You Don’t Have to Hold It All Alone: Why Group Support Might Be Exactly What You Need
Real connection. No pressure. Just space to breathe, be seen, and not do it all alone.
By Emily MacNiven, LPC, Founder of The Red Door Therapy & Wellness Solutions
Why This Blog Is Different
You might be arriving here because something’s been simmering beneath the surface—maybe a quiet exhaustion from always being the one who holds it together. Or a kind of pressure that doesn’t show on the outside, but relentlessly pulls at you from within.
Maybe you’ve already done some inner work. You’ve journaled, gone to therapy, and read the books. And yet… something’s still missing. Not because you’re doing it wrong, but because some healing doesn’t happen until it’s shared.
At The Red Door, we believe you don’t have to be the strong one, the productive one, or the fixed one to belong. You just get to be a person in progress, worthy of support.
Whether you’re exploring Support Groups or Group Therapy, I hope this post helps you reconnect to what actually matters to you—and find a kind of support that feels like it truly fits.
Each Red Door blog is designed not just to inform, but to gently walk with you through clarity, reflection, and real-life integration.
Here’s how we’ll move through this one together:
Discover insight that helps you name what’s really happening beneath the surface.
Grow by engaging with prompts or small steps that meet you where you are.
Integrate what you’re learning so it begins to reshape how you live, connect, and care for what matters most.
Change is possible—and it doesn’t have to start alone.
DISCOVER: What You’re Carrying Might Not Be Yours Alone
A Few Questions to Help You Pause and Notice:
Have you ever found yourself smiling through the day while silently counting the hours until you can just be alone?
Do you sometimes wonder why you're still so tired, even when life looks “fine” on paper?
When was the last time you let someone see what’s really going on beneath the surface?
You might be feeling stretched too thin—showing up in all the right ways on the outside while quietly wondering why the exhaustion never lifts.
You’ve probably learned to cope by turning inward—overfunctioning, staying “on,” or holding back the messy parts of your story so you don’t burden anyone. But when we spend enough time hiding what’s hard, we start to feel disconnected—not just from others, but from ourselves.
And when connection feels uncertain or unavailable, your body adapts. It learns to stay on high alert—guarded, bracing, always anticipating. That’s not failure. That’s your nervous system trying to protect you, the only way it knows how, but it’s not sustainable.
There’s a reason support feels different than self-help. Real, relational presence tells your body: You don’t have to do this all on your own. That’s not weakness, it’s wise. And it’s why groups can be so healing.
Support Groups and Therapy Groups aren’t about talking more. They’re about being seen differently. Not as a problem to solve, but as a person in process, carrying a lot, and finally ready to share the weight.
GROW: What Group Work Offers That Individual Therapy Can’t
Individual therapy is a powerful space for insight, pattern-breaking, and one-on-one support. But some growth only unfolds in community, through shared emotional experience, relational feedback, and practicing new ways of showing up in real time.
In group work, you don’t just talk about your patterns; you witness them play out. You hear your voice echoed in someone else’s story. You practice boundaries, vulnerability, or even just letting someone hold space for you. That kind of learning doesn’t just shift your thinking, it starts to rewire your emotional responses.
Walk & Talk Support Groups: Gentle Movement, Shared Humanity
These groups are grounded in movement and meaningful connection. Each session blends ACT-informed themes, accessible micro-practices, and real conversations—without the pressure to go deep unless you’re ready.
Research shows that combining light physical activity with relational support lowers stress, boosts focus, and increases a sense of psychological safety, especially in helping professionals and caregivers (Oppezzo & Schwartz, 2014).
Support groups are ideal if:
You want connection without pressure to perform or “process deeply.”
You’re feeling emotionally isolated and crave a soft place to land.
You’re ready to try small, steady shifts toward feeling more present in your own life.
Think of it like emotional cross-training: building relational strength, one walk at a time.
Group Therapy: Guided Growth, Real-Time Healing
Group Therapy is for when you’re ready to deepen the work, with the steady presence of a licensed therapist holding space. At the Red Door these groups offer focused processing around themes like burnout, relationship stress, ADHD, or emotional regulation.
Group therapy gives you a safe, structured space to:
Practice vulnerability and emotional expression.
Work through attachment wounds in real time.
Build tangible, ACT-based tools like values-based action and defusion.
See yourself differently by being reflected kindly by others.
It’s a natural next step for those who’ve done individual therapy and want to explore what healing looks like in relationship. Because we don’t just grow through insight, we grow through meaningful connection with others.
INTEGRATE: Why Belonging Isn’t Extra—It’s Essential
The longer we’ve had to survive alone, the harder it becomes to reach out. Not because we don’t want connection, but because it feels unfamiliar… or even unsafe.
But here’s what research and real life keep showing us: connection changes everything. It’s not just comforting, it’s regulating. It restores our belief in ourselves, in relationships, and in our capacity to be human without performance (Haslam et al., 2018).
You don’t have to join a group to move toward connection, but you do deserve to stop carrying it all by yourself.
So before you click away, consider:
Where in your life do you already feel a flicker of safe connection?
Who might you share just 10% more of your inner world with this week?
Is there someone in your life who could hear the real stuff without needing you to clean it up first?
You don’t have to leap. You just have to notice the next small, steady step toward connection, and trust that healing can meet you there.
Ready to Take the First Step?
If you’re curious about what healing could look like with others, we’d love to walk beside you.
And if now’s not the moment for a group, we hope you leave with a bit more clarity, a breath of permission, and a question worth carrying with you:
Where in your life could you let yourself be just a little more real this week?
Small steps open big doors.
Let connection meet you where you are.
References
Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking.
Haslam, S. A., Jetten, J., Cruwys, T., Dingle, G., & Haslam, C. (2018). The New Psychology of Health: Unlocking the Social Cure.