How Group Therapy Can Help Women Prepare for Endometriosis Excision Surgery
Preparing for endometriosis excision surgery is not just a medical process-it is emotionally taxing and can take a toll. It is completely normal to be nervous before endometriosis excision surgery, or any surgery for that matter. But many women find themselves at excision surgery after many years of physical pain, medical gaslighting and misdiagnoses.
The good news? You don’t have to prepare for this by yourself. Group therapy, led by a mental health counselor who understands the toll of endometriosis, is a safe space to explore your worries and fears with women who understand. Gain tangible tools to help become ready for endometriosis excision surgery and beyond.
Reduce Your Pre-Surgical Anxiety
It is normal for you to feel nervous before endometriosis excision surgery. You may be asking yourself:
“Will the surgery work?”
“What if they don’t find anything?”
“What is my recovery like?”
In our group, you won’t be alone with these questions. Everyone will be wondering the same thing. Not only do others understand your fears, but you will all gain third wave therapy tools rooted in CBT, DBT and ACT to help manage anticipatory anxiety.
Break the Isolation of Endometriosis
Endometriosis can feel so isolating. Even well meaning family or friends may not completely understand what you are experiencing. You may feel repeatedly dismissed by medical providers. You may be grieving your old life.
Group therapy creates a shared space where everyone just “gets” it. This shared experience builds connection, reduces feelings of loneliness and helps you feel like there is a place you belong. This connection can serve you both before and after excision surgery.
Processing Medical Trauma
By the time many women reach excision surgery, they’ve experienced some form of medical trauma. This can include years-delayed diagnosis, painful and invasive procedures, invalidation by doctors or years of feeling dismissed.
These experiences don’t just disappear—they often show up as difficulty trusting your providers, heightened fear around surgery and hypervigilance about your symptoms.
Group therapy provides a safe space to process these experiences and begin rebuilding a sense of safety in the body and within medical care.
Learning What to Expect (From People Who’ve Been There)
One of the most valuable aspects of group therapy is peer insight. Women who have already undergone excision surgery can share their experiences, realistic recovery timelines, what helped (and what didn’t) and how they navigated setbacks.
This kind of lived experience fills in the gaps that medical appointments often can’t cover.
It also helps shift expectations from:
“I should bounce back quickly”
to
“Recovery is a process—and I can prepare for that.”
Building a Mental Health Toolkit for Recovery
Surgery is just one part of the journey. Recovery can include pain flares, increased fatigue, emotional ups and downs and adjusting to a “new normal”.
Group therapy helps you build skills before surgery so you’re not starting from scratch afterward.
You’ll gain third wave therapeutic tools to help you thrive both before and after surgery, including pacing and activity regulation, healthy distress tolerance tools, down regulation tools and mindfulness exercisies. Having these tools in place can make recovery feel more manageable and less overwhelming.
Reclaiming a Sense of Agency
Endometriosis often leaves women feeling out of control in their own bodies. Surgery can feel like both a hopeful step and a surrender. Group therapy helps shift that dynamic. Recognizing that you are making informed decisions, preparing emotionally and connecting with others, you begin to move from a place of reacting to a place of actively participating in your care.
You don’t have a choice in living with endometriosis-but you do have a choice in how you cope, live and thrive.
Holding Space for Both Hope and Complexity
Excision surgery is the “gold standard” of care for endometriosis—and for many, it can be life-changing. But it’s also important to hold space for a full range of outcomes and emotions.
Group therapy allows for both:
hope and optimism
fear and uncertainty
Without forcing one narrative.
This balanced perspective can protect against all-or-nothing thinking, disappointment if recovery isn’t linear or pressure to feel a certain way.
Preparing for endometriosis excision surgery isn’t just about getting through the procedure—it’s about supporting your whole self through a major life experience.
Group therapy offers connection, validation, practical tools and emotional preparation, at a time when all of those things matter deeply.
You don’t have to go into surgery—or recovery—alone.
Online Group Therapy for Women with Endometriosis in New York
A warm, compassionate and integrative therapeutic approach is what we pride ourselves on at our practice. At our New York City office with a team of skilled therapists, we are here to provide support. Follow the steps below to get started on your journey to healing.
Learn more about our team here.
Fill out our convenient online mental health services contact form.
Start your journey to healing.
Mental Health Services Offered by New York Women’s CBT
New YorkWomen’s CBT has compassionate, niched experts ready to help you continue to chase your dreams while living with chronic pelvic pain. We offer both individual and group therapy for women living with chronic illness and chronic pain. Gain tools using an integrative therapeutic approach, blending CBT, DBT and ACT techniques. Meet our New York City based team and check out our blogs and vlogs for more helpful information. Reach out for your free phone consultation and get support to keep achieving your dreams.