Group Dynamics Exam ch 7-10

Group Dynamics in the Separation Phase:

Reawakened dependency needs, Excluding the worker, Regressive Behaviour, Devaluation of the experience, Flight

The CYCWs role in the separation

Stage: 1. Preparing the group for separation in a timely manner. 2. Focusing other expression of feelings through review and summarization. Helping members reexperience their groupness through shared activity. 3. Providing availability of support beyond the group

As the group moves into the final phase of their time together,

the worker can expect to experience mixed feelings of relief and concern.

Reawakened Dependency Needs:

When group members show increased reliance on the worker for care, guidance, or help in areas they had previously managed independently, sometimes expressed symbolically.

Excluding the Worker:

When the group intentionally leaves the worker out of discussions or activities, signaling feelings of abandonment or independence from the leader.

Regressive Behavior:

A return to earlier, less mature behaviors as resistance to group ending, including acting out, subgrouping, helplessness, or denial, often reflecting anxiety about separation.

Devaluation of the Experience:

When members dismiss or criticize the group's value and achievements to cope with the pain of ending.

Flight:

When members leave the group early to avoid the feelings associated with group termination, sometimes reflecting fear of abandonment.

The practitioner must take responsibility at the outset to inform the members of …

when the group (or group meeting) will end and to provide adequate time to prepare the members for the transition.

the "resolution stage."

Shulman's five worker skills for the resolution stage: summarizing, generalizing, identifying next steps, rehearsing and identifying "doorknob" communication.

Birnbaum and Cicchetti (2005) add the following practice skills to the mix:

Allocate time, develop group norms, solicit feedback (including negative), encourage discrepant perspectives, and attention to both group content and process.

During the ending transition,

it is essential to provide group members with the opportunity to look back at their time together, evaluate their experience, and express what it has meant to them and what they mean to one another.

Helping Members Reexperience Their "Groupness"

The introduction of a shared activity, something that the group can do together, helps the members to reexperience their "groupness" at the point of termination

Continuing postgroup support for the individual and family.

This may take the form of a periodic "checkup," assistance in accessing resources (e.g., job, school placement), conferring with parents, or friendly visits. Or, ongoing emotional support beyond the group itself can come in the form of a group's own creation.

10.1 Where the members are

• Denial of termination and of the possible meaning of the group experience. • Regression: Return to earlier patterns of behavior; inability to cope with relationship and tasks previously mastered; behave as they did in earlier stages • Flight: Missing meetings, quitting before the official end, showing hostility toward worker and other members: "I'll leave you before you leave me." Constructive flight: Move on to new groups, other relationships, and so forth.

10.1 What Needs to Happen in Group Ending:

Ending should be discussed, gains stabilized, members supported in leaving relationships with the worker and group, the experience integrated as a reference for future situations, and group services discontinued.

10.1 role of the worker

• To help what needs to happen happen. • To prepare members for termination. • To assess desirability and readiness for termination; can members continue to improve outside of the group? • To assess progress toward achievement of goals. • To help members stabilize the gains they've made.

Activities in groupwork

'Hear ye! Hear ye! Adolescents don't join groups prepared to engage in the mode of discourse expected by many an adult!'

Six-dimensional framework for the dynamics of programming with adolescents:

Building a sense of competence: changing the negative narrative. Promoting a sense of belonging: promoting community. Encouraging expressiveness: creativity, discovery, problem solving. Instilling a sense of mindfulness: Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention, and staying present, moment-by-moment. Extending the bonds of belonging beyond the group itself. Advancing social justice.

Twin anchors

"Am I ever gonna fit in?" and "Am I ever gonna be any good at anything?"

"Am I ever gonna fit in?"

suggests the hunger for belonging and the need for attachment, so critical for human growth and development.

"Am I ever gonna be any good at anything?"

suggests the thirst for a sense of competence, a desire to be considered trustworthy and reliable, and the hope of becoming intimate with a feeling of self-confidence.

Activity

is more than a "tool," more than programmed content, more than "canned" exercises, and more than a mechanistic means to an end. the "toolness of program more as putty than a hammer, i.e., as a tool that also changes as it is used"

According to leading AAT expert Cynthia Chandler (2011) some of the reasons to include animals in therapy are:

1. Clients may be more motivated to attend and participate in therapy because of a desire to spend time with the therapy pet. 2. Clients may receive healing nurturance and affection through physical contact with the therapy pet. 3. Clients may experience genuine acceptance by the therapy pet. 4. In many instances . . . clients may be able to perform activities and achieve goals that would not otherwise be possible without the assistance of a therapy pet.

Finally, two guidelines to keep in mind when planning to use animals are:

(1) Seek parental permission. This is particularly relevant to culturally sensitive practice. Certain cultures may have strong attitudes toward human-animal interaction that might preclude practice with animals. In any case, engaging parents in the process is a must. (2) Screen for proper credentialing and training. Carefully screen animals and handlers to be sure that they are properly trained and credentialed

Mindfulness

refers to a practice of paying attention—and staying in the present, moment-by-moment—to feelings, thoughts, bodily sensations, and the surrounding environment without being judgmental.

A few key things to keep in mind when practicing mindfulness are to:

• Pay close attention to your breathing and to what you are sensing in a given moment: the sights, sounds, and smells that ordinarily escape conscious awareness. • Become aware that your thoughts and emotions are momentary and do not define you. • Tune into your body's physical sensations using all of your senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.

Mindfulness with youth

might include meditations with sound and taste to help group members to relax and get centered, visualizations (guided imagery) to encourage their imaginative powers, or body scanning to enhance their abilities to have some control over emotional distress

The saying, "Nothing about us without us!"

is a social activist's appeal for collective action. It is meant to convey the idea that no social policies or actions should be decided by anyone without the full participation of individuals or members of groups, including young people who are often marginalized and disenfranchised, who are affected by those policies or actions.

Activity and discussion

must not be viewed as opposites, but rather as two sides of the same program coin.

9.1 Manual considerations

Group workers should carefully select activities based on purpose and context, considering how structured or free the activity is, how much control members have versus the leader, the level of interaction required, and whether the activity allows all members to participate successfully without feeling incompetent, while possibly challenging them to build skills like frustration tolerance.

9.1 mutual cautionary notes

Activities should not be used just to occupy kids or reduce the leader's anxiety. Curricula should guide, not control, allowing for interaction, mutual aid, and spontaneity. Activities must have a clear, honest purpose with no hidden agendas, and leaders should be aware that noisy or messy activities might be undervalued by outsiders.

THE TRIPLE THREAT

Promoting Reflection, Critical Thinking, and Mutual Aid

Beginning phase

trust, reduced anxiety, clarity of purpose, norms established

Middle phase

group matures and creates a culture

John Dewey Problem-solving model

• Sensing a problem exists + Identifying the problem + Exploring the problem at depth + Identify solutions + Choose solution, try it, evaluate it

Growth in the beginning phase of group work is characterized by…

reduced anxiety, increased trust, growing commitment, clarity of purpose, and establishment of norms.

In the middle phase…

the unique culture of each group becomes more pronounced. Patterns of social interaction and communication need to develop. Members need to come to respect the similarities and differences among them.

John Dewey

(1910), a pioneer in the progressive education movement and a major influence on the development of group work, created a scientific model for problem solving.

Dewey's model

1. Sensing that a problem exists in the group. 2. Identifying the problem. 3. Exploring the problem in depth. 4. Identifying possible solutions and obstacles. 5. Choosing a solution, trying it, and evaluating it.

Sensing That a Problem Exists in the Group

Something is going on that requires some attention. The difficulty might be group-internal, that is, something related to the interactions, norms, or structure of the group; or it might be group-external, that is, occurring in the home, school, or community, that has not yet been clearly identified.

Identifying the Problem

The group members must have a clear sense of the problem they are addressing, so that they're all headed in the same direction.

Exploring the Problem in Depth

Too often, groups jump from problem identification directly to finding solutions, without an adequate period of reflection and exploration.

Identifying Possible Solutions and Obstacles

Imaginatively consider. Brainstorm. What options are available? What are the strengths and limitations of these alternatives? Is what the group is setting out to do, in fact, doable?

Choosing a Solution, Trying It, and Evaluating It

Implicit in the problem-solving model is the process of stopping then action, reflecting, critically thinking, and imaginatively considering. Use of the "scientific method" in problem solving does not suggest abandoning spontaneity in the group. The contrary is the case. The problem-solving model supports and values spontaneous and creative thinking by providing a structure within which the imagined can become real.

Problem Solving and Social Goals: Finding a Public Voice through the Group

Although not always operative, in social work groups there are the traditional dual foci in which members are (1) working on their own behalf and (2) developing and promoting responsible citizenship and social goals beyond the group.

the barb technique and circle of criticism.

These are gradual exposures in which adolescents are confronted with barbs or criticisms (provocations, stressors) in the group as a precursor to learning self-control strategies and coping skills

8.1 Where the Members Are - In the beginning (of this stage) members are still:

• Exploring and testing the situation. • Seeing where they fit. • Sizing each other up. • Struggling for power. • Finding their roles.

8.1 Where the Members Are - By the end (of this stage) they:

• Have found their place in the group. • Have found others they like (subgroups may form). • Feel more accepted and understood. • Better accept and understand other members. • See themselves and the other members as distinct individuals.

8.1 As they become more sure and comfortable, members:

• Begin to express themselves more. • Share more of themselves, their experiences, their feelings, their opinions.• Are willing to risk more exposure of themselves and their ideas.

8.1 what needs to happen

Members must understand and accept group norms, develop communication and relationship patterns, clarify group and individual goals, build trust, safely express feelings, and respect similarities and differences.

8.1 role of the worker

• To support the patterns, to play a less and less central role to maximize group leadership and functioning, to activate group work versus case work in a group.• To evaluate what is going on: where the group is, how it is moving, what the stresses and strains are. • To assess individual members: attitudes, relationships, behavior, motivation, and goals, and how each person is doing in the group. • To help reclarify goals, purpose, encourage members' questioning, engage members in making decisions about the group and their use of it. • To encourage the development of positive group norms.

Importance of school-connectedness and Socio-emotional learning

Recognize emotions, Develop empathy, Behave ethically and responsibly, Develop positive relationships, Avoid negative ones

Guidelines for Groups‐on‐the‐Go

• Pay attention to Process, Structure, boundaries.• Be strength based (look for opportunities) • Form alliances with others in the school • Trust, Privacy, Confidentiality • Invite the whole person to participate

Crowd control:

everyone learning the same thing, emphasis on Standardized o-lesting consumes faculty and administration leaving less thought to other needs.

school connectedness

is a critical variable for students' success in school

What is social-emotional learning?

It is "the process through which we learn to recognize and manage emotions, care about others, make good decisions, behave ethically and responsibly, develop positive relationships, and avoid negative behaviors.

Teens who feel connected are less likely to…

engage in high-risk or internalizing behaviors such as self-harming, violence, early sexual activity, disordered eating, or suicidal behavior, for example.

Group workers who work in schools must be tuned in to and become adept at managing polarity

They must learn to reframe the belief by some school officials and personnel that there is only room for either social-emotional learning or academic learning. In contrast to an either/or position, a both/and position advances the idea that academic and social-emotional learning should be valued in school because they potentiate each other.

How can school personnel can become our allies

When educated about how kids' groups develop and what they can achieve,.

To warm up school personnel for supporting students' social and emotional learning…

they need to be reminded of what some kids experience on a day-to-day basis and what the impact will be if social-emotional learning is factored out of the school-day equation.

What are two effective strategies for identifying student needs and promoting school-based group work programs, and how do they contribute to planning these services?

Two effective strategies are communicating with school personnel using a unifying message and conducting a student needs assessment survey. The first helps engage faculty and build collaboration, while the second gathers direct input from students to identify and quantify their needs.

Group workers must be…

problem focused, clear about goals, and active in pursuing their aims.

The two major tasks of life space interviewing are

(1) clinical exploitation of life events and (2) emotional first aid on the spot. This chapter presents a third task, mutual aid in the moment, by forming groups-on-the-go that can range in time from a few minutes to a longer encounter and that can extend to a few additional follow-up meetings.

Good group work with adolescents requires…

a planning process that focuses on gaining sanction from school or agency administration, developing a clear purpose, selecting and screening members carefully, attending to the structural details (i.e., time and space) of the effort, and identifying appropriate content and materials for the group to meet its goals

Group workers implementing groups-on-the-go must pay attention to…

administrative details, such as obtaining passes for permission to leave class.

Pay Attention to Process, Structure, and Boundaries

The first step for Groups‐on‐the‐Go is to get consent from each of the group members. Boundaries must be respected. A successful group-on-the-go can be helpful to a student who is used to isolating him- or herself as he or she experiences the benefits of sharing a meeting and offering assistance.

Emphasize Group Members' Strengths and What They Have to Offer

The experience can be cathartic for all who are involved in the process. Mutual aid becomes a norm, and youths learn the power of being available to each other, listening, and sharing.

Form Alliances with Relevant Other People in the School

Traditional group work meetings may take place at regularly scheduled weekly or twice-weekly intervals. A group-on-the-go usually requires that students receive passes from teachers to be excused from class with little to no advance notice. Because constant interaction is required between the group worker and the administration and staff, it is important for the worker to communicate well with the staff in order to gain support.

Don't Disregard or Underestimate the Need for Trust, Privacy, and Confidentiality

Privacy must be respected.

Make a Demand for Work

The worker has to be on guard against a student's desire to hide within a group in order for his or her issue to remain unaddressed. The worker must make sure that a group-on-the-go is not a social gathering or hangout period (which obviously has its place) but is an intervention providing mutual aid for students in distress.

Welcome the Whole Person to Participate

One of the beautiful things about groups-on-the-go is that they can address crises that are not "psychiatric" in nature or related to "pathology" but that represent the normative needs of the young people,

Crisis-response teams are formed to…

take leadership in the face of crisis and traumatic events. Their mission is to ensure safety, monitor students' behavior, make referrals, monitor media exposure, and help members of the school community (including parents) to find meaning in the form of some action, such as contributing to the creation of a memorial

A debriefing

is generally a one-session group process structured through a series of stages, beginning with less threatening educational content regarding the impact of the trauma and moving to more sensitive emotional territory relating to the specific trauma-based experiences of group members. It finally leads to closure, including coping strategies for use beyond the debriefing group.

the crisis-response team must educate school personnel to be aware of how certain pretrauma events and specific event factors can influence a student's reactions to traumatic events, such as

Previous exposure to severe adverse life events or trauma or childhood victimization. • Earlier depression or anxiety that is not only situational and that affects brain chemistry. • Ineffective coping skills. • Family instability. • Early substance abuse.

Children of divorce are at risk of

They are at risk for negative outcomes such as risky sexual behavior, drug abuse, dropping out of school, delinquency, and depression.

Depending on individual needs of group members some of the content in groups for children and adolescents of divorce might include the following:

Discussion of the family situation, including living arrangements, custody, visitation, extended family, and supports, along with definition of key legal terms and information about divorce; identification and evaluation of worries and beliefs; expression of feelings such as anger, sadness, grief, loneliness, or relief; problem-solving around difficult situations like visitation, parental dating, conflict, and blended families; and development of skills to manage these situations, including communication, conflict resolution, anger management, and expressing feelings.

Music Improvisation and the Poetry of Rap and Hip‐Hop

The use of the music and poetry of rap and hip-hop to promote therapeutic self-disclosure and connection opened the door for a discussion of feelings, the revelation of serious issues, and the identification of solttions.

Self-harming adolescents

cut into their skin, scratch, stick themselves with needles and pins, pinch themselves to the point of bleeding, insert unsterilized objects underneath the skin, and burn themselves. The aim is "to trigger the release of endorphins for relief from emotion, emotional distress, and tension" As odd as it seems, self-harming behavior helps them to feel something, to soothe themselves, and find relief from emotional stress. For an alarming number of young people, cutting is like a friend that soothes: always available, always reliable.

Although self-harming behavior may not suggest suicidal risk

, a good assessment is necessary before drawing conclusions in more extreme cases. When unsure of suicide risk, practitioners are advised to seek supervision, alert parents, seek a referral, and request an evaluation

What youth are going through right now:

Abuse, Trauma Issues, Violence, Death; Family Issues; Personal Issues; School Issues

What are examples of abuse, trauma, and violence issues students may experience?

Being involved in serious fights, experiencing physical or sexual abuse, neglect or abandonment, exposure to war or traumatic events, suicide or murder involving someone close, death of loved ones, losing a home to fire, living in high-crime areas, accidents, or witnessing traumatic events.

What family-related issues can impact students?

Divorce or separation, parental conflict or abuse, difficulties with stepparents, serious illness in the family, homelessness, poverty, lack of basic needs, caregiving responsibilities, immigration challenges, parental mental health or addiction issues, incarceration of family members, lack of supervision, frequent moving, gang or military involvement, and foster care or adoption.

What personal issues may students face?

Depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts or attempts, eating disorders, sleep problems, self-harm, substance use, involvement in crime, sexual activity, friendship difficulties, identity issues, and cyberbullying.

What school-related issues can affect students?

Bullying, harassment, exclusion, poor relationships with teachers, test anxiety, academic hopelessness, failing classes, frequent absences, changing schools, poor social connections, and disorganization.

children involved in traumatic events

may be 2 to 3 years behind academically, and will often be seen as "disorganized, lazy, unfocused, enabled, unmotivated, the class clown, uncaring, bored, and/or failing in their potential."

What is special education?

Specially designed individualized or group instruction and services provided at no cost to parents to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities.

What is FAPE?

Free and appropriate public education provided at no cost, ensuring an appropriate program for every student with a disability.

What is Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)?

Educating students with disabilities with peers without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate, using separate settings only when necessary.

What is an IEP?

A written plan developed, reviewed, and revised to outline goals and services that meet a student's unique educational needs.

What is an FBA?

A process used to determine why a student engages in problem behavior and how it relates to the environment.

What is a BIP?

A written plan outlining positive interventions and strategies to address a student's behavioral needs.

Access to General Curriculum:

Specially designed instruction that adapts the content, methods, or delivery of teaching to meet the unique needs of a student with a disability, ensuring the student can achieve the same educational standards as all students.

Committee on Special Education (CSE):

A multidisciplinary team established by law that determines a student's eligibility for special education services and collaborates with parents and school staff to develop and implement the student's individualized education program (IEP)