Support Group Reflection

Through leading our first group session about self-care, Amanda and I gained valuable group facilitation experience that was helpful in leading our second session. Our second group facilitation had many strengths, including the fact that we moved closer to the working stage and helped members to explore guilt related to self-care, a common theme in the group. However, although the group went well overall, there are still ways that we could improve, such as using certain techniques to “go deeper” and better managing time.

Community-based support group observation and reaction paper is the first assignment that has to be completed for my class Social Work with Groups. In this assignment, I will discuss how I located the support group of my choice, what I was able to observe in the group session, and feelings or reactions I had during the process. This assignment will give a look into my first experience attending a real-life support group session from the other side of the coin. On this occasion, I was able to experience it from the point of view of a group member and not a facilitator which is definitely a shift in roles. Being able to go through this experience gives me the opportunity to experience a session firsthand and be able to observe and identify

While appropriate self-disclosure can be beneficial to the therapeutic alliance, self-disclosure can be considered an ethical violation if the counselor utilizes it for their own benefit. Client treatment would be negatively impacted by the counselor’s repeated disclosure of personal information and issues as the counselor would no longer be participating in the “one-way caring” characteristic of the therapeutic alliance and would foster a potential reversal of roles where “the client becomes the emotional caregiver” (Remley & Herlihy, 2016, p.

“Typically, they are directed by nonprofessional leaders who empower themselves or one of their members to facilitate the group. Some self-help groups are inner focused and work to provide each other mutual support around issues” (Maguire, 2002, p.125). The facilitator for the day asks if others want to read over the rules and if nobody volunteers she does. The rules include: no cross talk, limiting interruptions, if you need to answer a call or leave then do so quietly, and making this meeting your own journey, not others, and time to reflect on yourself not offer help to others. The meeting does not pause for anyone or

Session 1, will focus on establishing ground rules and guidelines, specifically addressing confidentiality. They will also begin the rapport building process with group members and group facilitators by sharing a brief story about them which will empower them to control what they want to share and why.

1st meeting: Ending stage. Discuss the importance of continuing to maintain established social supports and the use of healthy coping skills and behaviours into the group members lives after the group ends. Provide ideas and techniques which assist in doing

I feel that most people that have reached out to a group of this type are in the bargaining or depression stages, and will make adjustments according to where the member begins at. The procedures and methods that I will use for this group are the person-centered approach, cognitive therapy, and the WDEP model of reality therapy. The person-centered approach uses self-exploration and emphasizes the counselor client relationship. The cognitive behavior therapy will focus on changing the automatic thoughts and cognitive restructuring. I feel that adding the technique from reality therapy called WDEP, that stands for, wants, direction and doing, evaluation, and planning and commitment (Corey & Corey, 1992). I feel that these will work well to accomplish the ultimate goal of changing the way that the clients may feel it was their fault, or that they have failed. It will also serve as a good roadmap to help navigate the stages of grief. I also feel that all members of the group will respond to these

The group facilitator(counselor) fashioned an atmosphere for trust, exclusive creativity and expressionism; allowing members to reveal inner thoughts and personal dilemmas.

I feel that Weikel Elementary provides a variety of support services for our students. These services include a school psychologist, school counselor, a behavior specialist, and a MFLAC. The behavior specialist is assigned to our school by the military hospital and is only allowed to service our military population. The MFLAC is also assigned to our building from Fort Carson and is there to facilitate deployment groups for children of deployed military personnel. The school counselor provides school wide lessons on character education as well as facilities support groups for students. I have had the opportunity to work with all of these specialists. Through the systems that we have in place, I have been able to build trusting relationships

Confidentiality is an obligation that counselors have professionally, ethically, and legally. They are prohibited from disclosing client information without written consent; unless the client is at risk for harming self or others (Gladding, 2011). Although confidentiality is not guaranteed in group settings, the therapist must inform the group of the importance of confidentiality, and establish what it means to them as a group. In order to keep confidentiality within a group, the leader must first teach the members how to communicate about their experience in such a way as to maintain the confidentiality and privacy of other group members (Corey, Corey, & Corey, 2014). From there, if confidentiality is broken within the group, the leader can

If you want a job done right, do it yourself. I have been guilty of approaching my job and many aspects of my personal life with this philosophy. I also enjoy the camaraderie of the team environment and enjoy working in a team environment, but it needs to be the right team. A critical assessment of my attitude towards group work is reflected in both philosophies. Teamwork is necessary but has always seemed flawed and ineffective. Someone still had to carry the burden and do most of the work. Looking back to when I first began this course, I was hopeful to learn more about the mechanics of groups and possible ways to promote positive teamwork. I expected to learn the theories behind organizational work groups regarding management, perhaps by doing case studies. I was not expecting to complete a group project; I had not previously heard of working collaboratively online to produce a combined paper.

I remember one week, the theme within the small groups was sharing "our" narratives. My small group consisted of a total of nine female students and our RA. Our discussion lasted about 2 hours that night mainly because our RA established a safe and open environment, she was someone we loved and trusted within a short time of knowing her.

What occupation did your group session address? What was the goal for group session? The occupation addressed was meal prep/setup and leisure participation. The goal was to utilize their long term memory and motivate them to recall positive, emotional memories.

Currently Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. It is theorized this is due to the cultural emphasis on taking complete responsibility for one’s own actions verse seeking out metal reasoning if problems persist. This high social pressure of performance compounded on the general social stigma against mental health issues causes many people who suffer to feel isolated and alone allow worsening their conditions and leading to extreme actions such as suicide. While Psychotherapy is offered in Japan, but it is usually not covered under public health care and can quickly become pricy for the average person to seek out help. In my mission proposal I hope to bring awareness as well as combat the growing issue on a whole though a

Self-disclosure is one of the five influencing skills used by therapists with their clients. Self-disclosure allows the interviewer to share personal information with their client when necessary. The skillfulness of therapist disclosure has an overarching theme and has the most important and influential factor in client’s perceptions of the helpfulness of their therapists’ responses and contributed toward the development of a positive alliance (Redlinger-Grosse, Veach, & MacFarlane, 2013). Self-disclosure is not the retelling of one’s life story or monopolizing the client’s therapy session. Instead, it is carefully placed information that helps the client realize that they are not alone in the situation they are going through, plus it