Group Reflection

The process of picking who will be part of the group is vital as well, in class discussions we talked about picking certain people that will be able, to be honest, and share during that time. A group facilitator would never choose someone for a group that will not talk and is it, the central theme of group therapy is having others share about their past and presents experiences. During the facilitating period, there will be times where there are arguments between people in the group during class hours; we had great discussions on how to deal with the situation where multiple people are arguing during this period. Some of my suggestions were getting the two people to talk after class and resolve issues that they might have with the other person.

During this group session, the patients were asked to identify common relapse triggers and verbalize ways in which they can avoid their triggers. The patients were provided with a handout on triggers and educated on alternative methods to avoid their triggers.The patient was oriented x 3. The patient reported that feelings of depression and being bored has caused him in the past to relapse. He shared that he is ready to be clean and is aware of his triggers. He further shared that he goals are to engage in outside activities that can help occupy his timeThe patient was oriented x 3. He actively participated in the group discussion. The patient identified his triggers as his relationship with his family members. Throughout the session, the patient

The 12-step group I observed is Sunrise Semester, an alcohol-anonymous group open to women. The group meeting was held in a spacious room in a Catholic church. The group leader sat in the front, surrounded by the group members. The group had a relatively large size, with nearly 20 people ranged from the middle age to the elderly. Some of the members just started being sober while some older members have been sober for more than 20 years. Most of the group members are Caucasians and the rest was Hispanics, Indians and Philippines. The atmosphere of the group meeting was warm, friendly and engaging. The meeting started from some housekeeping announcements and the sharing of the group leader, who is not a mental health professional but has been

This was my first experience co-facilitating any kind of group work (real life or simulation) and I felt somewhat nervous, particularly since our group had three members and I was expected to take on a larger role during my presentation. However, throughout the meeting I began to feel more comfortable and I believe I demonstrated a variety of integral facilitation skills and social work values, as they applied to our interprofessional task group. These skills as well as other observations with be discussed and analyzed below.

From what I observed today, I could tell that the facilitator had control over the group because when the veterans would get out of hand (e.g. outburst or arguing) she was able to bring them back to neutral. The veterans respect the facilitator in what she had to say.

In our opinion, the $34 credit card fee charged by Westpac when Alan used his MasterCard to pay his 2016 income tax owing to the ATO as per 2016 income tax assessment notice is not deductible. As stated in ATO Interpretative Decision 2010/160: Income Tax Deductibility of card payment fee incurred in paying income tax

This week consisted of me leading groups twice, doing an intake assessment with a client and participating in the documentation. During this week I also got to interact with new clients and discuss some of their current goals, this time even assisted in my process of working through with them about what goals are the most important currently in their lives. The first group didn’t go well because I had one individual being disruptive and searing a lot, the other client in a group didn’t have a chance to talk, and we had to end group early. During that time, didn’t handle the individual well and it was a good experience for me dealing with demanding clients. One of my classes I’m currently taking discusses this week the aspect of stepping out

It was very interesting to work together in my group. I learnt more deeply about the African American issue. All members in my group was very supportive. We collaborate with each other in a timely manner. The biggest fear I had working in a group environment was the conflict. There was no conflict because we all shared our thoughts and problems with each other. That makes this group experience great.

Out of the many course objectives listed in the syllabus the one that I am confident in that the class succeeded is designing and implementing a group activity and co-leading that group. Throughout the semester we were given exercises conducted by the professor with duration of 45 minutes, this included occasionally a warm-up, the activity itself and a post discussion. The primary goal of the class was to take these exercises and layout into consideration when devising our own activity for our wellness group (Getting Through NYU!) based on our needs assessment results. With a partner we had to choose a problem that the class required help with, for example: time management. We use that topic to develop an activity that would assist the group members to become better time managers and list three short term goals that we think the members will be able to demonstrate by the end of the session, followed by one long term goal. Everyone developed professional, imaginative and organized activities. From what I observed the partners also worked cohesively with each other and shared their responsibilities, presenting effective co leadership skills.

My prior experience in leading a group is when I lead a group of young men that were growing up in low-income housing. Ironically, most of these young men were growing up in a household where there is no father present, and they looked to the streets for guidance. During these group sessions, we talk about the stigma that was placed upon them for coming from the area in which they were growing up in. We also talked about social issues that they are dealing with growing up as African American males. Another point that was brought up was how do they deal with the police that patrols the area. Also, we created a dialogue that entailed discussing what the short-term and long-term goals were. Many participants of this group were eager to

I will start with the beginning of our group progress. So first day 04/26/18, there were only Eldan, Marni, me and Mike. Some of the students switched their group so that is the reason why were only four, yet some of them were just absent. We talked about what we want to do general and ideas of what we should do. The second day, there were six students. Although Marni did not come to class to show her presence, she was with us in the library third floor. We decided that day that it is best if we divide our parts. We specified our jobs and was clear about what we will do. The third meeting, I was absent but since I knew what was my responsibility, I ended up doing my work at home. Plus, I let them know that I will not make it to our meeting through our group message and told them to let me know if I missed anything important. The next meeting, a lot of students were late but we meet on the third floor again. This time, we changed things a little bit. Plus, we had new group member named Alyssa. She became important group member from that day. Also, we planned to add literary terms and we had one term for each person. Since we were seven students that day, we had seven literary terms. We were thinking if each of us will do our powerpoint until Kahmari volunteered to do the powerpoint himself and we just had to do our parts and send it to him. After the meeting, we all

In my undergraduate work, almost all of my classes that were directly related to my major required at the least one group project. In the beginning this was not something I was very fond of mostly because I had some bad experiences when it came to working with others on projects. Usually it was the problem of people not pulling their own weight, and doing their parts to help with the tasks. When it came time to have the assignment complete it was even harder to give a grade to those people. I did not want to be the guy who caused someone to throw someone under the bus. However, after I thought about it, I did want to be that guy because in the real world on a work project if there was someone who did not pull their weight in the job projects would not be successful. So, when it came time for grades, I was always honest, and usually if a person did not do their part I told it how it was.

In the grief support group I co-lead with a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and supervised by a Master of Social Work I learned how to facilitate a meeting. The LPCC taught me the person-centered approach and the social worker taught me to monitor client’s progression of goals. She allowed me to take lead, to link members together by similarities they share, and to give members homework. The LPCC believed in self-disclosure, she demonstrated this for me in a fantastic manner the social worker I was with did as well. Teaching me that it is great to self-disclose when appropriate and when it will benefit the progression of the group or for them to feel comfortable trusting the leader. In my group sessions I did not deem self-disclosure appropriate to use. How I will translate this is to be aware of my clients, to ask them what goals they hope to achieve, and for them to keep journals of progress. I will create a safe atmosphere for clients to speak, provide affirmation, and help clients set and maintain goals.

Teamwork can be complex and challenging given task and interpersonal issues, level of group motivation and expected performance standards. The concrete experience spoken about in this reflection piece is in reference to the effectiveness of myself as a group member and the group, working to write a report outlining the organisation and structure of Volkswagen. Dennison (2009) applies Kolb’s learning cycle (1981, 1984) which suggests that learning moves through a continuous cycle, between having an experience, and then reflecting on that action. This cycle has been developed from Lewin’s (1951) model for experiential learning. Reflection termed by Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985) ‘is a forum of response to the learner to experience’(p. 18). On reflection, the early set group dynamics was a defining factor in the experience, and how the team conducted themselves throughout the task. Meyerson, Wick and Kramer (1996) note that ‘such rapidly converging groups require methods for developing “swift trust”’ (p. 8), which can explain why initial group dynamics are so important. I took on multiple team roles, including group leader, which could be translated into the team not performing collectively on a high level, however, I could view this as a personal ineffectiveness of my leadership style.

I don’t think that we could have been any luckier in our team assignment. Although we are four very different individuals, we share similar thought patterns and because some of our members are stronger in analytical thinking and others in creative thinking, there is just enough overlap that we enhance each-other’s strengths while reducing our weaknesses. We are all high B to low A type personalities, which means that although we are all results driven there is no-one on the team who bogarts the leadership position. The agreeable nature of our team was apparent early on as we worked through team building games and the first analysis team paper. However it has been in the preparation of the team paper that we have seen the truth of how