Group Therapy San Francisco | Therapy Groups SF | Dr. Laura B. Kasper
San Francisco Group therapy and group psychotherapy. Dr. Laura B. Kasper offers therapy groups in San Francisco's Financial District. Therapy groups helps clients improve their communication and interactions so they can have more deeply satisfying and fulfilling relationships.
Group Therapy
I provide group therapy to help you become the partner, parent, friend, colleague or leader you want to be.
Group Therapy Is Right for you If:
Find relationships stressful but you don’t understand why or how to make them less stressful
You get reactive or lash out in relationships, pushing people away
You withdraw or pull away when things get difficult in relationships
You need to be in control in your relationships
You are a people pleaser and its hard for you to speak up or assert yourself in your relationships
You keep finding yourself in relationships with unavailable people and don’t know how to break that cycle
You’re lonely and you don’t want to be
You have a challenged relationship with commitment
Create Satisfying Relationships
Group therapy is a weekly confidential gathering of engaged people who are all working on the same thing - becoming more emotionally intelligent, self-aware and capable of having deeply satisfying and effective relationships.
If you want to improve your relationships with romantic partners, friends, parents, colleagues, children - group is better for that than individual therapy.
Group is like being in a relational learning laboratory, or a gym workout for your emotional and relational fitness. You’re with other people who are also motivated to learn about themselves emotionally in their relationships. We know being around others at the gym is part of what’s helpful for your fitness goals - the same is true for group.
“Often times our interpersonal patterns are like a metal rod — unyielding. The only way to bend it is to heat it up. Group therapy brings that heat.”
In this relational learning lab, you explore how many different people experience you and how you experience them. You'll learn about your long standing interpersonal patterns and how culture and your relationship history has shaped those patterns.
This will allow you to engage in new ways of relating to each unique person in the group, not just one individual therapist, which will help you grow and show up differently in your outside relationships.
In Group Therapy You Will Gain Insights And Skills to have Stronger and More Satisfying relationships Such As:
How you are perceived by others and what other people really think and feel about how you interact
How to recognize your thoughts and feelings in the face of another person’s reactions
What triggers you emotionally and how your triggers are influenced by culture and your relationship history
What you do when you’re triggered - withdraw or lash out - and how that impacts your connections with others
How to regulate your feelings and communicate them productively
How to give feedback to help people understand you better
How to connect effectively with others across differences
How group therapy workS
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My groups meet weekly online and once a month hybrid in-person for an hour and a half.
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Thursdays 12:15pm - 1:45pm PST
Thursdays 4:15pm - 5:45pm PST
If you can't attend either of my current groups, but you'd still like to work with me, please fill out this form and we'll be in touch.
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Smart, successful, interesting, caring people who struggle in similar ways and are also looking to become more emotionally intelligent, self-aware and have better relationships.
Groups are all mixed gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, profession, relationship status and type, and members range in age from mid 20s to mid 50s.
Groups can include up to 12 people.
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Clients interested in group meet for 2 - 3 Individual group preparation sessions. The fee is $275 (45 minutes). Weekly group sessions are $125 (90 minutes). Payment is charged to a credit card on file at the beginning of the month.
You can receive statements to submit to your insurance company for out-of-network reimbursement.
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Consistent attendance is how you will get the most out of group therapy. Like committing to a fitness goal that you need to show up at the gym regularly to achieve, the same is true for your emotional and ‘social’ fitness, so attending group therapy consistently, both showing up and being on time, is the best way to see results. And, life happens, so of course you can miss group therapy if you need to.
Consistency in relationships can often be an “edge” for some people, since making commitments in relationships can bring up feelings. Paying attention and exploring your reactions to the commitment of regular attendance can be a huge area of growth that helps all your relationships.
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I facilitate the conversation and encourage members to bring in emotional and relational dynamics that are happening in their lives to be worked on and addressed in the group. This can include a stressful work, romantic, familial, or friend situation. It can also include discussing positive things in life.
I encourage members to share their thoughts and feelings, about themselves and other members, and why they are having them, in reaction to what’s being discussed.
I help members learn what their typical reactions are, and begin to understand what reactions build or get in the way of connection by hearing feedback from each other.
I facilitate members to put unpleasant or more socially risky thoughts and feelings into words, since they are typically more difficult to share with others and cause us the most emotional and interpersonal challenges. This might include feeling annoyed, bored, jealous, insecure or competitive, or having judgmental or critical thoughts or reactions.
I also encourage members to get curious about any actions members might be engaged in, such as frequently coming late or not attending, being more withdrawn or quiet than usual, etc. as these might reflect feelings members aren’t fully aware of or are uncomfortable expressing. I facilitate conversation that invites members to make those feelings more conscious so they can express and use them to grow inside and outside of group therapy.
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Group is better than individual therapy if what you’re wanting to improve is your relationships with other people, since you’ll have a laboratory to explore how many different people experience you, and to practice experimenting with new ways of relating to each of them, not just one individual therapist. You’ll also have the care and compassion of multiple members, not just one therapist.
Group is different from individual therapy because you’ll have to be more assertive about asking for what you need and getting attention in group, which is often something that creates interpersonal challenges in life, so it’s a great opportunity to practice.
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Group therapy is a highly effective method of making changes in your interpersonal patterns. As these patterns have been with you for awhile, you will need time to change them, so I only take people in my groups who are ready to commit to themselves being in group for at least a year or two. Many people get so much out of being in a group they stay for much longer.
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If you can't attend either of my current groups (12:15-1:45pm PST and 4:15pm-5:45pm PST Thursdays), but you'd still like to work with me, please fill out this form and we'll be in touch.
ARE YOU READY TO DO THE WORK TO HAVE MORE SATISFYING RELATIONSHIPS?
I have room in my groups for a few select individuals.
The openings are for people who are ready to do the work.