Good group therapy activities for adults should give people something to do — not just another question to answer in a circle.
The best activities create a shared experience the group can then explore. Members might solve a problem, test a thought, practise a conversation, rank possible responses, move around the room, investigate a fictional case or try a coping strategy together.
Below are 30 group therapy activities for adults covering CBT, DBT, emotional regulation, coping skills, communication, boundaries, self-esteem and group connection.
Most require little preparation, and many can be adapted for anxiety, depression, emotional regulation, interpersonal skills and general mental health groups.
Quick answer: Effective adult group therapy activities include Common Ground, Values Auction, Thought Court, CBT Case Files, Behavioural Activation Bingo, Coping Skills Showdown, Regulation Stations, Boundary Role-Plays, Communication Switch, Strengths Detective and the Avoidance Experiment. Activities work particularly well when participants practise a skill rather than only discuss it.
30 Group Therapy Activities for Adults
- Common Ground Challenge
- Strengths Detective
- Values Auction
- Tiny Wins
- CBT Case Files
- Thought Court
- Same Situation, Different Thought
- Thought or Fact?
- Behavioural Activation Bingo
- The Prediction Test
- STOP Challenge
- Opposite Action Scenarios
- Coping Skills Showdown
- Regulation Stations
- Build a Distress Tolerance Menu
- Emotion Detective
- Body Clue Detective
- Break the Anger Chain
- Emotional Temperature Check
- Response Remix
- Boundary Pushback Role-Play
- Communication Style Switch
- DEAR MAN Challenge
- Advice Lab
- Problem-Solving Race
- The Avoidance Experiment
- Values Into Action
- Compassion Swap
- Teach the Group a Skill
- One Thing I'll Try
Group Therapy Icebreakers & Connection Activities
1. Common Ground Challenge
Best for: new groups, connection and reducing isolation
Time: 10–15 minutes
You need: nothing
Divide the group into teams of three or four.
Give them three minutes to find five things everyone in their team has in common.
Ban the obvious answers:
“We're all adults.”
“We're all in this room.”
“We all have phones.”
Instead, encourage things such as:
“We've all procrastinated on an important task.”
“We all like being near water.”
“We've all taught ourselves something from the internet.”
“We've all worried about a conversation before it happened.”
When time is up, each team shares its most unexpected similarity.
Then give them a second challenge:
Find one experience, strength or difficulty you have in common that you didn't expect.
Debrief: “What changed once you had to move beyond the obvious similarities?”
2. Strengths Detective
Best for: self-esteem and strengths-based groups
Time: 15 minutes
You need: paper
Tell members they aren't allowed to simply announce a strength.
They have to provide evidence.
Start with:
“Someone notices their colleague is overwhelmed and offers to help them finish a task.”
Ask:
“What strengths could that behaviour demonstrate?”
Possible answers include:
kindness, awareness, teamwork, reliability.
Now members anonymously write something they've done recently.
Examples:
“I made a phone call I'd been avoiding.”
“I kept trying to learn something even though I wasn't good at it.”
“I checked on a friend.”
Mix up the cards.
The group becomes the detective team and identifies possible strengths behind each action.
Debrief: “Was it easier to recognise a strength when you could see the behaviour behind it?”
3. Values Auction
Best for: ACT, identity and values exploration
Time: 20–30 minutes
You need: pretend $100 budgets
Give every member $100 of imaginary money.
Auction values such as:
- connection
- adventure
- security
- creativity
- achievement
- kindness
- independence
- learning
- family
- health
- fun
- contribution
Members can't afford everything.
If someone spends $60 on connection, they have only $40 remaining.
Encourage bidding between members.
Afterward ask:
“What did you spend the most on?”
“What were you surprised you didn't buy?”
“Which value was hardest to let somebody else have?”
Then make the activity practical:
“What would spending five minutes on that value look like in real life this week?”
4. Tiny Wins
Best for: low mood, self-esteem and recognising progress
Time: 10–15 minutes
Write:
WHAT COUNTS AS A WIN?
Tell members you're going to make the definition deliberately small.
Give examples:
Got out of bed.
Sent the email.
Didn't cancel.
Took medication as planned.
Made dinner.
Said no.
Asked for help.
Everyone anonymously contributes one tiny win.
Read them aloud and ask:
“What did this require?”
A seemingly small action might have required persistence, courage, planning or self-control.
Debrief: “What happens when our definition of progress is so large that ordinary progress doesn't count?”
CBT Group Therapy Activities for Adults
5. CBT Case Files
Best for: introducing the CBT model
Time: 20–25 minutes
You need: short fictional scenarios
Split the group into investigation teams.
Give each team a case:
“Priya sends a message to a friend. Several hours pass without a reply. She checks her phone repeatedly and eventually decides not to attend plans they made for the weekend.”
The team's job is to identify:
The situation
Possible automatic thought
Emotion
Body response
Behaviour
But there is a catch:
They must generate at least three possible automatic thoughts.
For example:
“They're annoyed with me.”
“Something might have happened.”
“They're probably busy.”
Compare how each interpretation could change what happens next.
Debrief: “Which part of the case was fact, and which parts did we have to infer?”
6. Thought Court
Best for: cognitive restructuring
Time: 20–30 minutes
Put one thought on trial:
“I always mess everything up.”
Divide the group into:
Prosecution — evidence supporting the thought.
Defence — evidence that doesn't fit it.
Jury — responsible for writing the most evidence-based verdict.
Give the teams fictional evidence:
Made an error at work.
Successfully finished three other projects.
Forgot a friend's birthday.
Helped organise a family event.
Failed one exam.
Passed four others.
The jury cannot return:
“Everything is amazing!”
It must produce an accurate verdict.
For example:
“This person sometimes makes mistakes, but the evidence doesn't support the conclusion that they always mess everything up.”
7. Same Situation, Different Thought
Best for: demonstrating the role of interpretation
Time: 15 minutes
Give everyone exactly the same situation:
“Your manager says, ‘Can you come into my office?’”
In pairs, generate four possible interpretations.
For each thought, add:
emotion → likely behaviour.
For example:
“I'm getting fired.” → anxiety → mentally replay recent mistakes.
“They want an update.” → neutral → gather project notes.
“Maybe I'm getting offered something.” → excitement → walk in curious.
Nobody needs to decide which interpretation is correct.
That's the point.
Debrief: “What does this tell us about the difference between an event and our interpretation of it?”
8. Thought or Fact?
Best for: automatic thoughts and cognitive defusion
Time: 15 minutes
Read statements aloud.
Members vote:
FACT or INTERPRETATION.
Examples:
“My friend hasn't replied in six hours.” — Fact.
“My friend is ignoring me.” — Interpretation.
“Three people looked at me when I walked in.” — Fact.
“Everyone thought I looked ridiculous.” — Interpretation.
“I didn't get the job.” — Fact.
“I'll never find a job.” — Prediction.
Then make the examples deliberately harder.
Debrief: “Can an interpretation be reasonable without being a confirmed fact?”
9. Behavioural Activation Bingo
Best for: depression, low motivation and withdrawal
Time: 15 minutes to set up + between-session challenge
Create a bingo grid with small activities.
Include a mixture of:
Pleasure: listen to a favourite song.
Mastery: complete one small unfinished task.
Connection: send somebody a message.
Movement: walk for five minutes.
Routine: shower and get dressed.
Environment: clear one surface.
Members choose which squares actually fit their circumstances.
The goal for the week might be:
complete any three squares
rather than:
finish the entire board.
At the next group, compare:
motivation before → mood after.
This helps test the assumption that motivation always has to arrive before action.
10. The Prediction Test
Best for: anxiety and behavioural experiments
Time: 20 minutes
Give teams predictions such as:
“If I ask for help, they'll think I'm incompetent.”
“If I say no, the person will be furious.”
“If I go to the event and feel awkward, I won't cope.”
Teams must design an experiment.
They answer:
What exactly are we predicting?
How could we test it safely?
What would we observe?
What result would support the prediction?
What result would challenge it?
The goal is not to prove the thought wrong.
The goal is to collect better information.
DBT & Coping Skills Group Activities
11. STOP Challenge
Best for: DBT and impulse control
Time: 15–20 minutes
Give the group fast-moving situations:
An angry text arrives.
Someone criticises you during a meeting.
You realise you've made an expensive mistake.
A family member brings up the same argument again.
Teams have 60 seconds to work through:
STOP
TAKE A STEP BACK
OBSERVE
PROCEED MINDFULLY
Then introduce a complication.
For example:
“The person sends another message.”
Ask:
“Does your plan change?”
This turns STOP into a decision-making skill rather than an acronym quiz.
12. Opposite Action Scenarios
Best for: DBT emotion regulation
Time: 20 minutes
Give each team an emotion and scenario.
Example:
Emotion: Shame.
Situation: You stumbled over your words during a presentation.
Urge: Avoid everyone afterward.
Teams decide:
Does the emotion fit the facts?
Is acting on the urge effective?
What might opposite action look like?
Then deliberately give a scenario where opposite action wouldn't be appropriate.
That forces the group to understand the skill rather than assuming:
“Always do the opposite of your emotion.”
13. Coping Skills Showdown
Best for: matching coping skills to situations
Time: 20–25 minutes
Write coping strategies on cards:
paced breathing
call someone
take a walk
problem solve
journal
use distraction
take a break
ask for help
grounding
Now reveal situations:
“You're panicking before a presentation.”
“You've received an overdue electricity bill.”
“You're furious after an argument.”
“You're lonely after cancelling plans all week.”
Teams choose the most useful strategy and defend their choice.
There doesn't always have to be one correct answer.
Debrief: “What makes a coping strategy helpful in one situation but less useful in another?”
14. Regulation Stations
Best for: experiential emotional regulation groups
Time: 20–30 minutes
Create several stations around the room.
For example:
Station 1: paced breathing.
Station 2: grounding through the senses.
Station 3: muscle release.
Station 4: gentle movement.
Station 5: orienting to the room.
Members spend two or three minutes trying each strategy.
After every station they privately rate:
Before: ___/10
After: ___/10
Would I use this again? Yes / Maybe / No
The point isn't to crown one regulation technique the winner.
It's to let people discover which strategies feel useful to their nervous system and circumstances.
15. Build a Distress Tolerance Menu
Best for: DBT and coping planning
Time: 20 minutes
Put four headings around the room:
1 MINUTE
5 MINUTES
20 MINUTES
NEED ANOTHER PERSON
Members move between stations adding coping ideas.
When finished, review the lists together.
Remove suggestions that are unsafe or unrealistic.
Then everyone creates a personal menu containing:
two very quick options
two longer options
one support option.
Debrief: “Which strategy are you most likely to remember when you're actually distressed?”
Emotional Regulation Group Activities for Adults
16. Emotion Detective
Best for: emotional awareness
Time: 15–20 minutes
Give the group clues without naming the emotion.
For example:
Thought: “This isn't fair.”
Body: jaw tight, body hot.
Urge: argue.
Behaviour: speaking faster and louder.
Ask:
“What emotion might be here?”
Anger is one possibility.
Then change one clue:
Thought: “They're going to realise I don't belong here.”
Now anxiety or shame might make more sense.
The activity demonstrates that emotions can be investigated through several sources of information rather than guessed from one clue.
17. Body Clue Detective
Best for: recognising escalation earlier
Time: 15 minutes
Give teams body clues:
Jaw tightening.
Shoulders rising.
Breathing speeding up.
Stomach dropping.
Hands becoming restless.
Ask them to generate:
three emotions that could potentially produce that sensation.
This prevents:
“Tight chest automatically means anxiety.”
Then members can privately identify their own common early clues.
Debrief: “What's one body signal you might be able to notice before an emotion reaches 9/10?”
18. Break the Anger Chain
Best for: anger management
Time: 20 minutes
Put a fictional anger chain on the board:
Someone interrupts → “They don't respect me” → face gets hot → urge to interrupt back → raise voice → argument.
Now challenge the group:
“How many different places can you break this chain?”
They might change:
Interpretation: “Maybe they're excited rather than deliberately disrespectful.”
Body response: notice heat and slow down.
Urge: notice it without acting immediately.
Response: “Hang on, I'd like to finish what I was saying.”
Award one point for every genuinely different intervention point.
Debrief: “Which intervention happens earliest in the chain?”
19. Emotional Temperature Check
Best for: escalation awareness
Time: 15–20 minutes
Draw a scale from:
0 — calm
to:
10 — overwhelmed.
Give teams one fictional person and ask them to describe what might change at:
3/10
5/10
7/10
9/10
Consider:
thoughts
body
speech
urges
behaviour.
Then ask:
“At what number would this person have the most options?”
This naturally introduces the value of responding earlier rather than waiting for crisis-level distress.
20. Response Remix
Best for: flexibility and impulse control
Time: 15–20 minutes
Give a situation:
“Someone makes a sarcastic comment about you.”
The group has 90 seconds to generate five possible responses.
For example:
Respond sarcastically.
Ask what they meant.
Say nothing.
Tell them directly you didn't like the comment.
Leave the conversation.
Now ask:
“What might happen immediately after each response?”
and:
“What might happen later?”
The goal isn't finding the universally correct response.
It's creating a gap between:
“I had an urge”
and:
“therefore I had only one option.”
Communication & Relationship Group Activities
21. Boundary Pushback Role-Play
Best for: boundaries and assertiveness
Time: 20–30 minutes
Give pairs a boundary situation:
A colleague asks you to take another shift.
A friend repeatedly calls late at night.
A family member asks a personal question you don't want to answer.
Person A states a boundary.
For example:
“I can't cover Saturday.”
Person B gives mild pushback:
“Seriously? I covered for you last month.”
Person A practises holding the boundary without writing a 12-minute defence.
Then switch roles.
Increase the difficulty only if appropriate.
Debrief: “What happened to your boundary once the other person didn't immediately accept it?”
22. Communication Style Switch
Best for: passive, aggressive and assertive communication
Time: 20 minutes
Give teams one scenario:
“Your friend is 45 minutes late again.”
They have to act out three versions.
PASSIVE
“No, it's completely fine.”
AGGRESSIVE
“You don't care about anyone except yourself.”
ASSERTIVE
“When you're this late without messaging, I get frustrated. If you're running late, please let me know.”
Then give the group a harder challenge:
Make the assertive version sound natural rather than scripted.
This is often where the real learning occurs.
23. DEAR MAN Challenge
Best for: DBT interpersonal effectiveness
Time: 25 minutes
Divide members into teams.
Give each a scenario requiring a request.
They have five minutes to construct a DEAR MAN response.
Then another team plays the other person.
After the first response, introduce realistic resistance:
“I don't see why this is such a big deal.”
“I can't do that.”
“You do the same thing.”
The original team has to maintain its objective.
Debrief: “Which part of the skill became hardest once there was pushback?”
24. Advice Lab
Best for: perspective taking and self-compassion
Time: 15–20 minutes
Give everyone the same fictional problem:
“Alex has made a mistake at work and can't stop thinking about it. They're convinced everyone now thinks they're incompetent.”
Members anonymously write what they'd tell Alex.
Read the responses.
Sort them into:
REASSURANCE
PROBLEM SOLVING
COMPASSION
PERSPECTIVE
INVALIDATION
Then ask:
“Which type of response would actually be useful?”
Finally:
“Which of these responses are easier to offer somebody else than yourself?”
25. Problem-Solving Race
Best for: overwhelm and flexible thinking
Time: 20 minutes
Give teams the same practical problem:
“You've committed to three things on Saturday and now realise you cannot realistically do all three.”
Round one:
Generate as many possible responses as you can in two minutes.
No evaluating yet.
Round two:
Sort responses into:
REALISTIC
POSSIBLE BUT COSTLY
UNLIKELY TO HELP
Round three:
Choose one and identify:
the smallest next action.
This separates generating solutions from judging them — useful for people who reject every idea before they've generated alternatives.
Behaviour Change & Reflection Activities
26. The Avoidance Experiment
Best for: anxiety and procrastination
Time: 20 minutes + optional between-session experiment
Give a scenario:
“Someone has been putting off checking their bank balance because they're anxious about what they'll see.”
Ask:
“What happens immediately when they avoid checking?”
Anxiety probably drops.
Then:
“What happens tomorrow?”
The problem remains.
Draw:
DISCOMFORT → AVOIDANCE → RELIEF → BIGGER PROBLEM → MORE DISCOMFORT
Now teams have to find the smallest possible interruption.
Not:
“Completely fix their finances tonight.”
Maybe:
Open the banking app and look at the balance.
Debrief: “Why does avoidance make sense in the short term even when it causes problems later?”
27. Values Into Action
Best for: ACT and behaviour change
Time: 15–20 minutes
Put values into a container:
connection
health
learning
creativity
courage
fun
contribution
A participant draws one.
The group has 60 seconds to generate five tiny behaviours that could express it.
For:
CONNECTION
they might suggest:
Send a message.
Eat dinner without the phone.
Ask somebody a real question.
Call a relative.
Invite somebody for coffee.
This teaches an important distinction:
values aren't tasks — but tasks can move us toward values.
28. Compassion Swap
Best for: self-criticism and perfectionism
Time: 15 minutes
Give everyone a fictional mistake:
“You forgot something important.”
Ask them to write:
What might your harshest inner critic say?
Then:
What would you say to someone you respect who made exactly the same mistake?
Compare the two.
Now create a third response:
kind + accurate + accountable.
For example:
Harsh: “I'm useless.”
Overly reassuring: “It doesn't matter at all.”
Balanced: “I forgot something important. I need to repair it, but one mistake doesn't define me.”
Debrief: “Can compassion and accountability exist in the same sentence?”
29. Teach the Group a Skill
Best for: confidence, connection and ending a programme
Time: 20–30 minutes
Ask members:
“What's something you could teach this group in three minutes?”
It does not need to be therapeutic.
Someone might teach:
a phone trick
a breathing technique
how to draw something
a stretch
how to make a particular meal
a memory trick.
Members volunteer to give their mini lesson.
This changes the group dynamic:
participants become people with knowledge to contribute, not only people receiving help.
Debrief: “What was it like being the person who knew something useful?”
30. One Thing I'll Try
Best for: closing any group session
Time: 5–10 minutes
Finish with one question:
“What's one thing from today that you could realistically try before we meet again?”
Then make every answer smaller.
“Communicate better.”
becomes:
“Tell my partner directly when I need ten minutes to cool down.”
“Use coping skills.”
becomes:
“Try two minutes of paced breathing before Thursday's meeting.”
“Work on boundaries.”
becomes:
“Don't immediately say yes when I'm asked to take an extra shift.”
Participants can write their action privately or share it.
Debrief: “Is this small enough that you can genuinely imagine yourself doing it?”
Group Therapy Activities for Adults With Anxiety
For anxiety groups, activities that involve testing predictions, recognising avoidance and separating facts from interpretations can be particularly useful.
Try:
- CBT Case Files
- Thought Court
- Thought or Fact?
- The Prediction Test
- Coping Skills Showdown
- Body Clue Detective
- The Avoidance Experiment
Whenever possible, move beyond simply talking about anxiety and give the group something they can test, observe or practise.
Group Therapy Activities for Adults With Depression
Useful activities include:
- Tiny Wins
- Strengths Detective
- Behavioural Activation Bingo
- Values Auction
- Values Into Action
- Teach the Group a Skill
- One Thing I'll Try
Keep activities achievable when energy is low. A five-minute action that actually happens can be more useful than an ambitious plan that stays on paper.
Group Therapy Activities for Emotional Regulation
Try:
- Regulation Stations
- Emotion Detective
- Body Clue Detective
- Break the Anger Chain
- Emotional Temperature Check
- Response Remix
- STOP Challenge
- Opposite Action Scenarios
These activities help members practise noticing what happens before an emotion becomes overwhelming, rather than treating regulation as something that only begins at 10/10.
No-Prep Group Therapy Activities for Adults
If you need something you can run with almost no preparation, try:
- Common Ground Challenge
- Tiny Wins
- Same Situation, Different Thought
- Thought or Fact?
- STOP Challenge
- Emotion Detective
- Response Remix
- Communication Style Switch
- Advice Lab
- One Thing I'll Try
A whiteboard and a few fictional scenarios are enough for most of these.
How to Choose a Group Therapy Activity
Start with the skill, not the activity.
Ask:
“What do I want group members to be better able to do by the end of this?”
If the answer is:
notice automatic thoughts → try CBT Case Files.
recognise escalation → try Emotional Temperature Check.
practise boundaries → try Boundary Pushback.
choose coping skills more intentionally → try Coping Skills Showdown.
take action despite low motivation → try Behavioural Activation Bingo.
identify values → try Values Auction.
The activity is the vehicle.
The therapeutic skill is the destination.
Want Printable Group Therapy Worksheets?
If you'd prefer structured printables to use alongside these activities, see our guide to 30 Group Therapy Worksheets for Adults.
It includes CBT, DBT, emotional regulation, boundaries, communication, values, coping and reflection worksheets, with instructions for using each one in a group.
Ultimate 30 Group Therapy Worksheets for Adults →
You can also use the Adult Group Therapy Workbook if you want the worksheets already formatted and ready to print.
View the Adult Group Therapy Workbook →
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some good group therapy activities for adults?
Good group therapy activities for adults include CBT Case Files, Thought Court, Behavioural Activation Bingo, Values Auction, Regulation Stations, Coping Skills Showdown, Boundary Role-Plays, Communication Style Switch, Strengths Detective and the Avoidance Experiment. Choose activities according to the skill your group needs to practise.
What are fun group therapy activities for adults?
Activities such as Values Auction, Thought Court, Coping Skills Showdown, Problem-Solving Race, Regulation Stations and Communication Style Switch add game or challenge elements while still practising a therapeutic skill. The activity should remain purposeful rather than becoming a game with a therapeutic question added at the end.
What are good mental health group activities for adults?
Useful mental health group activities include emotional awareness exercises, CBT activities, coping-skills practice, behavioural activation, communication role-plays, values exercises, problem-solving tasks and emotional regulation activities. The best choice depends on the group's goals and the needs of its members.
What can I do with an adult therapy group that doesn't want to talk?
Start with activities where talking is secondary to a shared task. Thought or Fact?, Regulation Stations, Values Auction, Behavioural Activation Bingo, card sorts, rating activities and fictional case challenges allow members to participate without immediately discussing personal experiences.
How do I make adult group therapy more engaging?
Replace some question-and-answer discussion with decisions, movement, experiments, role-play, scenarios, sorting tasks and collaborative problems. Give members something concrete to respond to before asking them to reflect on their own experience.
How long should a group therapy activity take?
Many group activities can run in 10–30 minutes. Allow additional time for reflection when the activity produces meaningful discussion, but don't assume every exercise needs a long debrief. Sometimes one useful question is enough.
Can these activities be used with group therapy worksheets?
Yes. Activities and worksheets can complement each other. For example, run Same Situation, Different Thought as a group activity and then use a CBT Triangle individually, or practise Boundary Pushback before members complete a personal boundary plan.
More Group Therapy Resources
30 Group Therapy Worksheets for Adults →
Adult group therapy doesn't need to be an hour of taking turns answering questions.
Give people something to investigate, choose, test, practise, build or solve together.
Then use what happens during the activity as the material for the therapeutic conversation.