Self-empowerment counseling, stress, anxiety, depression, life transitions

Group Therapy Services

"Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about,
need only a bit of praise or encouragement - and we will make the goal."
- Jerome P. Fleishman

In addition to my one-on-one work with clients, I very much enjoy working within a group dynamic. Below is a list of the group sessions I frequently conduct. Please contact me to learn which group sessions are currently available.

Mindfulness-Based Group:

This group is based on the research and practice of Belleruth Naparstek (Health Journeys.com) and John Kabat-Zinn (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction).

Participants will learn:

How to cultivate emotional balance, through meditation and training in emotional-regulation strategies.
Useful techniques for bringing mindfulness into everyday activities.
How to deal with urges, cravings, and addictions by remaining open and curious to subtle discomfort in the body and mind.
New strategies to counteract destructive thought patterns and negative emotions.
How to handle emotions during stressful situations with greater skill and consideration. First, by manifesting greater emotional awareness and intelligence in dealing with their own destructive thoughts and emotions. Followed by learning greater empathy and compassion in response to the suffering of others.
Enhanced skills in resolving emotional conflicts, stress reduction and immune strengthening.

Self-Relations Group "The Art of Transforming Problems into Solutions":

This is a women’s group based on Self-relations psychotherapy, the work of Stephen Gilligan, PhD. The group is semi-structured and includes centering exercises, trance inductions, dyad exercises and processing.

During the course of six weeks participants will learn:

The art of opening to painful experiences, and through pacing and leading, transforming them into pathways toward solutions.
The art of learning to "dance with the symptom", to BE WITH what is present.
How self-relations provides the map for the healing process.
To explore a variety of practices for centering, opening, understanding and sensing the body/mind.
How to speak the language of the symptom on multiple levels.
How to use the relationship to self as an instrument in opening up transformational possibilities.

The group is ongoing. Please inquire about the next series.

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Practice Group:

This group is designed for individuals interested in learning and practicing NLP skills in their application to therapy and healing. NLP is a brief, solution-focused approach with a practical application to solving everyday problems.

Many components of human problems are learned quite early in life, in a way that is completely outside of our awareness. NLP engages therapeutic modeling to help people understand problem patterns, the context in which behaviors were created and the purpose they served at the time of their creation. Once this structure is revealed, individuals can begin to understand their problems and what needs to happen to overcome unwanted behaviors.

“Maria Connolly is a gifted therapist who brings heart, soul, and solutions to her clients. She is perceptive, clear, and particularly adept at utilizing the powerful patterns of Neuro-Linguistics (NLP) to help her clients overcome limitations of any kind. For people who want someone they can trust to help them make positive changes in their life, I suggest they call Maria.”

~ Lindagail Campbell, NLP Institute of Oregon