The Group Rules And Norms

When developing a group the norms of the group can ultimately determine the therapeutic outcome for the group (Yalom, 2005). Norms are formed by the leader’s behavior and the group’s expectations (Yalom, 2005). The norms are the standard social behavior for the group. This would include acceptable behavior and typical conduct of the group members.

There are many different broad definitions of stress and how to cope with it, known as stress management.

Society defines stress as anything which forces us to change. Through technical terms stress is defined as “a negative emotional state occurring in response to events that are perceived as taking or exceeding a person’s resources or ability to cope.” To explaining stress researchers came up with the “Cognitive appraisal model”, this system works to tell us whether we believe we have enough resources to deal with the situation without becoming stressed. For instance as a now college student those who have had previous experience taking finales in high school can have less stress than those who have not taken it. This is because they have previous experience with taking the tests and learning how to study while those who have never taken one can become extremely stressed over the unknown of the test. Stress is one of the sub branches that is attached to the world of health psychology. Health psychology is a quickly growing branch that deals with the way the mind and body work together. Psychologists that work in the health field came up with the biopsychosocial model. This model explains the complex interaction with biological, psychological, and social factors.

Traditionally, rules are set out for the members to follow. Generally, explicit rules are made in order for everyone to obviously and without question understand what is expected of them. Ideally, a clear list of what you can and cannot do and what is acceptable and unacceptable in their organization should exist. Unfortunately these requirements are not all written down - implicit standards are always hiding in a group, whether they are talked of or not is up to the group. We usually call these implicit rules actual "norms" which are there to ensure that only the "proper" people are involved in the group. Implicit details often provide secret exclusion for members that don't "belong". "Some details are implicitly implied only because by exploiting these undercover rules, the image of the group is disturbed and the hypocrisy of the rule makers might be uncovered.(Johnson 37)" Without rules people might be able to act as they please which is not the purpose of a group.

There are a few boundaries within this group which include: time, space, and role boundaries. Time boundaries consists of being responsible for your punctuality and respecting that, once the door of the facility is closed then you have missed that night of group. Also respecting the time of your group leader and group members, and the number of days you attend the group. In this particular group the designated meeting time is Mondays from 6:30pm-7:30pm. Space boundaries are simply valuing everyone’s personal space and the physical space that the group is held in. Group members respect the building by not

Our mission at Integrative Counseling Center is to provide the community quality holistic, collaborative and purposeful mental health services for adults 18 and above. Through evidenced-based traditional therapy and complementary healing modalities, such as mindfulness based stress reduction, yoga and tai chi, we are able to personalize support that will meet each individual’s needs. At Integrative Counseling Center, we are committed to empowering, respecting, listening and building a relationship with our clients in a safe, authentic and confidential atmosphere, so they can obtain and maintain their optimal mental health and a balanced quality of life.

Norms are common beliefs regarding the appropriate behavior for members. There were quite a few apparent norms within the group which included honesty, confidentiality, listening to others and respect. Regardless if someone is a new parent, has been a parent for years or is a caregiver that plays a role in a child’s life they are to be respected and listened to within the group. Members were expected to be honest with each other and about their situation so that they could receive the appropriate support and help that they needed. As the name describes members are expected to keep anything, including members’ identities, completely confidential. For example, the grandmother mentioned before, Jennifer*, described how her granddaughter would often lash out verbally to her about her mother’s death and the young girl would not eat anything that her mother once cooked for her. Jennifer, grieving herself, was having a very hard time coping with the death of her daughter while trying to help her granddaughter grieve as well. Jennifer had not been in an active parenting/caregiving role of a child in twenty years but everyone was expected to demonstrate respect towards her and listen to her story.

One of our goals was to include our group members throughout the meeting. We wanted them to feel empowered by given them opportunities to share their own unique ideas and experiences during the duration of the gathering. At the beginning we also established rules of confidentiality, respect, and sharing. We wanted to encourage comfort in our group setting, that way members would feel encouraged to share their own particular experiences. My partner and I made the decision to incorporate those rules to effectively serve our participants. Our participants also confirmed our rules by not adding anything else when prompted and physically nodding yes. One thing that our participants were able to own about our group was the amount of information discussed and providing a respectful, positive, and encouraging

Specific Purpose Statement: The audience will learn what causes stress and how stress can affect their health, and how they can manage their everyday stress with different techniques.

People encounter various challenges in life ranging from diseases, lack of basic essential needs and psychiatric problems among others. This has given rise to various forms of therapies being adopted by specialists whilst offering solutions to depressed individuals. Group therapy has taken a center-stage in the management of depression. Butler et al (2008) in their article titled "Meditation with yoga, group therapy with hypnosis, and psychoeducation for long-term depressed mood: a randomized pilot trial" show that depression and anxiety form part of the well-known conditions named by individuals seeking treatment using therapies and complementary alternatives. Alternative therapies include yoga, qigong, tai chi, mediation, and exercise. They argue that people are increasingly using these therapies. Butler provides information claiming that yoga and exercise are effective therapies with high rates than uncontrolled activities (Butler, et al 2008). The authors also demonstrate that these therapies can be compared to established anxiety treatments and depression treatments such as sertraline, cognitive behavioral therapy, and imipramine.

I feel our discussion was semi-successful and our group worked pretty well together. We followed the standard agenda most of the time, but I feel we did some things that did not follow it. We rushed through the first two steps, task clarification and problem definition, in the standard agenda model most likely because we were all nervous from filming ourselves and could not think of how to start it. We then spent most of the time discussing our research in the fact finding step. We ended after the solution criteria step; however, we did talk about possible solutions throughout the discussion especially in the solution criteria step. I feel that the reason we took so long on the fact finding step and did not get farther was mainly due to

Stress is something everyone goes through no matter what age, gender or race you are. Stress is the experience of a perceived threat to one’s mental, physical or spiritual well-being, resulting from a series of physiological responses and adaptations. When people think of stress they think it’s a bad thing which isn’t true, some stress is just your body’s reaction to certain situations. At times it may seem like stress is taking over your body leaving you physically, emotionally and mentally hurt but what you can do is learn how to manage your stress to have a healthier and happy lifestyle. Stress management is learning to deal with your stress and take charge. There are three types of stresses which are eustress, distress and neustress.

Participation is an essential part of the group experience and ultimately the most conducive to a successful therapeutic experience. Expectations of a successful group member should include responsibility to show transparency throughout each session and throughout the group experience as a whole.

Psychological stress is a result of many factors and should be dealt with very carefully. Stress can be defined as “An excess of demand made upon the adaptive capabilities of the mind and body”.(Joseph 1). Another way of putting it, is that there are some things that put certain demands on us. The effects of stress should not be limited to unpleasant emotional states. Many studies have concluded that the effects on our physical health from stress can be extremely detrimental. These adverse physical effects include heart disease and formations of cancer. There are also some societal issues that psychological stress can hamper.

    Stress today can be described as "that which disturbs a person's mental and physical well-being" (Morrison 1).  Common symptoms of stress include chronic fatigue, changes in appetite, drug and/or alcohol abuse,  difficulty sleeping, body aches, and changes in emotions (Cooper 1-2).  And although stress is something that is inevitable, it can be controlled.  Just about everything we do today creates stress, both good and bad.  In the face paced and technological world we live in, stress management is key to survival as well as sanity.