PEERS® Social Skills Groups
Evidence-Based Programs
For nearly two decades, PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) has been researched and developed at UCLA. PEERS® groups are focused on helping you build your own social life in the real world. Teens and young adults learn and practice social skills together; in a separate group, parents & caregivers learn how to support them effectively.
Make & Keep Friends
PEERS® is a 16-week interactive class for teens, young adults, and their parents and caregivers. Above all, we focus on learning how to make and keep friends. The lessons and skills we cover include:
- how to have good back-and-forth conversations
- how to start and join conversations with new people
- how to choose (and find!) friends who are a good fit for you
- how to use electronic communication safely and effectively
- how to use humor appropriately
- how to have fun, successful get-togethers
- how to handle challenging situations like conflict or bullying
- dating skills (young adult program only)
These Skills Work in the Real World
The skills we teach are "ecologically valid," which is a research term meaning the skills we teach come from the real world and work in the real world. In order to figure out what skills to teach, researchers observed real interactions between real people. Then, researchers tested these skills in the real world again to make sure they work. These skills are "tried and true," and they remain useful throughout adulthood.
Social Skills are NOT Mysterious
Social skills are like any other skill - cooking, juggling, playing a sport or musical instrument - the more you learn and practice, the better you will get. Every week, we will learn new skills and practice them together. We will also give brief assignments each week to practice skills at home and use them in the real world. Practice includes role plays, games, and other structured activities that give group members an opportunity to try out the skills for themselves. Our typical student-teacher ratio is 1:2 or 1:3, so group members will also receive extensive guidance, support, and feedback from our passionate, qualified team of group leaders and co-facilitators. All group leaders are fully trained and certified in the facilitation of PEERS® programs through the Semel Institute at UCLA.
Support for Parents & Caregivers
Parents and caregivers will meet in their own group at the same time their teens and young adults are meeting. Every teen or young adult who joins our program will have a parent or caregiver join this group. To start, we will teach you the same lesson the teens and young adults are learning each week, so you will stay caught up with the skills they're working on. From there, we will discuss how to be an effective "social coach" for your teen or young adult, supporting them with learning and utilizing these social skills. As a social coach, we will ask you to practice skills at home with your teen or young adult, give them feedback to help them improve, and help them think through how to apply these skills in their everyday lives.
What Teens & Young Adults Like to Know
It's about your own life and your own goals
Like any class, you will get out of it what you put into it. If you would like to make and keep friends, improve your social life, and feel more aware and confident in social situations, PEERS® can help.
It's about active participation
We don't expect you to just listen to us lecture. PEERS® is an engaging, interactive program that combines individualized attention, group activities, and lively discussions about what skills work, why they work, and how to use them in the real world. We teach new skills using the "Socratic method," which involves lots of questions and keeping everyone engaged.
It's not like "therapy"
We won't ever put you on the spot in front of the group to talk about difficult feelings or events in your life. Instead, it will feel more like an activities-based class, where we will focus on learning, practicing, and using the social skills.
It's about meeting you wherever you're at
We know you already have social skills. We will help you (1) understand what you're already doing that's working, (2) fill in the gaps with whatever might help you get better at friendships and relationships, and (3) take your social life to the next level by learning to maintain and deepen your friendships and relationships.
It's about improving your own social life
We are not trying to set you up with other friends in the group. We are focused on trying to help you improve your own social life outside the group.
It's about being yourself
We don't want you to "mask" or change your personality to "fit in." We don't expect you or even want you to suddenly become really popular or outgoing, if that's not your personality. We want to help you have authentic friendships that work for you as a unique individual.
It's about the rest of your life
If you engage with this program, participate, and do the work, you will see real changes and improvements in just 16 weeks. But you won't be perfect. None of us will ever be "perfect" socially, so hopefully that means we are all working on ourselves and our relationships throughout our lives. At the end of 16 weeks, when you complete our program, we want you to feel like we've helped you prepare to continue developing and working on these skills however you may need or want moving forward.