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The vast majority of students who attend group therapy feel nervous initially about participating in this kind of support. It might feel incredibly difficult and off putting to open up about personal difficulties with a wider group of peers. However most students report how powerful this way of working can be. By helping them overcome such anxieties and develop greater interpersonal confidence, group members also report the benefit of realising first-hand how they are not alone in their experiences.
As a service we endorse the value of therapeutic and supportive groups in helping students manage distress and improve wellbeing. Some of our groups focus on a particular issue that members of the group share in common. Others 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. Please see below for a comprehensive list of the types of groups currently available and how to access them.
In summary, groups can be a valuable way to share one's experience with others who are also struggling, and to explore coping mechanisms in a supportive therapeutic environment. To learn more about group therapy, what it involves and how it works, please watch the video above which has been developed for you by a counsellor on our team.
All groups are free of charge.
Drop-in Groups 2024-25
Date: Mondays, running weekly from 16th September (except for Bank Holidays in which case the group will move to the Tuesday of that week)
Time: 5.00 pm – 6.30 pm
Venue: Seminar Room (318) and Group Room (331), SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster St
Facilitators: Sinead Crowley and Ejiro Ogbevoen
This support group is a therapeutic support space for students from different cultures and ethnic minorities, run within the Trinity Student Counselling Service. It offers an inclusive and supportive space for members of these communities to meet, share experiences and advocate for their needs. This group will be facilitated by a counsellor in SCS and an external therapist from within this community, with a similar lived experience.
Date: Tuesdays during term-time, starting 24th September
Time: 6.00 pm - 7.30 pm
Venue: S2S Student Room (319) at 7-9 Sth Leinster St
Facilitators: Dee O'Keeffe and Aisling Holland
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.
Date: Wednesdays, running weekly from 18th September, during term-time
Time: 1.00 pm - 2.00 pm
Venue: SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster St
Facilitators: Alice Kelly and Aisling McMahon
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.
Date: Fridays, running weekly from 20th September, during term-time
Time: 11.00 am - 12.30 pm
Venue: Seminar Room (318), SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster St
Facilitator: Lorraine Byrne and Tony Rice
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.
Date: This group finishes at the end of Semester I and will start again in 2025. Please check back in September 2025 for updates.
Time: 2.00 pm - 3.00 pm
Venue: Seminar Room (318), SCS, 7-9 Sth Leinster St
Facilitator: Ciara Joyce and Beth Kellaghan
All of us have an internal self-critic who is quick to judge and can often lead to feelings of fear, shame or despondence. Informed by emotion and compassion focused approaches in therapy, this group is aimed at people who want to better understand and respond differently to their critic so that it becomes a less problematic part of our experience.
Drop-in Groups, Semester II Only 2024-25
Date: Tuesdays, starting in Semester 2 on 21st January 2025
Time: 1.00 pm - 2.30 pm
Venue: SCS, 7-9 South Leinster Street
Facilitator: Dee O'Keeffe and Tony Rice
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Date: Thursdays, starting in Semester 2 on 23rd January 2025
Time: 2.00 - 3.00 pm
Venue: Seminar Room, SCS, 7-9 South Leinster Street
Blurb: Understanding your menstrual cycle every day can help you manage personal pain and ease mental suffering. This Group is aimed at empowering your understanding of your flow and uplifting all of those who menstruate to help ensure emotional and academic wellbeing
Facilitated By: Laura Fitzpatrick with guest speakers from College Health and DisAbility Services
Pre-registration Groups
Date: Mondays 10th February - 31st March 2025 (excluding 17th March).
Time: 5.30 pm - 7.00 pm
Venue: SCS, 7-9 South Leinster Street
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.
- The BSG meets annually for seven 90-minute sessions.
- To inquire about the BSG email us at student-counselling@tcd.ie.
Date: Tuesdays, starting 25th February 2025
Time: 6pm to 8pm
Venue: Printing House Square (Squash Courts and an Meitheal Conference Room)
Facilitator: Graham King (Trinity Counselling Service) and Daniel Twomey (Trinity Sports)
Mind, Body, Boost is a 6-week custom designed fitness and mental health programme that includes mindfulness skills training, group inclusivity work, challenging physical activities and psychological support tools, while also addressing societal issues of social isolation and stress management. Trinity Sport and the Counselling Service will be recruiting participants shortly. To register your interest please email student-counselling@tcd.ie
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Date: Tuesdays, starting 4th February for 8 weeks
Time: 3.00 - 4.30 pm
Venue: Seminar Room (318), SCS, 7-9 South Leinster Street
Facilitators: Ciara Joyce and Tony Rice
This group is helpful for students who struggle to feel content, reassured or safe, and for those who have difficulty receiving compassion from others and offering self-compassion. The group aims to increase self-compassion and reduce self-criticism and shame.
Date: Wednesdays, starting 29th January
Time: 2.30 pm - 4.00 pm
Venue: Group Room, Student Counselling Service, 7-9 South Leinster Street
Facilitators: Frances Walsh and Jenny Corrigan
To register for group sign-up please email student-counselling@tcd.ie
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Start Date: Fridays, starting 25th February 2025
Time: 11 am - 12 pm
Venue: Seminar Room (318), 7-9 South Leinster Street
Facilitators: Joanna Kesicka and Martin McAndrew
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
Date: Fridays, starting 25th January and running for 10 weeks
Time: 2.00 pm- 3.30 pm
Venue: Student Counselling Service, 7-9 South Leinster Street
Facilitators: Chuck Rashleigh
UP Group stands for Unified Protocol. It is a CBT based program with a focus on understanding, tolerating and accepting emotions. The group will be a mix of skills-based psychoeducation, homework, and process-based therapy. Each week contains general psychoeducation with modules tailored to specific elements of the emotional experience. Over the course of the group, we will be looking at:
Goal Setting
Understanding Emotions
Mindfulness
Cognitive Flexibility
Countering Emotional Behaviours
Facing Physical Symptoms of Emotions
Emotional Exposure
To register for group sign-up please email student-counselling@tcd.ie
Date: This group has now finished. Please check back in September 2025 for updates.
Time: TBC
Venue: Trinity College Botanic Garden, Dartry, Dublin 6 (next door to Trinity Hall)
Facilitator: Kamila Kwasniewska
This group is for postgraduate students only.
Forest Bathing (or shinrin-yoku) is a preventive medicine technique that comes from Japan and means immersing your senses in the atmosphere of a forest. This nature-connection method was established in the 1980s and has been proven scientifically to reduce stress, improve well-being, reduce muscle tension, and boost the immune system and creativity. Forest bathing experience helps to turn the attention to nature through exercises and invitations designed by the guide.
It is an outdoor experience amongst the trees and shrubs of TCD Botanic Gardens. Each session is guided by a trained forest bathing guide and includes mindful exercises related to the senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste and proprioception), using props and natural features to create an engaging experience.
Referral-only Groups
Date: Wednesdays
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
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Date: Mondays, from 25th September
Time: 2.30 - 4.30 pm
Venue: Group Room, SCS, 7-9 South Leinster Street
Facilitators: Laura Fitzpatrick and Daragh Keogh
This group is an 8-week closed therapy group for students seeking support regarding issues related to eating and/or body concerns. Working one-to-one and within the group, members will be facilitated to recognise and explore some of the difficult emotions underlying and driving eating and/or body related issues. In particular, the group will focus on 'taming' the the inner critic, that of ourselves that criticises us for not being good enough.
For more information email: student-counselling@tcd.ie