Free Cancer Support Groups - Minnetonka, MN | Gilda's Club
Gilda’s Club Minnesota provides free support for anyone impacted by cancer — people with a diagnosis, people past treatment, caregivers, family, and friends. Membership costs nothing and is open to everyone. The clubhouse in Minnetonka hosts more than 18 weekly support groups facilitated by licensed mental health professionals, alongside art therapy, education, healthy lifestyle programming, and social opportunities.
What to Expect
The weekly groups are ongoing, small (typically 8–10 members), and organized by circumstance rather than diagnosis or prognosis, which means you are grouped with people whose situation resembles yours rather than people who share a tumor type. Adult groups include Living with Cancer (any type, any stage, including chronic cancer or recurrence, or choosing no treatment), Young Adults Living with Cancer (ages 18–35), Family & Friends for those supporting an adult loved one, Living with Loss for adults grieving a death from cancer, Post-treatment for those moving into life beyond active treatment, and Art Therapy for people who want an alternative to talk-based groups. A monthly virtual drop-in, the Living with Chronic Cancer Group, meets every fourth Monday, 6:30–8:00 p.m. Specialty series run through the year, including Early-Stage Survivorship (six weeks), Meaning-Centered Support (eight weeks), and Redefining Identity. Outside peer-led groups including FORCE, Young Survival Coalition, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Blood Cancer Support Group also meet at the clubhouse.
Who This Group Is For
Anyone whose life has been touched by cancer, including the people who love someone with it. There are dedicated tracks for young adults, for caregivers, for the bereaved, and for children and teens. Weekly groups ask members to commit to attending regularly, so the room becomes familiar rather than a rotating cast.
Why Peer Support Works
Cancer reorganizes a person’s life faster than their relationships can adjust. Friends go quiet, well-meaning advice lands badly, and the emotional work of a diagnosis rarely ends when treatment does — which is why the post-treatment and chronic-cancer groups exist at all. A small, stable group of people in the same circumstance gives you somewhere to say the unpolished version out loud. Organizing by circumstance rather than diagnosis is a deliberate choice: what you need to talk about at three years out is shaped far more by where you are in life than by which cells were involved.
How to Join
Membership is free. To join a weekly support group you must first attend a New Member Meeting and create a Customized Membership Plan (CMP) — a one-to-one conversation with a licensed mental health professional to work out which parts of the program fit. Bi-weekly New Member Meetings can be booked through the Gilda’s Club website. To schedule a CMP, call 612-227-2147. The clubhouse is at 10560 Wayzata Blvd, Minnetonka, MN 55305. Gilda’s Club Minnesota is an affiliate of the Cancer Support Community.