{"title":"Peer support groups through an experiential lens.","authors":"Sneha Agarwal, Udisha Maurya, Himanshu Kulkarni","doi":"10.1017/gmh.2025.10061","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Peer support groups are safe spaces that provide an emotionally and socially supportive environment to individuals, along with practical assistance. The three authors run a peer support group in New Delhi, India, for young adults who face mental health challenges. This study explores the processes of group formation, the nature of participant engagement and the evolving dynamics within the group setting. Drawing on firsthand reflections, the article highlights how peer support groups foster emotional safety, narrative autonomy and identity reconstruction through shared lived experiences. It also outlines the practical challenges of facilitation, including managing boundaries, maintaining group cohesion and adapting to diverse participant needs. The article concludes with mentioning arenas of further growth.</p>","PeriodicalId":48579,"journal":{"name":"Global Mental Health","volume":"12 ","pages":"e109"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12509155/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Mental Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2025.10061","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Peer support groups are safe spaces that provide an emotionally and socially supportive environment to individuals, along with practical assistance. The three authors run a peer support group in New Delhi, India, for young adults who face mental health challenges. This study explores the processes of group formation, the nature of participant engagement and the evolving dynamics within the group setting. Drawing on firsthand reflections, the article highlights how peer support groups foster emotional safety, narrative autonomy and identity reconstruction through shared lived experiences. It also outlines the practical challenges of facilitation, including managing boundaries, maintaining group cohesion and adapting to diverse participant needs. The article concludes with mentioning arenas of further growth.
期刊介绍：
lobal Mental Health (GMH) is an Open Access journal that publishes papers that have a broad application of ‘the global point of view’ of mental health issues. The field of ‘global mental health’ is still emerging, reflecting a movement of advocacy and associated research driven by an agenda to remedy longstanding treatment gaps and disparities in care, access, and capacity. But these efforts and goals are also driving a potential reframing of knowledge in powerful ways, and positioning a new disciplinary approach to mental health. GMH seeks to cultivate and grow this emerging distinct discipline of ‘global mental health’, and the new knowledge and paradigms that should come from it.
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