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I'm excited and nervous. There is finally room in my therapist depression group for me to join. It is a 12 week program, we meet twice a week, and afterwards the group meets once a week. The once a week is only the people who have gone through the group and it is free. I've been looking for a group since I moved here a year ago. I want to be able to meet people who will understand what I'm going through, and not look at me like they are expecting me to go berserk at any moment (if they know I have bipolar, not many people do).
I had talked to my pastor about starting a group at church, but have not heard anything back from him, so I'm assuming the chruch council voted it down. Ah-well.
Has anybody else been in group therapy, and did you enjoy it? I have a really hard time now opening up to people, and have become so shy that I forget what I'm talking about after I start talking. Occasionally I have an anxiety attack just from talking to a small group of people. I really like my therapist, he is the first male therapist I've ever had, and the first therapist I've ever been able to open up to completly. I'm positive that the group will be good for me, but I'm all in knots thinking about what it will be like.
I am, by nature, a shy person. I take a while to "warm up" and I have to trust you in order to divulge or disclose anything personal so, group therapy is hard for me as well.
I did participate in my first group therapy last winter. It was to have run for a full year but I got laid off and couldn't afford the group rate on my own any longer. So, after about 4 months, I had to quit it.
At first, the anxiety of the whole thing got to me and I kept wanting to quit BUT I made myself go and after a bit.. it did get better and I got to where I look forward to it. It was a group of all women and was facilitated by 2 female therapists so this made it a bit easier on me because in talking about past abuse (certain kinds), it was easier - FOR ME - anyway to speak about it being we were all women.
I actually miss the group for a number of reasons. 1) being that we did share things in common (it wasn't a Bipolar group but some members had a diagnosis of Bipolar) 2) it was a routine structured thing that happened every week and well 3) it was a place to go, with people who I could talk to that would not necessarily outwardly judge me cause we were all there for a reason
I'm sorry your church didn't provide feedback on your request. If you specifically mentioned "Bipolar", it may very well be that you won't ever receive feedback directly.