interpersonal skills that help them at work and at home,
• Ask for what they need from others,
• Enjoy being of service, and
• Identify feelings in the moment (which allows them to address emotional needs before they “boil over” or become depressed).

Our approach allows for practical, real-time feedback, which helps our students to become “unstuck” and move forward in life.