Sense Among Group Members

As a social work facilitator, it is important to include a wide range of skills and strategies when facilitating a group. Emphasize on effective communication skills including using summarizing and active listening skills are important. Summarizing would include paraphrasing to what a member was saying and clarifying to make sure a social work facilitator understands (Pickett Institute Curriculum, 2002). Active listening helps let the members know that the facilitator is listening through making eye contact which shows that the facilitator cares about member’s thoughts and feelings (Pickett Institute Curriculum, 2002). Other important skills to help be an effective facilitator is problem solving and appropriate decision making to help strengthen

If the therapist do not share the sense of immediacy with the client then the therapeutic connection may become broken and the therapist may loss the chance of helping the client with their issue. The last skill that a group therapist need to process is having the ability to build rapport and empathy by using appropriate self-disclosure. Often clients may feel that no one have experience an issue like theirs, during these moments appropriate self-disclosure to compare their issue with someone they trust and gain insight into understanding how the could get their own issue. Group therapist who possessed both competence in technique and in therapeutic skills are then able to build group cohesion. Yalom (2005) noted that group cohesiveness produces an affiliation between members by building a reinforcing loop that promotes trust, empathy, and acceptance among the group members (Yalom, 2005).

3. Imparting of information - didactic instruction about mental health, mental illness, psychodynamics or whatever else might be the focal problem of the group. (Ex. OCOA, Alanon; learning about the disease process itself). It’s important for members to get facts about their condition through formal teaching.

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.

For example a member of the group mention how the group meeting helps her to be open and honest about a day by day struggle with temptation and addiction because the group members can relate to her bawl while she has to be silent about her emotions with her coworkers because of the stigma and the lack of understanding on the disease as well as the taboo of talking about it. Another example that aid me to understand the role of the group meeting is the fact that each member identified himself or herself as an addict by the time they mention their name which from my point of view relate to the fact of acceptance instead of denial about who they are, that even when years passed from the last time they used they are aware that they are still vulnerable to the drugs and that the support the group therapy provide is essential to stay clean as a member also mentioned that he was born an addict and stay an addict for many years but incompletely denial of it because he thought he could stop using drugs whenever he wanted to but failed each time until he finally join the group and follow the discipline and stipulations of the group

All of these skills have meanings and they all tie in to one another. Without one the whole process would be incomplete in my opinion. The first skills that we learned in class were attending behavior and empathy. In the book it states that, “attending and empathy are essential to establish a working relationship with your clients and a good understanding of their issues and concerns.” (Ivey, Ivey, & Zalaquett, 2010, p. 63) I agree with that text from the

Group support and assisting with goals and education are vital and the benefits of these strategies and stages of group counseling helps towards recovery process (Stevens & Smith, 2013). There are essential group dynamics that should be established in order for the group to be cohesive such as proper communication, the presence of group norms and values, creating effective therapy techniques and decision making.

The initial group sessions will emphasize on creating cohesion among the group members. Group norms and expectations of the group will be discussed. Icebreaking activities, such as deep introductions, deep breathing exercises, and getting to know one another activities will be used to, create trust and create cohesion and comfort among group members. The facilitator will display participation and model behavior to group members. These behaviors will include actively listening, respecting everyone in the group, demonstrating empathy, genuineness, relevant self-disclosure, and suggesting or listening to feedback when beneficial to self or members. The facilitator will also assist members to outline personal goals they may wish to achieve during

The Unites States is a country that that has faced continuous struggles between racial disparities throughout its history of existence. Group consciousness is a term used to describe the way a person identifies themselves within a group who shares similar political ideas and interests. The group an individual belongs to must be conscious and aware of their social standing in society and must participate in united action in order to better themselves as a whole and make sure that their values and political beliefs are acknowledged. According to Arthur Miller, group consciousness is made up of four elements. The first two are identification within the in-group and favoritism towards it. The third and fourth elements are having discontent

During this round I notice that my group and I were very confused at the pictures. The facilitators did not explain the activity very well and the pictures did not look like they were from the same story. I saw this response from the other groups when I was looking around the room. I heard a lot of justification going around the classroom when people were trying to explain why the order they thought was right or not.

Although we had been using the consensus making decision style since the beginning of the semester we were also able to improve upon our administration of it. This approach is time consuming because it requires every group member to discuss an issue and all agree on it before it can be accepted (Levi, 2011). We found that it was taking too long for us to reach group decisions because no one wanted to offend anyone else or offer their honest opinion at first. The more we developed trust the better we could discuss issues honestly in a timely fashion and make well thought out decisions quickly.

As the individuals begin to share, the members begin to provide assistance to each other and get assistance from the group leader. Sharing thoughts and feelings in a safe and supportive environment can be an important part of the process in group therapy. It strongly affects how much the group member will be helped.

Group counseling can be appealing, but it involves solving a problem common in the group. The goals should be listed to ensure that the counselors achieve their goals, proper research and evaluation should be done before choosing a group. Observation is also critical because it helps the counselor aware of the group process. Group process is a sub- conscious process that takes place within a group as a whole; it involves personal and interpersonal process. Groups involve integration process, which involves emphasis, on a structured delivery of certain content. Group counseling is effective because it enhances self awareness and exploration as they aid one to be congruent.

effective sharing of information (e.g. clarifying meaning, avoiding misunderstandings, sharing of good practice, sharing of professional knowledge and expertise, encouraging contributions from others,

According to Cartwright & Zander (1968), a group may be defined as a “collection of individuals who have relations to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree”. Other definitions state that a group is “two or more persons who are interacting with one another in such a manner that each person influences and is influenced by each other person (Shaw, 1981). Turner (1987) goes further to say that “a psychological group is one that is psychologically significant for the members, to which they relate themselves subjectively for social comparison and the acquisitions of norms and values…that they privately accept membership in and which influence their attitudes and behaviour”. Clark & Pataki reserve the term “group”