Group Counseling

Are you looking to improve your relationships, get support from others or learn more about others' perceptions of you? Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) offers a variety of group counseling options including topics such as anxiety, LGBTQIA+, relationships, and much more.

Group counseling is a widely used and standard treatment. Studies comparing group counseling to individual counseling show that group counseling is as effective and sometimes more effective than individual counseling. Group counseling is one of the main forms of treatment at CAPS. Currently, group counseling is offered at the MMC and BBC CAPS locations.

Group counseling provides you with the unique opportunity to learn with and from other people. By receiving support and feedback from other group members, you will be able to gain a better understanding of your feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

Students interested in group therapy can make an appointment with a CAPS clinician and collaboratively determine which group best fits your needs and schedule. Students will also have an opportunity to meet with their group facilitator to create personalized group goals.

Group counseling descriptions

There are a variety of group counseling options at the Modesto A. Maidique Campus (MMC) and Biscayne Bay Campus (BBC) CAPS locations. Most groups consist of 6 to 8 students and 2 group leaders. Each group session lasts 90 minutes.

Current group options:

ADAPT Group
Offers students the opportunity to learn and develop adaptive coping skills to better manage life’s challenges, such as academic distress, painful emotions, and interpersonal conflict.
Art of Storytelling
This process group provides students with opportunities to use art therapy tools to express one's story while gaining insight and feeling empowered.
Career Crossroads
A short-term, psychoeducational experience designed to help students who have questions about their identity, career decisions, changing majors, and associated thoughts and feelings.
#BMDT (Black Men Do Therapy)
This group helps Black men (African, African American, Afro-Caribbean) obtain support and greater self-understanding across various aspects of their lives, including but not limited to academics, family difficulties, racial/ethnic identity, and mental health challenges.
Body Acceptance Program
This psychoeducational group helps students explore body image concerns, acquire new skills to express difficult thoughts and emotions, and learn healthier ways to relate to themselves and others.
Defy Your Fears
This group provides students with evidenced-based treatment for panic disorder, social anxiety and/or phobias.
Free Your Mind
This group provides students with evidenced-based treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Grief Group
This group provides students with an opportunity to learn about grief, how to process their own grief and effectively relate to others.
LGBTQI+
Provides LGBQI+ students a safe space to process how past trauma affects them today and learn how to effectively manage symptoms.
Pride Talks
This interpersonal process group provides a safe space for LGBTQIA+ identifying students to process their struggles, support one another, and learn about themselves through interactions with peers.
Sista Circle
This group provides female students who identify as being a member of the African Diaspora an opportunity to work through various aspects of their lives including but not limited to academics, family difficulties, racial/ethnic identity, and mental health challenges.
Trauma Information Group
Provides students a safe space to process how past trauma affects them today and learn how to effectively manage symptoms.
Understanding Self and Others Group
This group is a safe space where students can experiment with new ways of relating to others and get support and feedback from others.
Understanding Self and Others - Spanish Speakers
This group is a safe space where Spanish speaking students can experiment with new ways of relating to others and get support and feedback from others.

Attending a session

Only registered FIU students are eligible to join group. Group sessions come at no cost. Groups typically meet for the duration of a semester, excluding FIU holidays. This typically is about 8 to 10 weeks.

If you would like to attend a group session, please call 305-348-2277 to request a consultation appointment or visit CAPS during walk-in hours. This is a prerequisite for joining the group.

For some students, group counseling can be uncomfortable at the beginning. To give group counseling a fair chance, CAPS asks that you commit to attending at least 6 group sessions. After that, if you decide to leave the group, you should discuss your decision with the group leaders so that alternative treatment options can be considered.

Please let the group leaders know immediately if you have an existing relationship with someone in the group. At this point, the group leaders will decide how to best resolve the situation.

Confidentiality policy

Counseling is confidential. Confidentiality refers to keeping information that is shared private and to oneself. CAPS does not release information to FIU administrators or faculty, parents, family members, or outside agencies without the client's written authorization. Exceptions to confidentiality include: as required by Florida law, when a clinician determines that a person is at risk for child or elder abuse/neglect, suicide, or homicide.

Contact

To make an appointment with us, please call the offices at MMC or BBC. Appointments will be held over the phone or by videoconference (through a HIPAA-compliant platform).

Modesto A. Maidique Campus

Student Health Center (SHC) 270
305-348-2277 (CAPS)

Monday - Friday: 8 AM - 5 PM

Biscayne Bay Campus

Wolfe University Center (WUC) 320
305-919-5305