Clinical Group Reflection Paper

The topic chosen for this particular group therapy was self-care amongst college students. I chose this particular population due to the fact that I am in college and understand the importance of taking care of one’s self. As a college student certain times in the semester can be overwhelming causing students to stress frantically. Handling responsibilities such as internships, deadlines, homework, and final projects can become tiresome for a student. With such a high demand work schedule, students forget about the importance of keeping up their self-care. As a result, students are left feeling physically, emotionally, and mentally drained. Moreover, the most appropriate type of group would be an educational group. An educational group works with individuals in a group session by teaching a set of specific skills and techniques that can be utilized in a person’s life. As the educational facilitator of this group, I was able to educate the members in my session with specific tactics that can be applied in their college career. In brief, the three most important tactics to promote self-care are, managing stress, socializing, and maintaining an adequate diet.

This put the topic more towards forgiveness rather than anything else. The only topic discussed, as I recall, was forgiveness. Many members gave their accounts of moments in which they felt “sorry” and how they handled the situation. I will refrain from going into further detail about any of the members of the group to keep their anonymity. The meeting concluded with the “serenity prayer.” I was not familiar with this prayer so I just held the hands of those near me and bowed my head out of respect. Specific attendees of the meetings appeared more active and attentive than others. Some of them seemed as though they did not want to be there and looked miserable. About one or two of the members even fell asleep a couple of times. Maybe some members went because they had to or because they just wanted to help tell themselves that they are trying. This really interested me because it is important to take notice that some people go and progress due to being active and others are just forced. In the case of being forced it is very easy to go to the meeting and just not be attentive or active. During the meeting I felt very enlightened. The topic of forgiveness is very broad and is even relevant in my own life. The viewpoint on the topic was very different and interesting. They talked more about being forgiving of ourselves because we are the ones that cause ourselves to react negatively to life’s daily hassles and stressors. They also spoke on the control

This group experience has taught me many new things, all these things will help me as a future social worker. I also learned to meet the objectives need it when we work with clients.

This group allowed me to be a member of a group and to experience how a group setting actually works. Group can be very beneficial as therapy for some clients. Some members may not have anyone and group therapy will provide that support system for them to have. Personally, I do have friends, family, parents, and a sibling. However, sometimes it is difficult to express to them what exactly is going on in my mind. This group gave me a feel of what some members actually feel in groups. It makes you feel less alone and like it is okay to have the thoughts that you have. Sometimes your family and friends do not know how to relate to you, but a group therapy can help you feel that acceptance and bond. I learned a lot from this group process. It is important to be able to trust, have open communication, to be a supporter and lend an encouraging ear to someone else. It not only will help other members, but also will help you as a member and individual personally grow and gain better perspective and coping skills for themselves.

Group therapy requires an assembly of individuals and a trained professional functioning through corresponding dilemmas. There are copious amount of groups that work toward a variety of areas (Wieman, Raypole, & Telloian, 2013). Some individuals seek group treatment for (a)addiction, (b)depression, (c) anxiety, (d) post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and (e) domestic violence. Groups can be open or closed. An open group allows anyone to attend, while a closed group is allotted to a certain number of people and no one else for a duration of time (Wieman et al., 2013). When an individual attends a group he or she will participate in activities to create a communicative environment, develop trust with other group members, and evolve as a person (Wieman et al., 2013).

The general atmosphere of the meeting was informal and supportive as two lead social workers Carol and Ellie took on the task to be the facilitators. There were no conflicts observed by members as they seem avoidant and did not seem to want to be there. Both leaders began their introduction well as they talk to the rest of the group about how to educate clients so that they can form healthy relationships. There was a beginning intro, middle but not sure if the end was lacking. Elli did most of the talking as she took the lead role as Carol just occasionally said a few words. Elli did not give all members of the group the opportunity to express their concerns.

Part two of this group counseling session was a time for group members to become comfortable with each other and start expressing feelings and emotions. I watched each group member become honest with themselves and others during this session. Most group members were able to express their purpose in the group and become real with one another (Association for Specialists in Group Work, n.d.). I believe the group worked hard in this transitional stage, while tackling anxiety, trust, and resistance. I believe this group will succeed in the stages to come.

Numerous therapy formats exist to assist clients in their process of recovery and growth. While the image of therapy involving a helping practitioner in a chair facing that of a single client often first comes to mind, the effectiveness of group therapy is, in many cases, more suitable for the needs of the clients that suit such a group. Groups also provide for a context that could never be achieved through individual counselling alone: the integral point being that we, as individuals part of a larger society, are social beings whose lives involve a serious of interactions with others. How we treat those interactions largely determines most every social aspect of our lives.

Facilitating groups require a certain level of expertise and skills. The purpose of facilitating a group is to help individuals who are wanting to change. An excellent group leader must make sure their group purpose and type of group is clearly stated when a client is considering joining the group. The facilitator’s role is to encourage their group to collaborate as a group honestly and respectfully. This paper is going to examine a description of a group that I am comfortable facilitating, a description of a group I am not comfortable facilitating, strategies used to overcome personal discomforts in facilitating psychotherapy groups, and explaining how to apply these strategies to improve my effectiveness as a group leader.

For our final group presentation, I worked with Alisha Sandridge, Makaylah Hunter-Toney, Jalen Douglas, and Josh Blackwell. Each of the group members had contributions that helped us finish the project. For this project, I wrote our proposal that was due in April, I participated in both sets of interviews by recording as well as asking questions. I was also responsible for gathering information on the cultural competency portion of the presentation. Also, I edited the final draft of the PowerPoint presentation. Although I fell as though our presentation came out very well, as a part of the group, I felt that I should have pushed for the group to get together to complete it sooner than we did. The responsibly for this fell on me because I noticed that things were not getting done

Group members appeared physically tired which has been the observed general appearance of members throughout the last few sessions. Emotionally the clients displayed various degrees of emotions, one group member appeared sad while the others more content and/or positive. All members, except for one, engaged in group discussion. The group member who did not engage is typically quiet and reserved; however, when I purposively direct questions to that member she engages. Overall the group shifted into action stage within the group pertaining to the context of the session, coping with stress. The topic seemed to be extremely relevant to many of the group members and; therefore, I believe this lead to members increased desire to participate in group discussion.

Additionally, I have noticed their improvement by the end of the group. Clients turned into friends, they would text each other and meet outside of the group. Clients were encouraging and supportive towards group members struggles which provided a safe environment for group members to share and be honest. A challenge that this program had was attendance. Clients lacked transportation to attend the group. I would take a county vehicle across Fairfax County to pick up clients that would take several hours to complete. Clients did not attend because the travel time was an inconvenience and conflicted with other priorities for an annoyance because of the long travel time. Additionally, two clients developed an intimate relationship which stopped due to conflict. One of the members of this intimate relationship refused to attend the group for several weeks to avoid the other group

The Solomon Family is made up of five family members; thus there is the need to utilize group therapy. Group therapy is a psychological therapy that involves a group of people at one particular time and often used for cases of patients with close associations (Northen & Kurland, 2013). Using group therapy will enable every member of the Solomon family to share their concerns and issues that they feel are affecting them and their family. Whenever the family can gather together is a viable time to have a group therapy, or alternatively, they could have a set appointment to have a meeting in my office. According to Northen and Kurland (2013), the use of group therapy enables each person to identify their behaviors and areas of weakness. Group therapy also offers a supportive environment where one can be listened to and helps the person sharing not to feel alone with their problem (Malchiodi, 2012).

Depression and Anxiety group at the PRACTICE). This has been a very interesting experience and has been very beneficial for me. I am also going to get an opportunity to facilitate the Young Adult Group for a few weeks while someone else will be on vacation next month. In order to measure the progress of this goal, I have reviewed my group counseling textbook from last semester and watch videos that were recommended based on Yalom’s group teachings for about one hour every two weeks thus far. I have investigated the 11 curative factors so that I could write appropriate group formatted notes. Also, I have joined a research project at our clinic related to individual and group tracking that will better our clinics group program. I have worked with one of our Post Docs and my undergraduate supervisee to explore how group outcomes and tracking can be implemented in a clinic, such as the PRACTICE. The expected outcome was that I would understand the process group dynamics and the 11 curative factors further. I have done so this far and am continuing to better understand what it would mean to track group experience in my current research project at the clinic. This also has helped me as a counselor in training to see if what I am doing is working within the group setting. By doing my own research I can see, which measures work best within the group setting and

The videos and readings highlighted the significance of initial stage in group therapy. The beginning stage establishes ground rules for the group members and leader(s) and set a tone of the group. Discussing and acknowledging group expectations allow the members to develop a sense of safety even in the midst of feeling apprehensive. Therefore, discussing issues of inform consent, confidentiality, expectation, and (individual and group) goal to establish a norm for the group become crucial to the success of the group (Corey, Corey, & Corey, 2014; Microtraining Associates, 1991). Mutually agreed ground rules appear to assist group members to focus on here-and-now as well as their motivation for joining the group (see Microtraining Associates,