Group Work: Skills and Strategies for Effective Interventions » (2nd Edition)

Group Work: Skills and Strategies for Effective Interventions, Second Edition examines eclectic approaches to group work and discusses ways to help practitioners offer more successful services to clients. This edition includes new material on complicated value dilemmas and specific techniques in confrontation and in humor in groups. Complete with more games and exercises for group sessions, this enlightening book also contains excerpts and discussions of case studies that will serve as a valuable reference that may be applied to your own experiences.

Group Work will help you provide improved services to clients as it discusses effective suggestions and strategies, such as:

• gaining an understanding of “self,” or the process by which you identify internal responses to external stimuli created by the group
  
• unlocking the underlying meanings, themes, and needs of a group by examining transference and countertransference issues
  
• establishing guidelines, structures, and goals and purposes for groups and defining your role in achieving these standards
  
• helping you identify and work through feelings of boredom, helplessness, sadness, and anger, which are potential barriers to the work of the group
  
• helping the group translate nonverbal expressions of similar feelings as they manifest themselves in certain group behaviors, including absence and lateness, lethargy in communication, and acting out
  
• ending groups properly to ensure progress is maintained and separation is not damaging

Intelligent and informative, Group Work features charts and a glossary of games and exercises that will help you offer your group the services they need. Full of new strategies and methods, this second edition will serve as an essential guide for all types of situations that arise in your groups.

Booknews

Featuring a glossary of group games and exercises, case studies, and excerpts from group discussions, this book examines the diverse options available to practitioners and clinicians. Brandler (social work, College of Staten Island of the City University, NY) and Roman, a group consultant in New York City, discuss effective strategies such as establishing guidelines, structures, and goals; helping the group translate nonverbal expressions of similar feelings; and how to end groups properly, ensuring that progress with be maintained. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Contents Preface

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Mutual Aid
• Group Cohesion
• Catharsis
• Mastery
• Models
• Group Phases
• Use of Self
• Chapter 2. In the Beginning
• The Members' Issues
• The Worker's Role: Use of Self and Issues of Authority
• Role of the Worker: Beginning Tasks and Issues for the Group
• Contracting
• Engagement
• Trusting and Testing
• Moving from the Concrete to the Thematic
• Conclusion
• Chapter 3. In the Middle
• The Members' Issues
• The Worker's Role: Use of Self and Issues of Authority
• The Group As Mother
• Working on a Shared Problem
• Obstacles
• Confrontation
• Conclusion
• Chapter 4. Endings
• The Members' Issues
• The Worker's Role: Use of Self and the Issues of Authority
• Termination of a Member: A Group Issue
• Lost in Feelings
• Staying with Feelings
• Termination and Regression
• Conclusion
• Chapter 5. Group Planning
• Needs Assessment
• Purpose
• Composition
• Structure
• Content
• Pregroup Contacts
• Agency Context
• Planning a Group for Persons with AIDS
• Conclusion
• Chapter 6. The Use of Programming in Groups
• Manipulating Aspects of Activities to Meet Clients' Needs
• The Group Mural
• Saying Good-Bye
• Acting Out Feelings
• Use of the Small Group in Large Group Settings
• Conclusion
• Chapter 7. Manifest and Latent Content
• Use of Self: The Worker's Role As Authority
• Tuning In to Nonverbal Cues
• Acting Out Feelings
• Following a Theme
• Growing by Respecting the Message of the Group
• Clarifying Communication
• Symbolic Expression
• The Hunger Artist
• Chapter 8. Confronting Acting-Out Behavior and Powerful Latent Themes
• Introduction
• Powerful Angry Feelings
• Confrontation in Beginnings
• Tips on Confronting
• Avoiding Confrontation
• Workers' Confrontation with Self
• Chapter 9. Using Humor in Groups
• The Absurdity of Suffering
• We Can Either Laugh or Cry
• I Am What I Am
• Getting the Message Through
• Laughing Through Our Tears
• Chapter 10. Special Practice Issues
• Special Structures
• Co-Therapy
• A Cooperative Effort
• Parallel Process
• Working Out Irreconcilable Differences
• Dealing with Problematic Situations
• Scapegoating
• Differences and Sameness: The Use of Self
• Conclusion
• Chapter 11. Value Dilemmas in Group Practice
• Matters of Confidentiality
• Individual versus Individual and Individual versus Group
• Group versus Agency
• Group as Reflective of Democratic Process
• Positions of Professionals Dealing with Ethical Issues Expressed in Groups
• Conclusion
• Glossary of Group Games and Exercises
• Activities for Use in the Beginnings
• Activities for Use in the Middles
•  Activities for Use in the Endings
• Additional Bibliographic Material
• Bibliography
• Index