support groups
Shared-struggle gatherings
Support groups are gatherings of people facing similar challenges—illness, addiction, grief, or other difficulties—who meet regularly to share experiences and encouragement.
The format ranges from informal peer-led circles to professionally facilitated sessions: She joined a support group for new mothers, The hospital offers support groups for cancer patients and their families.
The premise is that those who have lived through something understand it in ways others cannot.
- counselingProfessional guidance for problems
- healingRestoration of health
- recovery journeyProgress toward restored wellbeing
- therapyCurative mental treatment
- 12-step programsGuided addiction recovery fellowships
groups · shared experience · holding space · friends · acceptance · self-help · empathy · safe space · safe environment · camaraderie · relapse prevention · harm reduction · trauma recovery · hugs · advocacy groups · twelve-step · mental health · check-in
- community resourceslibraries, food banks, health clinics, mental health clinics, legal aid
- support groupsself-help groups, recovery meetings, sharing circle, recovery meeting, AA meeting
- mutual aidteamwork, helping, sharing, lending, cooperation
- Peer NetworksP2P, peer review, social networks, professional networks, alumni networks
- community buildingpotluck, cookout, block party, barn raising, quilting bee
- guidance servicescounseling, mentoring, advising, coaching, tutoring
support groupshate groups
Organizations promoting targeted animosity
gangs · cults · harassment campaigns · isolation · ostracism
support groupspsychiatric treatment
Mental health intervention
clinical intervention · inpatient treatment · self-isolation · going it alone · suffering in silence
support groupsridicule
Contemptuous mocking treatment
social rejection · outcasting · condemnation · cliques · exclusive clubs
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