Group therapy · Hopkins, Minnesota
Group Therapy in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Addiction group therapy in Minneapolis: the same small cohort, three hours at a time, inside outpatient addiction and mental health treatment.
Group therapy is the center of outpatient treatment at Northwoods Haven Recovery, for adults across Minneapolis and the Twin Cities, from our center in Hopkins. Three-hour groups most programming days in the Intensive Outpatient Program, a lighter schedule in the Relapse Prevention Program, the same people in the room each time, and a licensed alcohol and drug counselor facilitating.
In-network with Minnesota Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, HealthPartners, UnitedHealthcare, and Medica
Group therapy
The same faces each session. Accountability that is real, not theoretical.
Nervous about group?
Nobody tells their story on day one.
If the idea of talking about your life in front of strangers is the thing keeping you from calling, read on. Nobody is required to tell their story on day one.
Both
A group session in the Intensive Outpatient Program
3 hrs
Used in IOP and the Relapse Prevention Program
18+
Adults, including young adults
0
Nights away from home. Every level of care here is outpatient
What group therapy is
A small room of people who understand why this is hard
Group therapy is treatment delivered to a small number of people at once, led by a trained facilitator, where the interaction between members is part of the treatment rather than a side effect of it. It has been the backbone of addiction care for decades, and for good reason. Substance use disorders thrive in isolation and secrecy. Sitting with people who have the same problem and being heard in return does something individual counseling alone cannot: it makes the problem ordinary, speakable, and shared.
Groups here are led by licensed alcohol and drug counselors and blend several kinds of work. Some of a session is psychoeducation, where the facilitator teaches something concrete: how cravings rise and fall, what a cognitive distortion is, how sleep and mood interact. Some is skills practice drawn from cognitive behavioral therapy, DBT skills, and acceptance and commitment therapy, rehearsed out loud with people who will ask you how it went. And some is process, the open part where members talk about the week, the slip, or the win, and get honest responses from people who are not paid to be nice to them.
Because most people who come to Northwoods Haven Recovery are also living with a mental health condition such as depression, anxiety, trauma and PTSD, bipolar disorder, or ADHD, mental health education is built into group rather than handled separately. You learn how your anxiety and your drinking feed each other in the same room where you learn what to do about both. Group is also where a trauma-informed approach shows up most visibly: the facilitator sets the pace, nobody is confronted, and you decide what you share and when.
How it fits here
Group therapy is the main format at both levels of care, paired with individual counseling with your own counselor. You do not choose group or individual. Every therapy we use, CBT, DBT skills, acceptance and commitment therapy, and motivational interviewing, is taught inside both.
Our space
Inside our outpatient treatment center in Hopkins, Minnesota
A safe haven should feel like one. Our suite on Green Oak Drive looks out over water and trees, and the rooms where groups meet were built to feel calm, comfortable, and homey. Not clinical, not institutional. You are more than your diagnosis here, and the space is meant to say so before anyone does.
The lounge
Where people land and catch their breath before group.
The group room
Three hours a day, in a circle, with people who understand.
The view
Water and treeline out every window: the northwoods, in the metro.
Another Group Room
Three hours a day, in a circle, with people who understand.
Quiet corners
Somewhere to sit with a thing before you say it out loud.
Room to breathe
Daylight and treeline out every window. No clinical fluorescence.
What a session looks like
What three hours of group actually contains
Every group has a shape. Knowing it ahead of time takes some of the fear out of the first one.
Practice
Check-in
Each person says briefly how the week went, whether they used, and what they need from the room today. It can be one sentence. It is the part that keeps everyone honest with themselves.
Skill
Teaching
The facilitator introduces a topic, such as a CBT tool for a craving, a DBT distress tolerance skill, or how depression and substance use interact, with time to try it rather than just hear about it.
Group
Process
The open stretch where members respond to each other. You can bring something or listen. Feedback follows norms the group agrees to: honest, specific, and never contemptuous. Cross-talk is guided.
Homework
Between sessions
Something small to try before the next group: notice a trigger, use a skill once, have a conversation you have been avoiding. Next check-in, you report back, and the room notices whether you did.
What it helps with
What group therapy helps with, and what the research says
Group therapy works for the full range of substance use disorders, from alcohol, the most common reason people come here, to opioids, stimulants, cannabis, and prescription medications. It is often where co-occurring depression, anxiety, and trauma get addressed most naturally, because hearing someone else describe the same inside experience breaks the shame that keeps people quiet. It suits people who have been isolated by their use, people whose social life was built around drinking or using, and people who have relapsed before and know that private resolve did not hold.
The research on group treatment for addiction is consistent where it matters: group therapy is at least as effective as individual therapy for substance use outcomes, and it is where several of the ingredients known to drive recovery live. Belonging, the discovery that you are not uniquely broken, the chance to practice being honest and to watch others do it, and the pull of people who expect you back next week are not soft benefits. They are the mechanism. The same cohort each session matters, too: groups that stay together build trust that drop-in groups do not.
Group has limits. It is not the right first step for someone in active alcohol or benzodiazepine withdrawal, who needs medical care before any therapy, or for someone whose needs are primarily mental health with no substance use diagnosis, who will do better in a program built for that. Some things belong in individual counseling rather than group, and your counselor is there for exactly that. And group asks something of you: showing up, staying, and eventually speaking. Most people find that far less frightening than expected once they have watched how the room treats the person talking.
Not sure this is for you?
Almost everyone dreads group before the first session and almost nobody wants to give it up by the last. If trauma is part of your history, the way groups here are run, with safety, predictability, and no forced disclosure, was designed with you in mind.
Who it is for
Group therapy is probably right for you if you
- Have tried to stop on your own, or with a weekly individual therapist, and found that private resolve did not hold
- Feel isolated by your use, or built your social life around drinking or using and need a new set of people
- Want honest feedback from people who have been where you are, not only from a professional
- Are also living with depression, anxiety, trauma, or ADHD and want to learn how the two interact alongside others doing the same
- Are anxious about talking in front of others and want a room where the pace is yours to set
Not sure yet
A comprehensive assessment answers it.
You do not sign up for group therapy directly. A chemical use assessment with a licensed alcohol and drug counselor determines your diagnosis, its severity, and the level of care that fits, here or somewhere better suited to you. Group is the main format at both levels of care here. If you already have a recent assessment, send it over and we will review it instead of repeating it.
For families
About half our calls are from someone else.
You can ask a question without committing anyone to anything, and family involvement is part of the work when the client wants it.
How it shows up
Where group therapy appears at each step of care
Group is the constant. The hours per week change as you step down; the people, the counselors, and the norms stay the same.
Step one
Chemical use assessment
An individual conversation with a licensed counselor, not a group. It determines your diagnosis and level of care, and it is where you can raise any worry about group before you walk into one.
Where everyone starts
Most people start here
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
Three-hour groups most programming days with the same cohort, plus individual counseling with your own counselor. This is where the bulk of group work happens, for about two to four months.
Explore IOP →
Then
Relapse Prevention Program
Ten to twelve weeks of lighter group time with the same counselors and a written relapse prevention plan. The group becomes the place you test your plan against real weeks.
Explore relapse prevention →
Therapies
Evidence-based addiction therapies, taught as options, not prescriptions.
We’ll walk you through every approach we use and why, then build your plan around the ones that fit your beliefs and your life. No single pathway, no ideology, no judgment.
Cognitive behavioral therapy
Find the thought patterns that drive use, and learn to interrupt them.
Dialectical behavior therapy
Skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and hard relationships.
Acceptance & commitment therapy
Move toward what you actually value, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Motivational interviewing
Your reasons for changing, in your words. Nobody lectures you here.
Individual counseling
Your own licensed counselor, where the plan gets built and adjusted.
Group therapy
Three hours a day with people who know the terrain you’re crossing.
Addiction counseling
One-on-one counseling with your own chemical dependency counselor.
Trauma-informed care
Care that accounts for what happened to you, not what’s wrong with you.
Relapse prevention and aftercare planning run through every level of care rather than sitting off to the side, and whole-person care means mental health psychoeducation happens alongside all of it.
Therapies
Evidence-based therapies we use, taught as options
Seven approaches, one plan built with you. Your counselor teaches you what each one does and you decide what belongs in your recovery lifestyle.
Catch the thought that comes before the drink or the drug, test it, and practice a different move before Friday.
Skills for intense emotion, urges, and relationships: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness.
Make room for the craving or the feeling without acting on it, and build a life around what you value.
Find your own reasons to change, at your own pace. Includes motivational enhancement therapy, the structured short form.
The same people each session, so accountability is real. Where most of the traction in outpatient treatment comes from.
Every group and session run on predictability, choice, and safety, because most people carry something older than the substance.
Mental health, relationships, work, and purpose treated as one picture, with a recovery lifestyle you define.
You do not choose a therapy from a menu. Your counselor teaches you all of them as options and the plan uses what works for you.
Assessments and services
Assessments and services that get you into the right care
Everything begins with an assessment. These are the services around our two levels of outpatient care.
The hour that turns a worry into a diagnosis and a level of care. Where everyone starts.
A clinical evaluation for Minnesota DWI court, probation, and licensing requirements, with written documentation.
Individual counseling with your own licensed alcohol and drug counselor, inside every level of care here.
Paying for treatment
Insurance-covered addiction treatment that's accessible to anyone who wants it.
Medicaid was the first network we joined, on purpose. We’re also in-network with major commercial plans. We’ll verify your benefits and tell you plainly what your plan covers before you commit to anything.
Minnesota Medicaid
Blue Cross Blue Shield
HealthPartners
UnitedHealthcare
Medica
Hennepin Health
Private pay accepted
Not listed? Call and we'll check.
Common questions
Questions people ask about group therapy
If yours is not here, ask us directly. We would rather tell you honestly that we are not the right fit than have you find out later.
LegitScript Certified
Verified addiction treatment provider
Do I have to talk in group?
Not before you are ready. You will be asked to check in each session, which can be a single sentence, and to take part as you are able. Nobody has to tell their whole story on day one, and nobody is confronted or put on the spot. Most people find their voice within the first few sessions once they see how the room treats whoever is speaking.
Is what I say in group confidential?
Yes. Group members agree to confidentiality norms at the start: what is shared in the room stays in the room, and members do not discuss each other outside it. Facilitators are licensed counselors bound by professional confidentiality and federal privacy rules for substance use treatment records. The exceptions are the standard ones: imminent danger to yourself or someone else, and situations the law requires be reported.
How big are the groups, and are they the same people each time?
Groups are small, and the cohort stays consistent, so you see the same faces each session rather than a rotating drop-in crowd. That continuity is deliberate. Trust and accountability build over weeks, and both depend on people knowing each other.
Is group therapy as effective as individual therapy for addiction?
For substance use outcomes, group therapy is at least as effective as individual therapy, and it delivers things individual sessions cannot: belonging, honest feedback from peers, and the pull of people who expect you back. That is why group is the main format here, paired with individual counseling for what belongs in private.
What if I know someone in my group?
Tell your counselor. In a metro the size of the Twin Cities it happens, and there are ways to handle it, from a conversation about boundaries to a different group schedule when one is available. Confidentiality norms apply either way.
Is group therapy the same as a 12-step meeting?
No. A 12-step meeting is peer-run mutual support, free, and open-ended. Group therapy is clinical treatment led by a licensed counselor, with teaching, skills practice, and structured feedback, delivered as part of a treatment plan. Many people do both, and we are inclusive of every recovery approach, including those that are not 12-step based.
How many group sessions will I have?
In the Intensive Outpatient Program, three-hour groups run most programming days for about two to four months. The Relapse Prevention Program that follows is ten to twelve weeks of lighter group time with the same counselors. Your plan is reviewed as you go, so the total reflects your progress rather than a fixed package.
Does insurance cover group therapy for addiction?
Yes. Group therapy is the core of the outpatient programs we provide, and Northwoods Haven Recovery is in-network with Minnesota Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield, HealthPartners, UnitedHealthcare, and Medica. Give us your plan information on the first call and we will verify your benefits.
Your team
Meet the counselors who answer the phone and guide your treatment.
Getting started
How to get started: four steps, no waiting eleven days.
Reaching out doesn’t commit you to anything. It means you asked a question, and we answered it.
01
Call
We listen to what’s going on and where you are in the process. No script, no pressure.
02
Chemical use assessment
A comprehensive assessment to determine diagnosis and the level of care that fits.
03
Referral to the right care
Ideally with us. If another program fits you better, we’ll connect you to it.
04
Intake
Programming starts immediately after intake. Already have an assessment? Send it over and we’ll review it.
Take the first step
When you're ready, we're here.
Reaching out doesn’t mean you’ve committed to anything. It means you’re asking a question, and we’ll answer it honestly, even if the answer points somewhere else.
100% confidential
Insurance verified fast
No commitment to ask
Outpatient only
Referring professionals
Send a comprehensive assessment, plus treatment plan reviews, discharge summary, med list, and insurance information if applicable. A list, not a portal.
Visit us in Hopkins
Northwoods Haven Recovery
5900 Green Oak Drive, Ste 306
Hopkins, MN 55343