Group Therapy Yalom s curative properties of group counseling Chapter 5 Imparting information both counselor and other clients impart info to one another They advise suggest and give direct guidance about problems in living Info may be implicit with the info being picked up accidentally or a planned part of the program All participating embers offer different perspectives on an issue Instilling hope some groups do this by putting the new client in a group with someone who is further along in treatment and who has survived crises if she can do it so can I Universality it is curative to hear other clients report similar thoughts and feelings so the client doesn t feel alone with their problems Altruism clients help each other they support suggest reassure offer insights share similar problems and point out each other s strengths This sets healing forces in motion and sometimes may continue after the therapy ends Corrective reception of the primary family group the group provides a partial family in which better social relationships are worked out because most clients have had bad family experiences The clients transfer their feelings toward their own family member to members of the group but with the counselor s guidance a better resolution of the interpersonal problems is achieved Development of social skills there are opportunities for social learning It is hoped that these mew social skills will generalize to client s relationships outside of therapy in ways that will improve the client s life Imitative behavior social learning is facilitated by the tendency of clients to model themselves o the other group members and on the counselor Vicarious spectator counseling takes place as the members watch other clients receive therapeutic attention from the group and the counselor This change process is facilitated by the fact that the group members are peers Peers are a potent force for change especially with adolescents Interpersonal learning the group itself is a social microcosm Group members interact and form relationships They learn about their strengths limitations etc and receive feedback on how they act toward others Catharsis the interactions in the group often bring up emotions and the group members can express these emotions in the group setting supported by a trained counselor This is good the more emotional the transactions the bigger the impact Group cohesiveness Clients in the group accept one another and come to mean a great deal to one another This facilitates self acceptance self esteem the expression of emotions and other therapeutic events Important factors Group size should be 8 10 individuals It s recommended to start with a larger group 12 14 because some members will drop out or not appear Lager groups 12 may have a difficult time developing trust or jelling as a group They also afford opportunities for some members to avoid participating by deferring to more dominant members Small groups 8 can create too much pressure on members or discomfort and self consciousness Membership structure we don t have a clear answer to whether a group should be open or closed ended o Closed ended groups all members begin and end at the same time Fewer offenders get referred to the groups Their term expires before a new group has the opportunity to start More likely to be more cohesive o Open groups admits new members at any point Can serve more clients and afford opportunities for new members to work with more experienced members Some types of programs have carefully sequenced curricula and new members simply can t be brought up to speed Advantages of group therapy Economical Offenders get input from other in the group Improves security of symptoms and scores on psychological social and occupational functioning assessments As effective as individual therapy Developed by Carl Rogers who assumed that each client had the potential for positive Person Centered Therapy change and self actualization Critical components include o Unconditional positive regard we value a person no matter what they do say think and feel where person centered therapy differs from behavioral therapy o Empathic understanding counselor tries to show client that they have an understanding of what the client is saying and feeling and counselor fully understands client s mental state o Conditional positive regard we like a person only if they meet certain conditions o Congruence person is honest with themselves and others no putting on an appearance o Genuineness counselor must be open and honest in their relationship with client Transactional Analysis Developed by Eric Berne This theory was initially based in psychoanalytic theory There are 2 major components of this theory 1 Structural analysis of ego states Child ego state resembles the way we behaved as a child ex when we have fun at a party of when we get angry Adult ego state pattern of behavior we show when we are being mature and rational people ex when we collaborate with co workers on projects Parent ego state when we assume a nurturing or parenting role directed towards others ex with our children or with certain friends 2 Transactions ways of communicating Game transactions may take place at overt covert levels simultaneously Milieu Therapy Therapeutic community or milieu therapy was developed by Maxwell Jones and others after WWII as a result of their attempts to rehabilitate repatriated prisoners of war Essential to the functioning of these communities is the principle that all members of the institution provide therapeutic experiences Because this treatment is more similar to the lives of inmates in the outside world this therapy attempts to train inmates to re enter society Therapeutic communicates are much like a normal community in that the staff switches from authoritarian to democratic ways of interacting There is a great deal of variation in how therapeutic communities are run Guided Group Interaction This therapy was designed to harness the power of peer pressure and support Confrontation is a hallmark of this approach While it is typically used for delinquents it is similar to techniques already used in therapeutic communities o Ex Positive Peer Cultures more recent adaptations of the principles of the therapeutic community and GGI programs o Ex EQUIP program a blend of the PPC elements with cognitive behavioral programs to improve moral reasoning and reduce criminal thinking Reality Therapy This counseling technique was introduced by