Group Therapies

ASCO offers many different groups to help clients. Many of our groups require a referral from our clinicians and start on fixed dates. However, some of our groups are also open, and can be attended at any time. Please connect with our Intake Department or your ASCO clinician to explore groups that would best suit your needs.

ASCO offers the following groups:

Aftercare Group

This 8 week co-ed, semi structured group is for individuals who have been able to meet and maintain their recovery goals for at least three months. It is a closed group, however, previous members may join the next cycle if interested. An aftercare screening appointment will be completed by the co-facilitators to determine eligibility. The group does not follow a set week-by-week program and common topics discussed are relapse prevention skills, self-care, building healthy habits, stigma, gratitude, and more.

Court Support Group

The court support group is intended to meet the demands from clients who are involved with court or probation in York Region and South Simcoe. Many clients are mandated by the court and probation systems to attend services as part of their order and no other services meet the requirement. Clients may attend this group despite their stage of change. We recognize that many clients wish to attend services who may also be mandated and they have access to our regular programs. Clients who have completed this group may wish to be referred to ongoing support in another program at ASCO.

Education Group

The purpose of the 6-week Education Group is to provide participants with a supportive environment where they can acquire new information and awareness about their substance use, and learn about different topics that are important in recovery. This group is an open group with new members who are able to join each week. At the end of the cycle, participants who have completed all 6 sessions will receive a Certificate of Completion if they request one. This group is only open to primary clients at the agency, not family members.

Emotion Regulation Group

The group is designed to help individuals experiencing substance use issues who wish to learn skills to manage emotional distress, to live more fully in the present moment, to communicate and to express themselves effectively and to build relationship skills. Some of the topics of the groups are: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Urge Surfing, and Emotion Regulation.

Family & Friends Support Group

Participants will acquire a better understanding of what effective support looks like and how to support themselves in circumstances where their loved ones are experiencing addiction and other substance use problems.

Grief Support Group

Join us for a 9-week virtual group that will help you learn to cope with the death of a loved one. We will understand the journey that we all share when we lose someone close to us. We will learn about the bereavement process and have an opportunity to share how it has affected our experiences.

Journey to Self (Expressive Arts) Group

A Journey to Self through expressive arts: A safe space for those navigating the tender terrain of addiction, trauma, and development of the self. In this workshop, we invite clients to gently return to themselves through images, movement, sound and word. Here, the expressive arts become a mirror and a balm, offering a safe space to explore identity, release unspoken pain, and reconnect with inner truth. Together, we create without judgement, reflect without fear, and reimagine who we are beneath the survival stories. Guided by compassion and creativity, this is not just a workshop – it is a reclamation. A place where fragmented parts can come home, and the client’s voice can rise softly, courageously, to the surface and into the light. This workshop is currently running once a month for 3.5 hours each time, in-person at the Aurora main office.

Parent & Caregiver Education Group

This is an 8-week virtual educational group including two individualized meetings (at the beginning and end of each cycle) with trained addiction counsellors. For each group session, participants will be given the opportunity to join weekly virtual meetings to receive immediate support and feedback from other participants and the group facilitators.

Treatment Group

This 8-week therapeutic group is for individuals who are actively working towards their goals around substance use in a safe, supportive environment. The goal of the group is to teach skills related to control of substance use or abstinence, and it is structured and involves interpersonal sharing, giving feedback, and challenging one another to develop more constructive patterns of behaviour.