Child and Adolescent Groups at the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health help young people overcome challenges so they can enjoy fuller lives and experience brighter futures. Led by experienced clinicians, each group addresses a specific social or emotional need and age group. Some groups feature discussion, while others focus on play. All provide a safe environment where children and teens can express their concerns and develop life-enhancing skills. If you are interested in learning more about one of the groups listed below, please contact our Intake Team at 617-860-2084 or complete our Intake Form.
Groups Fall 2024 – Spring 2025
Fall 2024 groups are all in person and begin the week of Sept. 16.
Sprouting Skills: K-1st Grade, Gender Inclusive
This group welcomes K-1st graders needing support with social skills and emotional regulation. We’ll use collaborative play, mindfulness, and expressive arts to build strategies that children can use to foster connection and manage big feelings across settings. Group will provide a structured, therapeutic environment in which members can try new activities, make new friends, build up their self-confidence, and fill up their toolbox with coping skills to support their well-being at home, in school, and in the community. This group will serve as both a compliment to individual therapy and as an introduction to services at the Brookline Center.
Mondays, 3:00-3:45pm
Setting: In Person
Friends and Feelings: 2nd-4th Grade, Gender Inclusive
This group focuses on emotional regulation/expression, interpersonal skills, and self-esteem building through play and conversation. Topics discussed will cater to the current needs of group members and will be most relevant to third and fourth graders, such as conflict with peers, family issues, and concerns about school.
Mondays, 4:00 – 4:45pm
Setting: In Person
Survival Skills: 2nd-4th Grade, Gender Inclusive
Survival Skills is a CBT based group focused on concrete skill building around mood and emotional regulation and stress and anxiety management within a therapeutically scaffolded social environment. Members will practice strategies that help them survive and thrive in tough, everyday situations.
Thursdays, 4:00 – 4:45pm
Setting: In Person
Process & Play: 3rd-5th Grade, Gender Inclusive
This group will serve as both a complement to individual therapy and as an introduction to services at the Brookline Center for 3rd-5th graders needing support with social skills, coping skills, and emotional regulation. The group will use yoga, movement, play, mindfulness, and skills-building activities to build both self and interpersonal awareness and foster greater confidence in school, family, and social settings.
Tuesdays, 4:00 – 4:50pm
Setting: In Person
Friendship and Self-Regulation: 4th – 6th Grade Females
This group focuses on helping young girls build skills to develop friendships, and to better manage feelings, fears, and frustrations that arise during social interactions. Using a combination of unstructured play and skill-building activities, this group serves to increase members’ self-confidence in social situations and adding tools to their toolbox to better manage their emotions and behavior in the moment (while having fun in the process!).
Tuesdays, 5:00 – 5:50pm
Setting: In Person
SPARX (Supporting Play And Relational ConneXion): 4th – 6th Grade Males
This group seeks to facilitate peer interactions and bolster social skill development in boys who present as neuro-diverse, including those diagnosed with, or suspected to have, Autism Spectrum Disorder or other neurocognitive difficulties. Using a combination of play-based interventions and behavioral approaches, this group fosters social reciprocity and cooperative play skills through in-the-moment practice during play, where these skills are often most needed and hardest to use.
Mondays, 3:00 – 3:45pm
Setting: In Person
Awareness, Activities… Action! 4th – 6th Grade Males
This group focuses on helping boys build skills to develop emotion regulation and behavioral control in order to better manage feelings, reactions, and frustrations that come up during social interactions. Using a combination of unstructured play/movement and skill-building activities, this group serves to increase members’ awareness and choices in social situations and adding tools to their toolbox to better manage their emotions and behavior in the moment (with some fun games and movement in the process!).
Wednesdays, 4:00 – 4:45pm
Setting: In Person
Power Up! 6th – 8th Grade Male or Nonbinary
This is a therapeutic group for male or non-binary identified middle schoolers seeking to connect with peers. This group explores and experiments with various ways participants can be powerful – through effective communication, positive relationships, mindfulness, and more. In the context of peer interactions, participants will learn to use their power to boost their positive experiences day-to-day. Group activities include emotion check ins, peer discussion, and activities like whole group game play.
Mondays, 4:00 – 4:45pm
Setting: In Person
Cope and Connect: 6th-8th Grade Females
This is a group for girls seeking to increase their skills to cope with difficult feelings and circumstances. Using a combination of therapeutic activities and connective conversations, the group will focus on helping members relate to one another, believe in themselves, and build on their own strengths. Activities include processing conversations and check ins, expressive arts, coping strategies practice, group gameplay, and watching relevant movie clips together.
Wednesdays, 4:00 – 4:45pm
Setting: In Person
Middle School LGBTQ+ Group: 6th-8th Grade
This is a group for middle school aged young people with expansive gender identities (transgender, agender, gender non-binary, genderqueer, or genderfluid) or who are exploring these possibilities. This group will provide a space to explore personal gender identity, delve into gender as a construct, and seek support for gender-related stress. This group is open and flexible to the ways gender interacts and intersects with other parts of young people’s lives, such as sexual orientation, social and educational goals, family dynamics, etc., and may include skills training in order to meet group members’ needs.
Wednesdays, 5:00 – 5:50pm
Setting: In Person
High School Gender Exploration Group: 9th-12th Grade
This is a group for young people who are gender questioning or who identify outside of the gender binary (including, but not limited to, those who identify as transgender, agender, gender non-binary, genderqueer, or genderfluid). This group will provide a space for adolescents of all genders to explore their own gender identities, delve into gender as a construct, and seek support for gender-related stress. It will be primarily a process group but, like gender, the structure can be flexible and may incorporate skills training in order to meet group members’ needs.
Wednesdays, 5:00 – 5:50pm
Setting: In Person
Adolescent DBT Group: 9th-12th Grade, Gender-Inclusive
This group is for adolescents seeking additional support around mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance skills, and compliments individual therapy well. The focus of the group will be to provide a space for instruction and practice of DBT skills through direct review, games, and multimedia. The space also will function to process students’ practice of these skills outside of the group space and emotional or situational experiences that they are comfortable sharing with the group.
Wednesdays, 6:00 – 6:50pm
Setting: In Person