This month, we celebrated the first five graduates of our group therapy program! These five women went through 4 months of individual and group therapy sessions, working together and with our counselors to deal with problems of depression, anxiety, and trauma.
We’re so proud of the way our group therapy program has developed this year. It’s bringing people together to share their experiences, navigate their differences, and give each other hope in a whole new way. Here is the story of these graduates from the perspective of Marie, THRIVEGulu’s volunteer psychotherapist.
Any counselor who has worked long enough with a client to witness and experience their growth has competing feelings at termination. On the one hand there is sadness at the end of the relationship, because, though professional, it is still relationship. On the other hand there is pleasure and satisfaction at the successful outcome. It is similar to seeing one’s child mature into independent young adulthood; the parent has lost the child but rejoices at what the person has become.
I had similar feelings when five of our group members completed their course of treatment: intake, individual sessions, then twelve small-group sessions.
At the end of their treatment, they told me: “I feel so much better.” “This counseling really works.” “I don’t worry so much.” “I’m nicer to my child.” “Can we continue doing this work together on our own?”
It may seem counter-intuitive, but the outside circumstances in these five persons’ lives have not changed greatly. The stresses that triggered anxiety and depression mostly remain. But the five have changed, so the stress seems more manageable. And there is something present that was absent when they began the work: There is hope. There is initiative. And there is belief that one can manage within the circumstances rather than being engulfed and figuratively drowned.
Am I, the therapist, the cause? No, I’m the facilitator. This growth happens when human beings work together in an intimate but very structured way. Similarities are discovered. Irritating differences are worked with and accepted. Conflicts are worked through or if not, boundaries are instituted so that the conflicts do not destroy the relationships. In this atmosphere inhibitions and anxieties become less dominating and a person’s individuality begins to flourish.
So, what more can I say to these graduates, other than “I’m sad to see you go, but I am so, so happy.”
by Marie Blanchard
