Approaches to Group Work A Handbook for Practitioners

9780130907608

013090760X

The role of a professional counselor calls for practitioners who have the knowledge and skills to assist clients as they strive to attain higher levels of self-understanding, problem solving, relationship building, and planning for the future. Counselors in school, community/mental health, hospital, private practice, rehabilitation, business and industry, and a variety of other agency settings are called upon to deliver a variety of services to a culturally diverse and challenging clientele comprising children, adolescents, and adults. In many instances, clients can be well served through the provision of task, psychoeducational, counseling, or psychotherapy groups. Counselors and therapists must master the basic knowledge and skill competencies needed to facilitate groups in order to meet the needs of a substantive segment of their clients served in particular settings and to obtain positions in those settings. Ability to do group work with clients is essential to beginning and experienced professionals committed to providing the constellation of services their clients deserve. This handbook is unique in several ways. The 23 authors of the approaches to groups included in this resource are all residents of the Pacific Northwest. They represent a wide range of interests as well as expertise spanning a 40-year continuum from the beginning to the experienced professional. Except for one faculty contributor, all were members of a graduate student cohort in the counselor education program in the Graduate School of Education at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. The models for group facilitation presented in this handbook were created for implementation with specific age groups in either the work settings or proposed internship sites of the authors. Each author used the following paradigm to plan the group interventions described: statement of purpose, conceptual framework, goals for the group, plans for pre-group screening and orientation, descriptions for eight group sessions, evaluation of the group experience, and plans for referral and follow-up. Even though no two professionals facilitate groups in exactly the same way, each author provides a thorough description of each of the eight sessions so that other practitioners can follow the same format. The purpose, theme, and materials needed for each session are addressed. In addition, each author described the "process" variables that should be taken into consideration to enhance the opportunity for participation by each member of the group and to focus the group experience in constructive and therapeutic ways. In all cases, it is also true that the interventions described probably exceed what could be accomplished in just eight sessions and that those using this resource will find that each group intervention could take considerably longer than eight sessions to complete. In part, this is based on a shared philosophy that it is better to "over plan and under use" so that the plan or format for the group does not begin to take precedence over the needs of group members during a given session. Part 1 of this handbook describes approaches to group work with children, Part 2 describes approaches to group work with adolescents, and Part 3 describes approaches to group work with adults. This handbook can be used by graduate students in counselor education, psychology, and social work as a practical adjunct to a more theoretical text used in the process of preparing the group-work specialist. In addition,Approaches to Group Work: A Handbook for Practitionerscan also be helpful to professionals who have completed their graduate degrees and wish to continue developing the knowledge and skills base needed for the successful facilitation of groups.