Group Observation Paper

In this paper, I discuss my experience with observing a group counseling session with the purpose of evaluating it in terms of how it is set up, how it is run, interventions used, culturally sensitivity, and the contribution toward my professional development as a social worker. The group setting plays a critical role in social work outside of the individual session and can be largely beneficial for clients in the forms of therapy, counseling, self-help, and support. By attempting to better understand group interventions, I will learn how to apply this strategy in aiding clients for whom this method is appropriate by increasing their social supports.

Thus the role of group work can be seen as one which places emphasis on sharing of thoughts, ideas, problems and activities.

The process of running a group therapy session is a unique time to tests a person’s skills abilities when it comes to facilitating that group. This paper will mainly look at ways when it comes to my learning's of this class that I took ways; I will also show examples and skills to run a good group therapy session. This whole paper is a reflection of the many things that I took was on being an active group counselor facilitator.

In order to evaluate my role within the group it is important to identify what makes a group. A group must

Groups have an impact on the lives of others daily. Through groups and or the building of groups one may have the opportunity to build relationships, increase in personal growth, and allow one another to get on an interpersonal level. When having the support of not only yourselves but also a group, it allows others to face change more effectively and explore those challenges with an assembly of people rather than being alone. When studying group counseling, a therapy approach that is believed to be the most effective when amongst one another, there are rules behind these meetings that hold the leaders and counselors responsible. This term is to be called ethics. To one

Carina: I observed a small group of four girls around the ages of 16-19 who were all getting burritos at Chipotle. They were still wearing their volleyball outfits and clearly belonged to a group of teenage athletes. They all seemed to be friends as they were laughing and talking loudly with one another. Their visit at Chipotle seemed to be some kind of social experience for them, much more so than just going there for nutrition. When ordering they asked each other: “what are you getting”, which showed that they valued each other’s food recommendation. The girl who asked her friend that question decided to order the same food as her friend. This shows the interdependence and great influence within the group.

In this regard, the most influential aspects that spoke to me were to remain diligent in establishing ground rules for behavior or setting norms, and designating and clarifying roles for each group member. These ideals are not new and have also been encouraged in a wide variety of other educational texts which promote methods for using collaborative groups in the workplace. Robert Garmston tells readers that the typical roles in a group are the engaged participant, the facilitator, the recorder, the role authority, and citizen facilitator. He goes on to suggest the rotation of facilitator and recorder roles (Garmston, 2012), thus helping every participant to feel as if they have a voice and is able to

At all times of the history, this has been a very polarized theme. The sex offenders have been on earth since that the first civilization was raised, but it was not until recently that we consider it a crime. Do they have to be excluded from the group sessions? Personally, I think that that is not a good idea, those sessions are really helpful, if we go by the psychological way, but it does not mean that it's going to get unpunished. A sexual crime is a very serious offense; when you commit it, you take away the most important things in the human being: the dignity, and the sense of security.

My small group activity will be based off the observations of the children in the Star room. Adjustments will be made if need to ensure optimal development of all the preschoolers. I will incorporate a spider theme, as the children are very interested in insects and because Halloween is coming up very soon. This will help keep the children motivated to participate in the small group activity.

Observation: During this group session I observed a lot of silences. Not just your average counseling pauses these silences were profound and one even lasted about 40 seconds.

For my observation I choose to watch a club I am part of. The club is the Student Gamers Association, I am the secretary of the club. The absolute size club is currently 119 members, less than half show up normally. The Student Gamers Association is a normative organization. Our members join because of the common interest of video, board, and card games. The club has five officer positions the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and the event coordinator. The president holds the power of having the final say and organizing meetings. The Vice president’s job is to keep up with what other clubs are doing and promoting our club and its events. The secretary maintains attendance of the club members and fills out the forms for the room and events. The treasurer keeps track of the budget and submitting all payment request forms. The event coordinator creates at least three events in a month. The actual way the club runs is dysfunctional. Which is why I choose to observe it in hopes of making the club run more efficient. I am looking for sources of conflict. I observed the club at two separate occasions. Once during the regular club time and again at an officer meeting.

My CT asked me to conduct a small reading group session today! I met with four students with the highest reading level. She gave me a packet of level eight-teen and level twenty-four books. My plan was to start with the level eight-teen book. Then if I thought that any of the students could move up I would lead another small group with those students and use the level twenty-four book. I started out asking them to make predictions from the books cover. We did a picture walk and made predictions about what they book was going to be about. However, this was spur of the moment and I was not fully prepared. I had to skim through quickly to find a few words I thought would be difficult and also introduce the characters by name so they knew how to

Observation: During our first group setting I started noticing subgrouping. It is almost like the group was split in half. Everyone participated but I noticed more of who hangs out with whom and you could see the subgroups in the larger group.

As soon as we get off the bus, all eyes are on us. The combination of our cleanest seersucker brown and white shirts and brown pants down to our knees mixed with the greasy hair and big smiles act as a target for all wandering eyes. Our counselors tell us to mind the time and to be back at 1:00, and then we are free. Separating into small groups we find a partner and, walking as fast as our legs will allow, race off to the stands we have waited to see for 3 weeks. Some girls stay on the side of the road they came out of the bus on, wanting to explore and see what stands at the Hebron Fair they might discover, but the rest of the group walks in the other direction and begin to cross the road. We share small smiles as we walk toward the two

It was the first day of band camp, as a section leader I was filled with excitement. Fresh faces flooded each section as leaders scribbled names onto clipboards. I was the low reed section leader. Everyone was able to play at a decent level; however, one individual struggled. I pulled her aside to check up on her playing skills. Deborah explained that she struggled in junior high but was determined to improve. Marching was even more difficult because she lacked the crucial internal source of tempo. She was labeled as a “shadow” by the directors, someone who marches behind another performer but doesn’t perform at competitions. I realized she was a reflection of my freshman self: a quiet introverted individual who struggled with both aspects