Coping Skills Group in Columbia, MO

This group is meant to support anyone who is experiencing anxiety, but you may be a great fit for this group if you:

*Are on a waitlist or for some reason unable to start counseling just yet

*Are just starting individual therapy to target anxiety and want to quickstart your treatment to get the most out of it

*You’ve been in therapy for years and are looking for a couple of new skills to try and take back to discuss with your therapist

*Your anxiety has been getting worse lately but you’re not completely convinced that you’re ready for counseling

This group is not a good fit for you if you:

*Are not ready to face your anxiety. You know it’s an issue, but you just aren’t ready to commit to working on it right now. That is completely ok. We know you’ll get help when you’re ready but you just might not get much out of this group if you’re not motivated to work on it.

*Don’t have time to attend all of the sessions and/or practice the skills between sessions each week. We understand that it can be hard to find the time for this in the midst of everything else you’re doing. But again, you just won’t get much out of this group unless you attend each week and practice each skill several times throughout the week.

*Your anxiety and/or depression are so significant that you’ve to have panic attacks, actively self-harming or suicidal, and not under the care of an individual therapist. We know you need these skills and we want to support you. But in each of these situations, you may feel triggered by the group so it’s incredibly important that you have access to an individual therapist.

*You’re unable to come to groups free from the effects of all substances including alcohol, weed, or even PRN anxiety medications. Unfortunately, anxiety treatment isn’t very effective unless you practice facing your anxiety. And these substances can dull the sensations and feelings. Therefore, you can go through the motions of practicing these skills but you aren’t getting the full benefit.

This group is not meant to be a standalone treatment for anxiety. It is simply meant to help give you a set of tools to use when anxiety does crop up. Something to use when you first notice panic setting in or when a flashback to a stressful experience in the past comes out of nowhere in the middle of the day.

If you already have an individual therapist, we’re happy to briefly touch base with them at the end of the group if you would like. Or if you sign a release and they’d like to touch base before group we’re happy to do so. We want to help you get the absolute most out of this experience.

This group is a great supplement for individual counseling for anxiety.

Most participants will benefit from also working closely with an individual therapist to treat the underlying anxiety. Your individual therapist may work with you on exploring where your anxiety comes from, reframing anxious thoughts, or gradually reducing your anxiety through exposure activities. None of those things are covered in depth in this group. But this group will give you enough coping skills that you and your individual therapist can spend that valuable 1:1 session time doing that deeper work.

In this group, you’ll learn and practice using a wide range of skills that we’ve taught countless individual therapy clients and, in many cases, group clients in the past. We’re not making these skills up as most come from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), but a few we’ve learned in various anxiety treatment training we’ve attended over the years and one week’s skills include activities we often teach 1:1 during the “resourcing” phase of EMDR.

Here’s an outline of the skills we plan to cover in each session:

*Session 1: Grounding

*Session 2: Container + Peaceful Place

*Sessions 3&4: Mindfulness + Wise Mind

*Session 5: Distress Tolerance: TIPP

*Session 6: Interpersonal Effectiveness: Fast & Dearman

*Session 7: Emotion Regulation (ABC PLEASE skills)

*Session 8: Resilience