Support Groups


Many people have considered joining a therapy group but wonder what they could gain from it. Some reasons for trying group therapy include:

  • Hearing people with similar problems put your feelings into words, so that you can better understand yourself.
  • Feeling you are not alone
  • Getting support and reinforcement for your efforts to change or deal with difficult situations
  • Being able to get feedback that will help you understand why people react to you as they do

Commonwealth Psychological Associates PLC. conducts groups in the following areas:

  • Co-Dependency
  • Adult Children of Alcoholic Parents
  • Making and Maintaining Relationships
  • Social Skills for Learning Disabled Children
  • Anger Management
  • Divorced Fathers
  • Men's Issues at the Turn of the Century
  • Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse


  Ongoing support groups include the following:



Adult Children of
Alcoholic Parents

Many adults who grew up in families where a parent was alcoholic share a number of common problems, such as:
  • Ignoring their own needs, while worrying too much about the needs of others
  • Being overly responsible
  • Expecting too much of themselves and others
  • Difficulty with intimacy
  • Not being able to trust their own feelings
  • Having trouble dealing with conflict
  • Feeling the need to be "on guard," or being unable to trust others

To address these problems, Commonwealth Psychological Associates, PLC conducts a weekly therapy group that enables participants to explore and understand the effects of parental alcoholism on their current feelings about themselves, as well as on their attitudes and behaviors towards others.

Group goals include:

  • Pinpointing some of the ways in which the dysfunctional family environment can impact current behavior
  • Improving intimate relationships
  • Learning to trust and act upon your own feelings
  • Finding ways to get your own needs met


Anger Management

If you are having problems with your family, social, and/or work relationships because of anger, short-term group work may be of assistance to manage your anger more effectively. Have you experienced any of the following?
  • Expressing your anger inappropriately
  • Bottling your anger until you feel you are going to "explode"
  • Poor communication with loved ones, friends, or colleagues
  • Overacting to minor frustrations
  • Not being aware that you are angry
  • Road rage
  • Emotional/Verbal abuse
  • Mild physical abuse

To address these problems, Commonwealth Psychological Associates, PLC conducts an eight week ANGER MANAGEMENT CLASS that helps adults deal with their anger more effectively.

Goals include:

  • Understand where anger comes from
  • Identify your anger triggers and signs
  • How to express anger appropriately
  • Develop anger management strategies
  • Increase communication and conflict resolution skills



For further information, please call us at (703)734-0787


Copyright 1994 by Anita L Auerbach, Ph.D. All rights reserved