Counselling – Solo or Group?
July – September 2026When you step into recovery, the landscape can feel overwhelming. There are acronyms to learn, new faces, all with the heft of responsibility of finally coming into spaces that would help you release your old habits and get better. You hear about 12-Step programs, SMART Recovery, individual counselling, and group meetings. Personally, when I was first starting out I didn’t really know where I fit. I just lowered my head and went where my peers went.
What I’ve learned through my own lived experience though is that recovery doesn't happen in just one way. Different spaces serve different parts of our healing.
For me, individual counselling was where the deeper work happened. In truth, having spent some time studying mental health conditions and immersing myself in literature about neurodivergent experiences, I thought that I was better than my counsellor and every session felt like a revision of what I had known. The funny thing about it is that often those who think that they know more are those who have the most to learn. I cannot say I was not scared and that I hid from my own issues by stacking the knowledge I had. This led to a lot of denial about the state of things in my life and rejection of advice from my counsellors. I only ever took advice if it inspired me and that also led to me missing a lot of things, turning a blind eye to the actual areas of my life that I needed to work on. But that’s the funny thing right, at least for me, I think we can really only listen to things that we already know about or have already started accepting.
It is also an intimate space where I could open up. Because it is personalized, there is room to stretch out your thoughts. You can pull apart the details of your personal history, explore specific triggers, and look at the underlying issues that you might not be ready to say out loud to a room full of people. Especially if sharing those issues might bring more perceived harm than good. It is a space where you can go in-depth, peeling back the layers at your own pace.
But as valuable as that one-on-one time is, individual counselling can sometimes feel solitary. That is where group settings can turn things around.
Whether it is a structured group session, a 12-Step spiritual program, or a SMART Recovery meeting focused on coping with urges and managing emotions, the dynamics shift. In a group, you are no longer alone with your thoughts. You sit in a circle and hear other people talk about their struggles in their own words. And there is a profound relief in that. It lifts the isolation.
Group meetings also offer something a single counsellor cannot: a tapestry of different perspectives. If you have been hitting a wall with a certain strategy in your recovery, someone else in the room might share a completely different method that worked for them. It opens up your point of view. This shared space is especially vital when dealing with heavy emotions or difficult circumstances. When you carry a heavy weight by yourself, it crushes you. In a group, that weight is distributed. You realize that others are willing to help hold it with you.
Recovery is never a competition. We all move at our own pace. Yet, seeing others navigate the same challenges can be quietly inspiring. When you see someone reach 30 days, or six months, or a year of sobriety, it changes what you think is possible. It isn't about comparing yourself to them; it is the realization that If they can do it, then maybe I can too.
Ultimately, individual and group recovery are not opposing choices. They work together. One gives you the privacy to understand yourself, while the other gives you the community to sustain that understanding. They are both anchors, helping us take the next step, and the next, and the next.
By Friday
