Therapeutic Leadership Skills

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.

The selection of a team leader is of key decision that can have a great impact on the overall success of a team. A good team leader should be able to build and maintain team morale, instilling confidence and trusting in other team members allowing them to work together to achieve the teams goals (Llopis, 2014). The ability to understand the stages of a team and provide the guidance to all members is essential. The stages of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Abudi, 2010) are a helpful framework for recognizing patterns during team conversations and the understanding that team development may not always be linear. The aptitude to walk the team through these stages and ensuring they understand the development of the team and why things are happening in certain ways is an important part of the self evaluation process. Having ways to identify when certain behavioral patterns are occurring and a way to then cause changes to the team behavior can help the team maximize its productivity.

Talented collaborative leaders are created of a combination of traits. A good leader is someone who communicates well and is honest with their peers. For instance, he/she tells them when they are wrong and how they could improve. Not only does a leader tell their followers when they are doing wrong but also gives motivation by providing them with positive feedback. A successful collaborative leader needs to have power to influence other people's action, values, beliefs, and attitudes (Northouse, 2016). It is important for them to not become bossy and to treat every member equally and with respect. A leader should leave stigmas behind, be loyal, and be respectful. Being involved and knowing how to manage everything is important in order for he/she to make the group environment safe in were all the

Two leader that I have worked with have different weakness and strengths. One leader is able to use many of the leadership skills within a group setting. I have been in and our of this group setting with new members and reoccurring members. The leader manages to use attending, responding, focusing, expressive skills, involving group members, and showing members the progress and their role within the setting, allowing for members to communicate while using cues or blocks to keep the group on task. Clarification usually happens depending on the urgency regarding the task, so this may happen before each transition or at the end when the evaluation is taking place. This person has been able to reference group member’s actions regarding a task and offers comments about the progress of work or praise on the effectiveness. Information is collected by various ways such as questions or listening to other members. When discussed as a whole the core issues are talked about and other non-essential details are set aside. Feelings and emotions are validated and frustrations are accepted with the understanding of

As Vice President of the CBHS SHAPE Club, I have acquired many leadership skills through overcoming obstacles and learning to communicate with my peers. Being a leader is much more than having power or simply being in charge. The skills necessary to effectively guide a group of people towards success goes way beyond the title. Holding a position of leadership, no matter how big or small, is a huge responsibility. One must be committed, reliable and organized. Most importantly, a leader must be proactive and efficient. In other words, a leader must be willing to do whatever it takes to reach his or her group’s goal. In order to do this, one must be able to delegate tasks to ensure that they are all completed adequately while making sure that all members have an opportunity to participate. In addition, a leader must be open-minded to change and must be willing to take risks.

This article was very applicable to group practice because it described a positive mutual support group experience and explained why the group was successful. I found it interesting that the members said that the most valuable things the group leader did was help all the members feel included and supported. If I become a group leader as a social worker, this is an important aspect to remember, because the success of the group depends largely on how I encourage participation, help members offer and receive support from each other, and help each member to feel included and a valued member of the

As I reflect upon my experience as a group leader, both in my co-leader position facilitating a group on assertiveness and my lone facilitative effort to utilize a technique called Autobiography, I was able to recognize three main therapeutic factors. The first was the factor of imparting information which included educational instruction about assertiveness directly seen in the co-led group. The second, therapeutic factor that was created not only by the facilitators, but by the group members was cohesion, which remained evident in both the co-led group and the one person facilitated exercise. Lastly, universality was also quite clearly recognized in both group assignments.

I have come to realize that leading group’s takes practice to master, and the wonderful feedback and critiques from the professor and peers , not only my feedback, but, those from my peers as well, has helped me to identify new weaknesses that I must overcome in order to become skillful in leading groups. Moreover, I come realize the significance in the types of groups from the readings and how the value

providing model leadership behavior, being able to motivate, managing the group process, making decisions and mentoring members (p.123).

Counseling groups have the abilities to experience change, growth, confrontation, and acceptance in a completely different way than individual counseling. With the compilation of several different worldviews, life experiences, and situations, the group offers a powerful setting for exploration and knowledge, as well as support and learning opportunities. However, it is impossible to create a perfect group, and the consistent search for the ideal group could limit powerful interactions. Kealy, Ogrodnicuzk , Piper, and Sierra-Hernandez (2016) discussed the need to take “calculated risks in developing lively and productive groups,” (p. 313). They also discussed the caveat of excluding individuals who may add

During my participation in the osteopathic development group leadership programme. I had the opportunity to demonstrate team skills in a group project, our initial meetings confirmed our idea, plan of action and allocated jobs; we established a timeline of tasks, which was essential to completion with the allotted time frame. My role was to research, write and deliver a specific part of our presentation; we planned regular progress updates either in person or via Skype; this ensured that if one team member was having problems completing their task on time, then others could provide additional support, or step in. Our team efforts resulted in unexpected discoveries, learning new skills, increased confidence with public speaking.

Preparing to close a group actually “begins in the planning stage” (Gladding, pg. 146). Group leaders need to have a concise idea of “how long a group will meet and when it will end” (Gladding, pg. 146). Group leaders will are guided by known “theories that have shown positive results with the targeted population they plan to conduct the group with” (Gladding, pg. 146). A group leader must “establish boundaries and under which the group will operate” (Gladding, pg. 146). Group leaders who fail to establish boundaries and continue to enforce them “will lose control of their group, lose the trust of members and negatively impact their group’s success” (Gladding, pg. 146).

I learned that it is highly important to be able to place yourself in the shoes of those who are on the receiving end of the group sessions, those we refer to as clients. I believe it is vitally important as the group leader to share and be aware of the variety of emotions clients who enter the group sessions may experience. I now understand that in order to be an effective group leader, one should know themselves and how to cope with and compartmentalize personal experiences that may arise from things that may come out of group sessions mentioned by group members. An effective group leader should also be knowledgeable of countertransference as well as transference, and focus on not allowing our feelings as the leader to be transferred onto our clients, and have the ability to recognize when clients are transferring their negative feelings for someone else onto us as leaders of the

Throughout my placement experience, one of my primary objectives has been to develop competency in facilitating client’s change process. As my role involved co-facilitating a group therapy workshop, it encompassed understanding the inter-play of group process and dynamics, coupled with ability to apply and translate interventions to suit group situation (Sonia Online, 2015).

As I look back to the beginning of the class and recall the now laughable introduction I shared my growth during this group has been amazing. It has been amazing for several reasons to start the book and the lectures covered a lot of important information necessary for leading or co-leading a group. Although counseling in a group setting is very different from one on one therapy the theories governing the counselor’s approach is the same. I now realize theories are more that theorpuit approaches and techniques it is more of an individual’s worldview and learning to become a change agent. If one desires to be a change agent it is virtually impossible to do so without first changing or broadening the way one looks at world.