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Groups and Events

Groups at CAPS

 
Group therapy offers a safe and supportive environment in which you can explore a range of topics such as interpersonal relationships, isolation, anxiety, depression, difficult life events, and self understanding. Research shows that group therapy is as effective - and sometimes more effective - than individual therapy for many mental health or emotional concerns. Group members have the option to re-enroll in group therapy at CAPS each semester.
 
CAPS is offering the following groups for Spring 2024:
 

Getting Out of Your Head: Managing Anxiety
This group will meet every Tuesday (from 3/26 to 4/30) from 4:30PM to 5:30PM in Bond 202. This group is skills-based and drop-in (meaning you can come to as many or few as you like). This group will offer students tools to work through anxious patterns and thoughts. The group will explore internal and external stressors related to anxiety (academic, interpersonal, familial, sociopolitical, et al.) and offer concrete ways to self-soothe, enhance self-awareness, and cultivate more sustainable well-being. Two CAPS therapists will co-facilitate a mixture of discussion and experiential learning.  

Chaotic Families Group
The Chaotic Families group offers students support for managing difficult family relationships and dynamics. Students may find that they resonate with the term “chaotic family” for different reasons, like experiencing significant familial loss or transition; being exposed to abuse; or coming from a family system where individuals suffer from chronic physical or mental illness, including addiction. This group aims to offer a safe space in which students can share experiences, support one another, develop effective communication and boundary-setting skills, and examine the way chaotic family dynamics affect current relationships and sense of self.

Connecting and Relating (previously known as the Interpersonal Process Group)
This group offers an opportunity for students to work through a range of issues including (but not limited to) interpersonal relationships, self-esteem, social anxiety, belonging, and loneliness/isolation in a facilitated and confidential environment. Interpersonal process groups can be thought of as “relational labs” where participants have opportunities to increase self-awareness by understanding how they experience others and how others experience them. Students consistently share that these groups encourage exploration, experimentation, and new ways of thinking and relating.

Therapy and Dragons
Students will create characters and use a fantasy landscape in order to learn new ways to approach challenges, express thoughts and feelings, and work together. Group members will engage in emotional processing and pro-social skill development through a therapeutically-assisted tabletop role-playing game. This group will use a modified Dungeons and Dragons 5e to facilitate therapy. No previous experience with role-playing games (or therapy!) is necessary.

 
 
If you have additional questions not addressed on this page, feel free to contact our Associate Director, Dr. Hilary Hla, at hhla1@swarthmore.edu.