Are you having a difficult time handling the struggles in your life?
Could you use a non-judgemental ear to listen, somebody who really understands what you’re going through?
Do you really need to talk to somebody, but you don’t know who would be willing to listen?
Do you wish you had more of a sense of community in your life, instead of feeling alone?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then group therapy could be the solution you’ve been seeking. Group therapy differs from individual therapy by holding therapeutic sessions in a group setting run by a therapist instead of in a private one-on-one setting with a therapist. In these group sessions, patients share their thoughts and experiences with the whole group, allowing them to support one another while being supported by a group of people who understand what you’re going through.
If you’ve been feeling hopeless or alone lately, or struggling with a problem in your life that feels unsurmountable, group therapy could help you improve your everyday life.
Group therapy helps you find a sense of community with others who are going through similar things as you while giving you access to valuable therapy that can truly help you feel better.
So if any of these sound like you…
You keep worrying about the same problem over and over
You wish you could trust someone with your secret struggle
You want to stop feeling so alone in what you’re going through
You’re interested in therapy, but want to try something lower pressure than individual therapy
You wish you felt more understood by others
You’re looking for expert help improving your life
…Then group therapy could be right for you.
Group therapy’s effectiveness lies in its ability to help you find connections with other people and their experiences. These therapist-guided sessions will help you learn more about yourself and how to improve the way you feel, while feeling support from others who understand your experience.
If you’re looking for help improving your everyday life – or for a more community-oriented therapy experience – you would be a great fit for our group therapy services. Please reach out to me today for an assessment for group therapy or to schedule your first appointment.
SOME GROUPS CURRENTLY OFFERED:
(Please call our office for group schedule)
MINDFULNESS FOR ADOLESCENTS/A STILL QUIET PLACE
Teenagers in today’s fast-paced, technology-saturated society are experiencing more stress than ever. Everyday stressors of balancing schoolwork, friendships and countless other sports and recreational activities is hard enough. But then you add possibly dealing with intense parents, high expectations, extreme pressure to get into “good” colleges, trying to fit in with others at school or needing to excel at the sport you are playing. Not to mention the endless messages you are receiving on your phone everyday – texts from your friends, advice from your parents or teachers, and images from tv, social media and advertising telling you who you could or should be, it’s no wonder teenage depression and anxiety rates are on the rise. Sometimes you just need a place to chill and be yourself!
This 10 week Mindfulness for Teenagers (ages 13-18) group program was designed to help you find that place, a place of power and peace inside you. You will learn fun, easy ways to help you balance your emotions, stay focused, and live a happier more fulfilling life. You will also learn constructive ways to deal with stress, and tips for being kind to yourself and others. Between school, friends, family, activities and dating, being a teen in tough. This group will teach you the tools you need to find the quiet place within yourself that you can return to again and again, no matter how overwhelming life gets.
MINDFUL PARENTING
Mindful Parenting is a science-based approach to caregiving that is centered on bringing moment-to-moment, nonjudgmental awareness into your interactions with your child in order to interrupt automatic stress-driven reactions, and increase the ability to respond with intention, presence, and compassion! This 8-week program is grounded in research and is intended for parents and caregivers. The class combines practices of mindfulness and compassion with education about stress, parenting, attachment and the brain. The goal of the class is to help parents strength connections with their children by learning to respond rather than react to difficult emotions and situations, to set limits and discipline with wisdom, and to learn to skillfully repair conflict.
Mindful parenting is an approach to parenting that can allow for deeper connections with our children, creating more peaceful, healthier & happier relationships.
Benefits:
- Respond less reactively to parenting stress
- Reduce stress and burnout
- Respond to difficult emotions with empathy & compassion
- Recognize patterns from your own upbringing in your relationship with your child
- Resolve conflict with patience & wisdom
- Strengthen connection with family members
- Improve emotional strength & well-being of your child
- Cultivate calm, peace & find the joy amidst the chaos.
MINDFUL AGING/EMBRACING LIFE AFTER 50
As midlife approaches, changing life themes and tempos become more and more apparent. Old maps used in earlier contexts and relationships – with parents, spouses, children, employers, and others – no longer seem to “fit the territory” as well as they once may have. Often an Identity Crisis ensues, and, very much like the self-discovery and invention that begins in adolescence, this phase of life is appropriately about re-discovery, fresh discovery, and reinvention. Fear of the unknown, of making a “mistake”, of deviating from others’ expectations and typecasting, makes solo exploration and transition an uncomfortable, if not a terrifying, prospect. A guide is invaluable to repurposing that fear into productive excitement, and generative energy. My mission is to help both men and women in their missions to navigate this new territory, using coaching, EMDR, bibliotherapy, psychotherapy, and other modalities, as appropriate. Together, we can creatively explore, and exploratively create, in areas of known interest, and/or in discovered areas of interest along the way: careers – or next careers, family, sexuality, health and health.
Individual problems I address include:
-Thinking about or adjusting to retirement
-Divorce adjustment
-Sadness that does not end for days at a time
-Loss and grief that you need help handling
-Feeling of anxiety, worry, or panic
-Memories or painful experiences that have not faded, or that reappear.
-Facing difficult decisions, stress, or upsetting situations.
-Coping with Chronic or Acute Medical problems, such as Multiple Sclerosis, Traumatic Brain Injury, Cancer, Diabetes.
-Adjusting to Disability.
-Help with career change or adjustment as you consider the next chapter in your life.
TEEN SUPPORT GROUP
What are the benefits of teen group therapy? Here’s a short checklist:
Social Confidence Group sessions give kids a place to incorporate new ways of relating and developing better social behaviors. As they build confidence and develop a knack for speaking in groups, they become more comfortable asserting themselves in social situations in their daily life.
Better Communication Skills. Many teenagers have difficulty communicating their emotions and tend to bottle up their feelings. Irksome behaviors such a moodiness, irritability, and defiance are often triggered by unrelieved emotional stress.
In group therapy, kids are given the rare opportunity to explore their feelings and fears with other teenagers. As they develop better communication skills, they experience a surge in maturity.
Positive Peer Influences Peers pressure wields epic influence in young people’s lives in both positive and negative ways. When kids are in the company of peers who are also struggling to improve themselves and develop healthier ways of relating, they don’t feel so alone.
Each week, group members cheer and celebrate each other’s victories. This positive environment provides kids with the confidence they need to overcome self-doubts and take more social initiative. Improved Relationships Isolated teens are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression; these teens withdraw from peers in an effort to quell fears and insecurities. Group sessions offer kids a chance to develop better quality peer relationships. Kids trapped in poor relationships at school are given a chance to start again and become part of a peer community that appreciates and values them.
Reduced Stress Teens often feel humiliated by social and academic pressures. Teen group therapy offers kids relief from the stress of their daily lives by providing them with an opportunity to unburden themselves with peers who understand them. They learn to keep difficulties in perspective and develop a healthy sense of humor.
Teen Group Therapy Offers A New Beginning. Let’s face it, not all kids are equipped with good social skills. Yet, they spend most of their education learning in groups. The sooner they become skilled at managing themselves in groups, the better. Teen group therapy offers teens a rare chance to develop social confidence and self-assurance. And that’s the best gift any teenager could ask for.
GIRLS SUPPORT GROUP
Why choose a Teen Group Therapy for your daughter? Want to know how to help your teenager or young adult build her self confidence and know-how to have meaningful/lasting interactions with others around her?
Skaneateles Psychiatry offers a process-oriented and skills-based group designed to assist females ranging from ages 12-24 years of age to develop social connections, confidence, coping skills, and support. We will take the time to listen to each and every group member and together we will process through and problem solve difficult social situations and common teenage struggles.
The group will serve as extra support for each member and together the group members will learn how to grow, cope, and overcome past and current life struggles. Group therapy promotes positive identity development and social skills – a foundation for all girls before launching into the larger world. This group runs in 3 separate sessions (Jr. high, High School, and Young Adult) and encompasses mindfulness, art therapy, cognitive-behavioral and dialectical behavioral techniques.
Girls develop healthy relationships in group which serve as a bridge to forming healthy relationships in their families, schools, etc. More specifically, girls will learn to build positive relationships with peers, staff, and community members through group counseling, mentoring, and experiential activities. Challenges such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-injury, trauma, and addictions, Social Isolation, Acute Shyness, Bullying Issues, Peer Rejection, Anger Management Problems and Identity Conflicts are treated in group therapy while involving positive female mentors in the community to collectively empower and create lasting change in female clients’ lives.
Through laughter, connection, and skill-building girls learn how to cope and apply healthy alternatives to the challenges that brought them into therapy. The Benefits of Therapy Groups for Girls includes Improved self-esteem, receive emotional support, improved relationships, reduced stress, resolve conflicts with oneself and people, identify beliefs, feelings and behaviors that are negatively impacting our disposition, try out new solutions to old problems, analyze and challenge media messages, leadership skills, improve relationships with friends or family, meaningful interactions with peers, and acquire skills to successfully navigate through everyday social situations with greater confidence.
BARIATRIC SURGERY (POST OP) CBT GROUP
Congratulations! You have found this group because you or a loved one has committed to a new positive, healthier lifestyle taking the first step with bariatric surgery. Prior to your surgery, you have researched everything about the procedure and have been thoroughly educated about the lifestyle changes that need to occur following surgery.
Now that the surgery is over though, you are finding that life after surgery is more difficult than you thought. This is normal, as patients still require hard work and life-long behavioral change in order to successfully lose and maintain weight after weight loss surgery. Unhealthy habits evolved over many years and therefore may not just disappear overnight. You may be frustrated because you may physically not be able to eat, but you may psychologically want to eat. We will help you change this relationship with food.
This post-bariatric surgery group is more than a support group. It is a 10-week group psychotherapy program, combining cognitive-behavioral (CBT), dialectical behavioral (DBT), and mindfulness-based interventions in an effort to help reduce binge eating and depressive symptomatology, enhance emotion regulation skills and increased motivation to change maladaptive eating behavior to improve post-surgical outcomes.
Each week is focused on a specific theme (e.g., stress management and learning alternative coping strategies, adjustment/ emotional issues, changing negative thinking, body image, self-esteem and emotional eating).
An initial evaluation is required prior to attending your first group therapy. We will first meet with you individually and get to know you. We will gather information about your eating, activity, social history (family, work, relationship, upbringing), the role that food and body played in your family, etc. We will then work with you to collaboratively put together a treatment plan to address your own individual needs. We can discuss recommendations for other services if needed and we can answer any questions or concerns or address any issues that you may be struggling with prior to the start of group.
BARIATRIC SURGERY (PRE OP) GROUP
This group is designed to help preoperative patients prepare both psychologically and behaviorally for the many changes associated with surgery. Cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques will be taught including relaxation exercises, such as imagery and deep breathing, to assist with managing potential presurgery anxiety or postoperative pain or nausea. This group will also allows for a discussion of the importance of avoiding a high-fat, energy-dense diet prior to surgery, which reinforces the surgical team’s preoperative recommendations.
Furthermore, patients will be provided with the opportunity to discuss their potential fears and concerns regarding their upcoming surgery and to help the patient use cognitive strategies to cope with anxiety-provoking thoughts. Patients are supported with improving adherence to lifestyle change recommendations, thereby increasing weight loss and maintenance, as well as potentially reducing postoperative medical complications The initial phases of CBT for binge eating incorporate many techniques often seen in behavioral weight loss treatments, including goal setting, self- monitoring food intake, implementing stimulus control procedures, engaging in self-reinforcement, and establishing a pattern of regular eating.
Later phases focus on cognitive restructuring and problem solving. Specifically, individuals are encouraged to identify and challenge thinking patterns that maintain problematic eating behavior (e.g., dichotomous thinking; catastrophizing) and learn problem-solving skills to help cope with life stressors that may otherwise trigger binge eating behavior. The final phase of CBT emphasizes maintaining change and preventing relapse; individuals are encouraged to discuss high-risk situations that may trigger binge eating and develop coping strategies to minimize the likelihood of relapse. The addition of mindfulness interventions to traditional cognitive-behavioral treatment may address some of the unique needs of bariatric surgery patients. Principle components of mindfulness that encourage nonjudgmental acceptance, awareness, and the promotion of adaptive emotion regulation strategies.
WOMEN’S GROUP
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