Choose either your textbook readings or assigned group articles and respond as follows: Jacobs, Masson, & Harvil: (Ch. 7, 12, 16) Brown, N (2009).Counterproductive group member behaviors, Becoming an effective group leader. Pearson. Stockton, R., Morra

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Person-Centered Approach

to Group Work

Small Group Process for the Health Professional

Fall 2016

Laurette Olson Ph.D. OTR/L FAOTA

Key concepts and Assumptions of

the Person-Centered Approach to

Groups

Clients are basically trustworthy and have the potential for self-direction. Because of this, there is a minimum of directions on the part of the leader. Too much direction would undermine respect for group members.

Emphasizes personal qualities of group leader rather than techniques for leading the group. The leader creates a CLIMATE where healing can occur.

Key concepts and assumptions

continued Genuineness, unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding of members’ subjective world are the core therapeutic conditions for growth.

External measures such as diagnosis, testing, interpretation, advice giving are not useful for group work.

Group members are the central focus of the group. Group members are as facilitative or more facilitative of the group process than the group leader.

(Corey, 2000)

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Leader Functions

Conveying Warmth and Empathy

Attending to Others

Understanding Meaning and Intents

Conveying Acceptance

Linking

The Leader adopts what Rogers called "the therapist's hypothesis". This is the belief that the capacity for self- insight, problem-solving, and growth resides in the clients. This means that the central questions for the therapist are not 'What can I do for the person or group members? or even "How do I see these group members" but rather "How does these group members see themselves and their situation?"

.

Fundamental Components of

Leader/therapist attributes Empathy

Acceptance, Respect and Positive Regard

Being Authentic and Congruent

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EMPATHY

Expressed verbally and nonverbally though messages such as "I follow you," "I’m with you" or "I understand," empathy is the Therapist’s (listener's) effort to hear the other person deeply, accurately, and non-judgmentally. A person who sees that a therapist (listener) is really trying to understand his or her meanings will be willing to explore his or her problems and self more deeply.

Empathy is surprisingly difficult to achieve. We all have a strong tendency to advise, tell, agree, or disagree from our own point of view.

Empathy in a group

Is a shared responsibility and a resource for the

group.

Primary task of a group leader to model empathy

and encourage members to be empathic. It

contributes to the development of cohesion and

for a group to be productive by building trust and

safety, forging connections among members,

making members feel included, encouraging

emotional expression and promoting a

willingness to engage in self-exploration.

If a leader want to build

therapeutic alliances, help

members feel better, solve

problems, improve

relationships, and change

behavior,

the leader needs to demonstrate high

levels of empathy for group members.

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The capacity to be empathic

requires: An openness to experience

An awareness of here and now feelings.

Emotional regulation and control

Psychological boundary strength

The skill of accurately expressing what you are

experiencing and feeling

Trust in self to differentiate experiences from

own personal issues (projection, transference)

Ability to recognize empathic failures and repair

them.

Psychological Boundary

Your psychological boundary is where you

end and others begin.

Group members may have poor

psychological boundaries, it is important

as a leader to work on your own

boundaries

Leaders who have issues with

psychological boundaries may:

Push members for deeper disclosures

than they are ready to share.

Insist that members do what the leader

tells them to do.

Become enraged when attacked,

criticized, or charged with an error.

Do things that are intrusive to members.

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How does a new leader/therapist

develop empathy?

1. Be present-centered: Bring all attention to

what is currently taking place in the group and

with members.

2. Limit thoughts about the past or future

3. Limit trying to anticipate what you will need or

want to say. Carefully consider what you say, but

make your response a result of the present.

4. Be aware of your inner experience in the

present so that you can use it to better understand

the present: what is currently happening.

Developing Empathy

5. Work to consciously "sense" the inner world of different

members. Don't jump from member to member, but stay

focused on the person who is speaking or a member who is

currently most focal to you. The more you practice, the

more proficient you will become in listening to content and

tuning in to the emotional piece of a person's message.

6. Sit patiently and allow others to organize their thoughts.

Use active listening to help, but it is NOT empathic to

interrupt a speaker, finish the sentences of others, or tell

another what you believe that they are thinking.

Developing Empathy

Resist giving answers or advice

including proposing solutions or

alternatives, making decisions

for another.

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What might an empathic failure

look like? 1. No responses were given to what a member

said.

2. The topic was changed.

3. You became bored

4. Your mind drifted from the group and thought

about about there and then concerns.

5. You reacted something as trivial and

unimportant when another thought that it was

important.

When there is an empathic failure, the

leader & group needs to:

Reflect

Identify the empathic failure

Act to repair the empathic failure

ACCEPTANCE

Closely related to empathy. Acceptance means

having respect for a person for simply being a

person. Acceptance should be as unconditional

as possible. This means that the listener should

avoid expressing agreement or disagreement

with what the other person says. This attitude

encourages the other person to be less

defensive and to explore aspects of self and the

situation that they might otherwise keep hidden

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CONGRUENCE

Refers to openness, frankness, and genuineness on the part of the listener. The congruent listener is in touch with themselves. If angry or irritated, for example, the congruent person admits to having this feeling rather than pretending not to have it (perhaps because they are trying to be accepting). They communicate what they feel and know, rather than hiding behind a mask. Candor on the part of the listener tends to evoke candor in the speaker. When one person comes out from behind a facade, the other is more likely to as well.

In some cases, the principle of congruence can be at odds with the principles of empathy and acceptance.

Rogers’ definition of CONCRETENESS

Refers to focusing on specifics rather than vague generalities. Often, a person who is has a problem will avoid painful feelings by being abstract or impersonal, using expressions like "sometimes there are situations that are difficult" (which is vague and abstract), or "most people want…" (which substitutes others for oneself). The listener can encourage concreteness by asking the speaker to be more specific. Foe example, instead of a agreeing with a statement like "You just can’t trust a manager. They care about themselves first and you second", you can ask what specific incident the speaker is referring to.

Active Listening is

being able to hear and

understand direct and indirect

communication and conveying

your understanding to the other

person.

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Active listening Advantages:

Increases the listener’s understanding of the other person

Help the speaker clarify his/her thoughts

Reassure the other that someone is willing

to attend to his or her point of view and

wants to help.

Active listening skills

– Reflection of feeling or content

– Paraphrasing

– Clarifying and questioning

– summarizing

– Support and encouraging

Reflection of Feeling or Content

A key point is that perceived feelings

should be clearly identified and labeled.

Same purposes as paraphrasing.

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Developing Reflecting Skills is critical

Why: Because people do not always say

what they mean and leaders don't always

understand what they hear.

Guidelines for Reflecting

Identify the underlying message and name

the emotion that you hear

Be tentative and paraphrase to check for

accuracy

Be alert to connections or links to other

verbalizations

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing: restating what has been

said without parroting.

Provides a speaker the opportunity to

clear up any misunderstanding.

Helps with reflecting on content

Reduces confusion and misunderstanding

that can easily occur.

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Using Paraphrasing when

A speaker is overly general and more

specificity is needed.

A speaker’s comments suggest examples

of a topic to you. Examples can provide

clarification.

Complicated directions are given or

complex ideas are shared.

Clarifying and Questioning

Clarifying goes with reflecting.

It illuminates intent and provides clearer

direction

Developing Questioning Skills

Learn when not to ask questions. In some

situations, it is more helpful to make

statements than to ask questions.

Become aware of your habit or tendency

related to asking questions is an important

step in learning.

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Questions: Don’ts and Do’s

Beware of asking too many questions. People

can feel attacked and may not experience the

questions as a display of interest but a hostile

interrogation.

Be conscious that many questions are

statements that signal what the speaker wants to

hear or feels is important.

Questions are important and can be very

constructive

– Use questions for gathering facts and

initiating clarifications

Summarizing

Tying together key elements that were

discussed.

Encouraging and supporting

Being too supportive is counterproductive

and promotes dependency.

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Strategies for encouraging and support

Focus on how members have made positive movements

and developments on their problems or concerns

Become aware of positive changes and shifts members

make

Demonstrate your faith in members' abilities and

competencies by your words and actions

Solicit and consider members' input

Listen to ideas that may be off beat or different, don't

discourage new ideas.

Try to use a part of everyone's input

Some Common Mistakes when

practicing active listening:

Stereotyped Reactions. Constantly repeating a phrase like "you feel that …" or "you’re saying that …" Pretending Understanding. If you get lost, say "sorry, I didn’t get that. What are you saying?".

Overreaching. Ascribing meanings that go far beyond what the other has exprcssed, such as by giving psychological explanations or by stating interpretations that the other considers to be exaggerated or otherwise inaccurate.

Under-reaching. Repeatedly missing the fcelings that the other conveys or making responses that understate them.

Long-windedness, Giving very long or complex responses. These emphasize the listener's massive effort to undcrstand more than they clarifv the other person's point of view. Short, simple responses are more effective.

Inattention to nonverbal cues. Facing or leaning away from the other, not maintaining eye contact, looking tense, or presenting a "closed" posture by crossing the arms arc only a few of the nonverbal cues a listener should avoid. "Correct" verbal responses arc of little use when accompanied by nonverbal signals that contradict them

Violating the other person's expectations. Giving reflective responses when they are clearly not appropriate to the situation. For example, if the other person asks a direct question and obviously expects an answer, simply answering the question is often best. In other words, if someone says: "what time is it?" you don’t usually say "You’re feeling concern about the time".

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Other Skills:

Reframing and Redirecting When you reframe, you repeat what

someone said and giving it another

perspective. Very useful when the

speaker focuses on deficiencies,

weaknesses or mistakes

Redirecting is similar to reframing, but you

are actively asking the person to go in

another direction.

Another Skill for Group

Leadership: Blocking • Skill used to protect group members from

attacks or proceeding in the wrong way. Could

be interpreted as redirecting, but the term

blocking is used when emotional intensity is high

or displaced onto other members. Blocking is

also useful when a group member rambles and

tells long stories instead of being focused or

getting to the point.

• Blocking must be done carefully.

Another Skill: Linking

Helps especially when a discussion

appears to be disjointed, fragmented or

chaotic.

It is bringing together underlying ideas,

themes, concepts, understandings when

the associations are not apparent on the

surface.

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Questions to ponder about yourself as

a leader using active listening in the

beginning stage of a group

Do you talk too much or too soon?

Are you concerned with answers more than feelings?

Are you quick to give advice?

Do you ask many closed ended questions?

Do you like being directive?

Do you tend to listen subjectively to confirm your hunches about people?

How much attention do you pay to subtle meanings behind content and words?

Corey 2000

In the working stage, questions to

ponder: Can you tolerate the expression of negative feelings within a group including accepting those feelings directed at you?

Are you able and willing to share your own reactions in an appropriate manner with group members?

Can you be yourself or is your professional role central to your identity within a group?

Do you trust members with your feelings and tell them how they are affecting you?

(Corey, 2000)

In the final stages, questions to

ponder:

Are you able to facilitate rather than direct

a group?

Can you be supportive and confrontive?

Can you be nurturing and challenging at

the same time?

Corey, 2000

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Key References

Brown, N. W. (1998). Psychoeducational

Groups. New York: Brunner-Routledge.

Brown, N.W. (2009). Becoming a Group

Leader. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Education.

Corey, G. (2000). Theory and Practice of

Group Counseling 5th Edition. Wadsworth.