Group Therapy · Los Angeles & Online California
Group Therapy in Los Angeles
— find somewhere steady
Are you tired of feeling like the only person who struggles with relationships, boundaries, closeness, or communication...?
Group therapy
You understand the pattern. You may even know where it comes from. But changing it while you’re alone with your thoughts is another story.
Group therapy gives you somewhere to practice.
At Grayslate, we offer small, therapist-led group therapy in Los Angeles and online across California. Our groups bring people together around shared concerns, while making room for each person’s identity, history, and way of relating.
You don’t need to arrive feeling confident or ready to tell your whole story. You only need enough curiosity to begin.
Let’s start here
What Is Group Therapy?
Group therapy brings a small number of people together with one or more trained facilitators. Members may share a common experience, work toward similar goals, or want to understand how they relate to others.
It is not simply individual therapy with more people in the room.
A therapist pays attention to what each participant brings into the group, as well as what unfolds between members. That might include pulling away when a conversation becomes vulnerable, taking responsibility for everyone else’s feelings, struggling to ask for support, or assuming that disagreement will lead to rejection.
Some groups teach practical information and structured skills. Others focus more closely on the relationships forming inside the room. At Grayslate, we often combine the two.
The group becomes a place to understand your patterns and try something different while support is right there with you. You are not expected to perform, give advice, or have the right response. You are invited to notice, reflect, and participate at a pace that supports meaningful work.
Why Group Therapy Can Feel Different From Individual Work
Individual therapy gives you focused time with a therapist. Group therapy adds something another format cannot fully recreate: the opportunity to experience relationships as they happen.
You might notice yourself going quiet when another member disagrees with you. You may feel an urge to reassure someone before considering what you need. Perhaps you assume people are judging you, only to discover that they recognize the same fear in themselves.
These moments provide information that can be difficult to access through reflection alone.
Group members can offer perspectives, encouragement, and honest responses. A therapist helps the group slow down, understand what’s happening, and respond with care rather than criticism. Over time, you can experiment with speaking more directly, setting a boundary, receiving feedback, or staying present through discomfort.
There is also relief in hearing someone describe an experience you thought was yours alone.
Being understood does not solve everything overnight. It can, however, loosen shame and make change feel less lonely.
What you practice inside the group can gradually shape how you communicate with partners, friends, relatives, coworkers, and yourself.
Is Group Therapy Right for You?
People join therapy groups for many reasons. Some want practical support around a specific challenge. Others have spent years understanding themselves intellectually but still feel stuck when relationships become emotionally charged.
Group therapy may be worth considering when:
- You repeat relationship patterns you want to change.
- You have trouble trusting people or letting them get close.
- You lose track of your needs while caring for everyone else.
- Conflict quickly leads to defensiveness, shutdown, or self-blame.
- You feel lonely even when other people are around.
- You want to communicate more clearly and set firmer boundaries.
- You would like support from people who genuinely understand the issue.
- You want somewhere to practice what you have learned in individual therapy.
It also makes sense if the idea of joining a group feels nerve-racking. Many people worry they will not know what to say, will be expected to reveal too much, or will be the only person who does not fit in.
Those concerns can be discussed during your initial consultation.
Group therapy isn’t the right starting point for every situation. Someone who needs immediate crisis support, stabilization, or a more intensive level of care may need another form of treatment first. The intake process helps us consider both your needs and the wellbeing of the group.
Process Groups, Skills Groups, and Support Groups
“Group therapy” describes several different experiences. Understanding the format can make it easier to choose one that fits.
Process groups
A process group pays close attention to what happens between members in real time. The discussion may begin with something from your week, but the group also notices how familiar relationship patterns show up in the room. Process groups focus on emotional and intellectual processes with the goal that group members can learn to be curious and open about the process.
Perhaps you hesitate to speak because you expect to be interrupted, or you feel responsible for keeping the conversation comfortable. A process group gives you a chance to name that experience, hear how others perceive it, and consider a new response.
Skills-based groups
Skills groups are more structured. Sessions may include education, guided exercises, discussion, and tools to use between meetings. These groups can be especially helpful when members share a defined concern, such as navigating ADHD-related relationship patterns.
Therapy groups and support groups
Support is part of good group therapy, but therapist-led group counseling is not the same as an informal or peer-led support group. A therapy group has clinical goals, a screening process, and a facilitator responsible for guiding the work.
Open and closed groups
Closed groups begin with the same members and generally do not add people during the program. Open or ongoing groups may welcome new members at designated times. Consistency matters in either format because trust takes time to build.
Current Therapy Groups at Grayslate
Our group offerings may change as cohorts begin, conclude, or develop into longer-term process groups. A consultation is the best way to confirm availability and find the right fit.
LGBTQIA+ Women’s Process Group
An ongoing, affirming group for lesbian, bisexual, queer, and transgender women seeking connection and room to explore identity, relationships, belonging, and emotional resilience. Members can speak openly without having to translate or defend central parts of who they are.
Healthy Relationships Group
For adults who want to understand the patterns shaping their friendships, family relationships, dating lives, or partnerships. The group explores trust, boundaries, emotional closeness, conflict, and the ways past relationships can influence present ones.
ADHD Partner Support Group
A structured group for people with ADHD who want to understand how attention, emotional regulation, executive functioning, and communication patterns affect their relationships. Members learn practical tools while exploring the feelings and relational cycles underneath recurring problems.
Non-ADHD Partner Support Group
For people whose partners have ADHD. The group makes room for exhaustion, resentment, overfunctioning, boundaries, and communication without casting either partner as the problem. It can also help you understand how a partner’s ADHD traits may be affecting you.
Partners who want to work on these patterns together can also explore neurodiverse couples counseling.
Ongoing ADHD and Non-ADHD Process Groups
Participants who complete the foundational program may have the opportunity to continue into longer-term process work. These groups allow more time to examine relationship patterns, practice new responses, and receive support as changes are carried into everyday life.
Not sure which group makes sense? That’s exactly what the initial consultation is for.
What to Expect Before and During Your First Group
Joining a therapy group can feel like a bigger leap than scheduling an individual appointment. We take the time to help you understand what you are walking into.
You will begin with a consultation or intake with the facilitator. You can ask questions, describe what you hope to gain, and talk honestly about any reservations. The facilitator will also consider whether the group’s focus, format, and current membership fit your needs.
Grayslate groups typically meet weekly for 90 minutes and include approximately 4-8 members. Depending on the group, sessions may be held at our Atwater Village office or through a secure online platform for participants in California. Fees vary by program and facilitator. Current costs and availability will be explained before you enroll.
During an early session, the facilitator will review participation and confidentiality agreements. Members are expected to protect one another’s privacy and avoid discussing identifying information outside the group. Because a therapist cannot control another participant’s actions, confidentiality in a group cannot be guaranteed in exactly the same way as it can in individual therapy. We discuss that limitation plainly rather than making promises no group can make.
You will not be pressured to disclose everything at once. At the same time, group therapy becomes more useful when members gradually take part, speak honestly, and remain open to respectful feedback.
You are allowed to take a breath, gather your thoughts, and find your footing.
How does group therapy help?
What You Can Practice in a Therapy Group
Insight matters, but insight alone does not always change what happens when emotions run high. A group gives you repeated opportunities to practice.
Depending on the group, you may work on:
- Saying what you need without apologizing for having needs
- Listening without immediately fixing, defending, or withdrawing
- Setting boundaries without becoming harsh or disappearing
- Recognizing people-pleasing, avoidance, criticism, or overfunctioning
- Understanding why the same conflict keeps repeating without assuming the relationship is over
- Expressing anger, sadness, fear, or disappointment more clearly
- Receiving feedback without treating it as a verdict on your worth
- Repairing a misunderstanding after something lands badly
- Making room for differences in identity, communication, and processing
Some of these moments may feel awkward at first. That is not a sign that you are doing group therapy wrong. New ways of relating often feel unfamiliar before they begin to feel natural.
The goal is not to become perfectly comfortable. It is to have more choices when connection feels difficult.
Here’s the key
Thoughtfully Facilitated, Identity-Affirming Groups
The facilitator does more than keep the conversation moving. They help members recognize patterns, make room for quieter voices, address tensions, and keep feedback constructive.
Grayslate’s groups are informed by attachment-based and relational approaches. Our therapists also work from LGBTQIA+-affirming, neurodiversity-affirming, culturally responsive, and trauma-aware perspectives.
That matters because relationship patterns do not develop in a vacuum.
Race, gender, sexuality, disability, neurotype, family history, immigration, religion, and experiences of belonging can all affect how a person understands closeness, emotional safety, conflict, and care. You should not have to flatten those parts of yourself to participate in therapy.
The aim is not to pretend everyone in the room has had the same experience. It is to create enough trust for differences to be acknowledged with respect and curiosity.
Our facilitators bring structure when it is useful and slow the process down when something important is happening. They are there to support meaningful participation, not to force vulnerability or turn every difficult moment into a lesson.
Grayslate’s group facilitators include Grazel Garcia, LMFT, and Dr. Tyler Howard, PsyD.
Can You Attend Group and Individual Therapy at the Same Time?
Yes. Many people attend group therapy alongside individual therapy, and the two formats can complement each other.
Individual sessions give you private space to explore your history, symptoms, relationships, or reactions in greater depth. A group lets you notice and practice relational patterns with other people present.
Something that happens in group may become useful material for individual therapy. Likewise, insight from individual work may help you take a new risk in the group.
More therapy is not automatically better, though. Time, cost, emotional capacity, and your treatment goals all matter. Your therapists may also need appropriate consent before coordinating care.
You do not have to figure out the perfect combination by yourself. Your consultation can help clarify whether group therapy, individual therapy, or both make sense right now.
Questions
Group Therapy FAQs
Let’s get started
Find a Group Where You Can Be Part of the Work
Reaching out can feel uncomfortable, especially when joining a group is the very thing you feel uncertain about.
You do not need to commit before you have your questions answered. Start with a consultation. We will talk about what you are looking for, explain the current options, and help you decide whether a Grayslate group feels like the right next step.
Join us in Atwater Village or online from elsewhere in California.