Have you ever wondered what group therapy is all about? Portrayals of fictional group therapy are all over; on TV, in the movies and in literature. But what is real group therapy like? And why would anyone want to open up their soul to other people who are not friends or family?

Everyone has been in a group of some sort. Most of people have been in many. In elementary school students are grouped together by skill level for reading or math. In high school they’re put into groups for projects. Adults are in work groups, church groups, AA, or groups of friends.

All these groups have distinct purposes: to educate, to construct, to build, to learn, to support, or to socialize. In a similar manner, group therapy has a purpose. This is different depending on what type of group therapy you’re in.

Your children are no longer children. They’ve passed the difficult childhood years and made it through the seemingly endless teenage years.

They’re officially adults, and a whole new set of parenting challenges awaits.

The first years of adulthood – the early and mid twenties – are truly confusing and challenging to both adult children and their parents. Here are some things to keep in mind.

On the morning of Friday, July 20th, 2012, the world woke up to the news that 12 people in Colorado had been gunned down in a movie theater.

It’s hard to fathom the immensity of hurt and agony that one single act of violence can create.

There is the sheer trauma for the victims who were there: physical wounds, emotional horror, heart break and intense fear.

There is also the grief and suffering for the people who loved the victims.

The trauma circle widens even more, to the rescue workers, theater employees, medical staff and neighbors.

More distant but still affected are people in the state, country and the world.

When a rock is thrown into a still pond, the water ripples out far beyond the point of impact.  In a similar fashion, a senseless tragedy that occurs in a violent and deadly way affects even people who have little or no connection to the victims.

Most parents look back on their teenage years and cringe.

For some, it’s remembering problems with their parents, schools, or the police. Others recall the emotional torment that those years entailed.

Teenage years are a time of intense physical and emotional development.

The years from ages 13-19 are a time for pushing limits, for exploring new ways of thinking and behaving. It can be a chaotic, stressful time for both parents and teens.

It’s normal for parents to imagine their own children behaving in the same manner as they themselves did.

While biological children may share half of their parents’ genetics, each child has his or her own way of interacting with the world. Even if a parent could clearly remember their own teenage years, their child’s emotions, difficulties, and stresses are often very different.

Here are some unexpected challenges of parenting teenagers, and some ways to help both parents and teens cope.

Long before there was written language, our ancestors relied on verbal communication to transmit history, values, ethics and beliefs. For thousands of years people have used words to keep memories alive.

Some cultures evolved stories into songs or dances. Others created artwork. Still others relied on written words. Today, these stories are still being created and shared.

In all of its forms, story telling is a way of passing on knowledge, morals, joys and sorrows. Stories are about history, about hopes and fears; they’re windows into a peoples’ inner world.

Most of us these days are pretty wired.

We have our laptops, our smart phones, our Kindles and Nooks, iPods and iPads.

Technology is often seen as being a way to connect with people: we can Skype with far away friends and relatives, chat on Facebook, find friends we haven’t seen in years.

We can hear in minute detail the daily happenings of near strangers.

But do these things which seem to make us close, actually make us more distant from one another?

I see families out to dinner, and each member is completely engaged with their own electronic device.

Moms and Dads are increasingly using electronics to entertain young children, even infants.

Friends stop mid-conversation to answer their phone, or laugh at a text. Couples on dates are not immune – when conversation lapses, smart phones come out.

Everyone, it seems, is plugged in.

How many times have you complained that there are just not enough hours in the day to do what you need to, or wondered in frustration how the afternoon managed to slip by?

Each person has 24 hours in a day to spend. A certain amount of that is for the basics – sleeping, eating, bathing, dressing. But after those hours are spent, the rest of how you use the time is really up to you.

Throughout the day, you make choices – how long to read Facebook, or how many TV shows to watch, if you take your child to the park, or spend 15 minutes talking with your partner about their day, or weed the garden.

These little bits of time may seem insignificant. After all, how many people add up the minutes they spend online, or consider the small bits of time you use talking to your coworkers, or the time spent cuddling a crying child or loving an animal?

But these small bits are where the time that seems to get away from you goes. It doesn’t disappear. It is used, but often forgotten.

When a parent gazes at a beautiful sleeping infant, the possibilities of how he or she will grow up are endless and wonderful.

No one imagines that their sweet fuzzy-haired infant will morph into a toddler who bites and terrorizes other children, or who refuses to eat anything other than chicken nuggets for days at a time.

Parents often imagine that if they just do everything right and provide the best toys and intellectual stimulation for their children, their kids will meet all of their developmental milestones and behave in socially appropriate ways. If only this were true.

And while most parents expect to deal with tantrums and coloring on the walls, there are some things that people tend not to talk about when parenting young children.

Recently, while in the locker room at a pool, I saw a young girl finish weighing herself. As she walked away, I heard her congratulating herself: “YES! I lost weight! I lost weight!”

The girl (who was quite thin) couldn’t have been more than nine years old. She hadn’t even hit puberty yet.

As an eavesdropper on her private musings, I was saddened.

A nine year old who is constantly weighing herself is at war with her own body.

Rather than enjoying physical activity, feeling strong, and taking care of herself, she is thinking about what she can’t eat, the calories she needs to burn, and the pounds that she believes need to come off.

There are young children in our communities who are trying to lose weight at a time in their lives when they are growing the fastest. They need the fat, the calories, the carbohydrates.

When children withhold food and calories from themselves, it can lead to severe physical and emotional problems. Yet they are pressured, even at a young age, to focus on the scale, count calories, and measure up to what society determines is attractive.

One of the most common problems in relationships is communication. And while some people struggle with being able to talk about their problem, often the main issue is ineffective listening.

When you have a problem that you want to bring up with someone else, or if they bring up an issue to you, there are ways to make the conversation go smoothly.

Learning how to listen is a skill that can be used in every relationship, be it your child, spouse, best friend, or even your neighbor. Using these skills may feel artificial or fake at first, but as you practice them more, and see them working, it will soon become second nature.