Group Counselling, Semester I - 2023
The Student Counselling Service supports the value of therapeutic and supportive groups in helping students manage distress and improve wellbeing. Groups can be very valuable for sharing one's experience with others who struggle in a similar way and exploring coping mechanisms in a supportive therapeutic environment.
Some groups focus on a particular issue that members of the group share in common. Other groups are open to any and all struggles that members might bring from week to week. Some groups require a commitment to attend, while others operate on a drop-in basis. It is very common for students to feel afraid or reluctant to join a group, but most who join report getting a huge amount from the shared experience with other students. To learn more about group therapy, please watch our video above.
All groups are free of charge.
Drop-in Groups, Semester I - 2023
Weekly Process Group (Drop In)
Date: Wednesdays, starting 6th September
Time: 1 - 2 pm
Venue: SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster St
The group offers students a supportive place where they can discuss any challenges they are experiencing in relation to their emotional wellbeing. It will focus on providing a place where students can connect with others in similar situations, gain psychoeducational knowledge and skills which might be useful for the distress they are experiencing and help them to reflect and gain validation and acceptance around their own individual experiences.
Addictive Behaviours Support and Recovery Group (Drop In)
Date: Tuesdays, starting from 26th September
Time: 6 - 7.30 pm
Venue: S2S Student Room (319) at 7-9 Sth Leinster St
This Addictive Behaviour Support & Recovery is a safe and confidential space for members to support each other in relation to substance and alcohol misuse and other harmful behaviours. Group participants will respect the confidentiality of others in order to maintain a safe place for members.
Rainbow Group (Drop In)
Date: Mondays, starting from 11th September
Time: 3 - 4.30 pm
Venue: Seminar Room (318), SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster St
This group aims to provide an affirming space for all members of the LGBTQ+ Community to improve their mental health and resilience through providing support to one another as well as receiving support from professional group facilitators and SCS staff. At SCS, we recognize that Trinity students who are members of the LGBTQ+ community might experience inequality, prejudice, or bias during their lives based on their gender identity or sexual orientation, which can cause increased stress during their college careers. Members of this group will have space to process concerns and stressors through a strengths-based, non-pathologizing format. All Trinity students who identify as members of the broader LGBTQ+ community are welcomed and encouraged to join.
International Chats (Drop-in)
Date: Thursdays during term (starting 5th October)
Time: 3.30 - 4.30 pm
Venue: Seminar Room (318), SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster St
This group is designed for facilitating International Students’ adjustment, academic success and personal growth. Members have opportunities to explore and share experiences, discuss different topics, engage in various group activities, and learn useful strategies. Additional topics may also include exploring identity, family relationships, dating, faiths, academic/work/financial stress, immigration, stigma, discrimination, invalidation, exclusion and the impact of these issues on their TCD experience by increasing connection, self-empowerment, and advocacy as students academically advance in a multicultural world.
Pre-registration Groups, Semester I - 2023
Surviving Your Postgraduate Experience
Date: Fridays, starting from 13th October, and running for 8 weeks
Time: 11 am - 12 pm
Venue: Seminar Room, SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster St
Surviving Your Postgraduate Experience (SYPE) is an 8-week support group exclusively for postgraduates who are experiencing one or a combination of the above common emotional and social challenges. It is co-facilitated by Student Counselling and the Postgraduate Advisory Service.
A support group is a reflective two-way process; attendees come both to be supported and to offer support to others through listening and offering an empathetic perspective. We don’t solve specific problems in a group, but we do create a confidential space to safely explore issues, test tools and strategies, reflect on ourselves, and build resilience by both listening and being heard.
Participants are asked to commit to attending all 8 sessions. The group is reflective by design and some ‘homework’ (e.g. journaling, testing strategies and self-care practices) between group meetings will be required.
To register for group sign-up please email student-counselling@tcd.ie
Forest Bathing
Date: Tuesdays, starting from 10th October, and running for 6 weeks
Time: 10 am - 12 pm
Venue: Trinity College Botanic Garden, Dartry, Dublin 6 (nextdoor to Trinity Hall)
Compassion Focussed Therapy Group
Date: Wednesdays, starting from 11th October, and running for 8 weeks
Time: 5 - 6.30 pm
Venue: Seminar Room, Student Counselling Service, 7-9 Sth Leinster Street
To register for group sign-up please email student-counselling@tcd.ie
Eating Concerns & Body Well-being Support Group
Date: Mondays, starting 18th September 2023 and running for 8 weeks (not inc. bank holidays).
Time: 2.30pm - 4pm
Venue: Group Room, Student Counselling Service, 7 - 9 Sth Leinster St
This group, led by Dr. Michelle Byrne and Laura Fitzpatrick, is an explorative space to uncover how student's see themselves, how they think and feel about how they look and how they think others see them. There will be an emphasis on making links between how our body image often affects the way we treat our body.
Cultivating Mindfulness and Compassion
Date: Wednesday 11th October and running for 6 weeks until Wednesday 15th November
Time: 3 - 4.30 pm
Venue: Seminar Room, Student Counselling Service, 7 - 9 Sth Leinster St
Facilitator: Annemarie Naughton
This group is aimed at helping students to reduce stress, improve relaxation, enhance their sense of well-being and alleviate health symptoms.
In this course, you will learn how to:
• Increase kindness and compassion for yourself and others
• Develop profound levels of serenity, resilience and creativity
• Calm the mind and direct thoughts more positively
• Sharpen your ability to focus and pay attention
• Access a variety of self-care skills and techniques
To register for group sign-up please email student-counselling@tcd.ie
Menstrual Health Group
Date: Fridays, starting 20th October 2023 and running fortnightly for 6 weeks.
Time: 12 - 1pm
Venue: Student Counselling Service, 7 - 9 Sth Leinster St
Facilitator: Laura Fitzpatrick
To register for group sign-up please email student-counselling@tcd.ie
The Body Project Group
Date: TBC
Time: TBC
Venue: Group Room, Student Counselling Service, 7 - 9 Sth Leinster St
The Body Project is a body acceptance program which is designed to help young women resist societal pressures to be unrealistically thin. Body Project brings women together to support and empower each other. It also builds community among women while tearing down the social comparisons women often make about each other. It encourages ways of talking more positively about their bodies, challenges body-related concerns, defines the appearance ideal and explores ways to best respond to future pressures to conform to it. Participants are encouraged to engage in body-acceptance exercises and role-plays which counter the thin-ideal statements and encourage resistance to peer-pressure. It utilises motivation, skill acquisition and peer-support within the group.
To register for group sign-up please email student-counselling@tcd.ie
Social Anxiety Group
Date: Wednesdays, from 27th September and running fortnightly until 6th December
Time: 2.30 - 4 pm
Venue: Group Room, Student Counselling Service, 7 - 9 Sth Leinster St
Facilitators: Frances Walsh and Sinead Crowley
To register for group sign-up please email student-counselling@tcd.ie
Bereavement Support Group (BSG)
Date: Please email SCS at the address below for enquiries.
Time: TBC
Venue: SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster St
Grief is a normal part of experiencing loss. Everyone grieves differently, and most people experiencing grief won’t require more than general support and information. For those who require additional support we provide an annual Bereavement Support Group (BSG). The BSG is a small group of no more than 12 students, which meets in a safe, confidential space. The BSG gives us space to talk with others who understand grief – we take time to talk about our lost loved ones and the impact of this loss on our lives. The goal of the group is to help you process your own grief and to find a sense of healing through this.
Referral-only Groups, Semester I - 2023
Ongoing Therapy Group
Date: Every Wednesday
Time: 6 - 7.30 pm (during term). 2.30 - 4 pm (out of term)
Venue: Group Room, SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster Street
Facilitator: Mark Robinson
The Ongoing Therapy group at Trinity College SCS involves a group of up to ten students working with a group facilitator (therapist) in weekly therapy sessions. Group Therapy is a respected method of working through a wide range of distressing emotions such as depression, self esteem difficulties or discomfort in relationships. The characteristics of group therapy enable a type of interaction that is not possible in one to one counselling and offer a chance to learn through others, how to manage distress.
Learning Outcomes
- to explore emotional issues and receive support and reassurance from others
- to learn from others about how to manage distress and the chance to be creative about resolving these issues
- to achieve insight into repeated patterns of behaviour
- to increase confidence in group situations
- to improve ability to seek help when encountering problems
Referral is through your counsellor
Group Analytic Therapy
Date: Tuesdays
Time: 6 - 7.30 pm (during term) / afternoon (out of term)
Venue: SCS, 7-9 South Leinster Street
Facilitator: Mary Quill Eglinton & Bronagh O'Neill
Experiential Weekly Group Analytic Therapy
Learning Outcomes
- to explore emotional issues and receive support and reassurance from others
- to learn from others about how to manage distress and the chance to be creative about resolving these issues
- to achieve insight into repeated patterns of behaviour
- to increase confidence in group situations
- to improve ability to seek help when encountering problems
Referral is through your counsellor
