Client Centered Groups

Existential Concepts

• focus on understanding the persons subjective view of the world

• 3 key concepts

  • freedom and responsibility

  • aloneness and relatedness

  • existential anxiety and search for meaning

Freedom and Responsibility

• implies that an individual has a capacity for self-awareness and awareness of their environment that allows them to make their own choices

• they are responsible for their life dilemmas

Aloneness and Relatedness

• encourage individuals to find their own identity and inner direction before attempting to connect with others

• groups help to form meaningful connections

Existential Anxiety and Search for Meaning

• finding what occupations are meaningful

• anxiety is seen as necessary to living and is viewed as a motivator to make necessary changes in behavior, values, or life structure

Humanistic Concepts

• are based on the assumption that clients really know what is best for them

• key concepts

  • respect

  • genuineness

  • nonjudgemental acceptance

  • deep understanding

  • self-actualization

  • Occupational competence and motivation

  • spirituality

Respect

• client is expert and OT asks open ended questions

• empathy

Genuineness

• OT expresses real emotional responses

Nonjudgemental acceptance

• unconditional positive regard so client feels like they can reveal all their feelings without fearing therapist reaction

Deep understanding

• gathering info about client, only then can a therapist assist in changing the behavior

Self-actualization

• innate tendency of all human beings to achieve their potential

Occupational competence and motivation

• natural tendency to improve quality of their lives

Spirituality

• binds physical, psychological, and social component together

Client-centered nature of groups

• offer a structured way to facilitate client self-expression, awareness of choices, and empowerment for self-direction

Selecting group members is done by

identifying problem areas through semi-structured interviews

Therapeutic Relationship

• a trusting connection established between therapist and client through collaboration, communication, therapist empathy, and mutual understanding

TUS

• an integral part of the OT process in which practitioners develop and manage therapeutic relationship with client

6 Therapeutic Modes for OT

• advocating

  • to obtain needed services for clients, mediating, and negotiating with others

• collaborating

  • forming partnership with client, communicating respect, and genuineness

• empathizing

  • understanding clients, views, feelings

• encouraging

  • giving feedback, praise, reinforcement

• instructing

  • include designing, planning, and sequencing intervention and interaction

• problem solving

  • overcoming behaviors

3 Stages of Therapeutic Communication for individuals and groups

• Problem Definition

• Self-understanding

• Behavior Change

Stage 1 - Problem Definition

• members get to know one another

  • attending

    • attentive physical presence the OT focuses on the client to gather how group is feeling

  • concreteness

    • ability to elicit specific info about the client through asking open ended questions

  • primary accurate empathy

    • OT identifies what client is feeling

Stage 2 - Self-understanding

• immediacy

  • OT asks group how they’re feeling

• advanced accurate empathy

  • OT implies what client may be feeling to expose clients problems

• confrontation

  • resolution of possible discrepancies (maladapative behaviors)

• therapeutic self disclosure

  • show client you understand what they are going through

Stage 3 - Behavior change

• client identifies where change is needed

• group may help to change behaviors