What are support groups?
Support groups bring together people facing similar challenges to share experience, listen, and feel less alone. They're not therapy in the clinical sense — most are peer-led or facilitated by a counselor — but they're often profoundly healing because of what they uniquely offer: hearing your own story in someone else's voice.
Some support groups are specific to a diagnosis or situation (eating disorders, postpartum depression, grief after suicide loss). Others are open to anyone navigating a category of difficulty (caregivers, parents of teens, those who have lost a spouse). Most are free or low-cost.
You don't have to talk if you don't want to. Many people attend a few sessions just listening before they share. Showing up is the work.
Within this category
Mental Health Support
Groups for people living with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, and other mental health conditions. NAMI runs many of these in Michigan.
Grief Support
Groups for people processing loss — partner, parent, child, friend, pet. Some are general, others are specific to type of loss (e.g., suicide loss, child loss).
Illness Support
Groups for people navigating chronic or serious illness — cancer, autoimmune, chronic pain. Often hospital-affiliated.
Disordered Eating Support
Peer support for anyone navigating a difficult relationship with food or their body. Often used alongside clinical treatment.
Addiction Recovery Support
Peer-led groups for people navigating addiction and recovery — including AA, NA, SMART Recovery, and others. Free, widely available, and often the first place people turn. No requirement to be sober to attend.
Parenting Support
Groups for parents — parents of neurodivergent kids, of teens, of kids with mental health concerns, of medically complex children, or just navigating the everyday hard parts of parenthood. Shared experience makes a real difference.
Lgbtq Support
Groups specifically for LGBTQ+ people. Some are identity-specific (trans support, queer youth), others are broader. Helpful for community, identity exploration, and processing minority stress.
Divorce Separation Support
Groups for people going through separation, divorce, or post-divorce recovery. Useful for processing the emotional side and navigating co-parenting, dating, and rebuilding.
Postpartum Support
Groups for new parents — covering postpartum depression and anxiety, identity shifts, sleep deprivation, and the ordinary disorientation of early parenthood. Often gender-specific (moms' groups, dads' groups).
Caregiver Support
Groups for people caring for aging parents, ill partners, or family members with disabilities or chronic conditions. Caregiver burnout is real; these groups address it head-on.
Veterans Military Support
Groups for veterans, active military, and military families. Focuses include PTSD, transition to civilian life, combat trauma, and family deployment stress.
Trauma Survivor Support
Groups for survivors of trauma — including assault, abuse, accidents, and complex/developmental trauma. Often work alongside individual therapy. Safety and pacing are central.
Other Support Groups
Other support groups not listed above — life transitions, niche identities, specific medical conditions, and more.
Things people ask
How is a support group different from group therapy?
Do I have to share my story?
How do I find the right group?
Are support groups free?
Find a support group near you
Browse support groups practices and practitioners across Michigan. Filter by location, specialty, and what feels right.