About RRP Groups
How group participation fosters healing
Our families are the first group that we experience in life.
If that experience caused us significant injury, it’s understandable if we feel apprehensive about engaging in group therapy. However, this is precisely why group therapy is so powerful for healing childhood trauma. It’s important to note that I select group members carefully. I need to feel confident that a potential group member will be a good fit for the group, and that includes being a safe and supportive participant.
"No one wants to hear about my messed-up childhood."
Many of us assume this, often based on feeling frustrated or embarrassed after we have tried to tell someone. However, being in a group of up to eight fellow survivors whom we get to know over time gives our inner child a sense of safety in which to find solidarity and feel validated.
RRP healing groups are safe for demonstrating that my inner child's stuck beliefs aren't necessary.
For example, if I was regularly judged negatively in my family growing up, my inner child may assume that the group members will judge her negatively because that’s what she experienced. When my inner child experiences the group members not doing that, but rather affirming me, that helps him feel safe enough to let go a little more both of the belief that people will always judge him negatively, and of the shame linked to that belief.
Because so many aspects of relating were dysfunctional in our families, one of the major casualties of childhood trauma is underdeveloped intimacy skills.
Group provides members a safe space in which to explore key intimacy skills, including:
How to give feedback in a supportive and honest way
How to receive honest feedback with openness
How to ask for what we need and what we want
How to respond to others’ requests in ways that are kind, while honoring our