scaling questions as used in solution focused therapy groups
On a 1-10 scale, how would you rate your desire to change?
when the focus of a group should be deepened
Make sure members are ready and Make sure you have enough time
important points related to cutting off a member
- Tell members you are going to be doing this
- Timing—do it early
- Use of Voice—should not be critical
- Nonverbal Signals—eyes and hands
- Cut and Stay With the Topic
- take the topic back to the entire group
- cut and move to another person on the same topic
- Cut and Leave the Person and Topic
different types of groups that are suitable for children in schools in comparison to groups suitable for children in agencies.
schools:
- Self-concept or self-esteem
- Anger management
- Getting along with siblings
- Shyness
- Friendship
- Divorce
- Living in a stepfamily
- Living with a chemically dependent parent
- New-to-the-school
- Dealing with bullies
- Dealing with name calling
- Grief support (after some tragic event)
- Study skills building
- Building social skills
- ADHD children
- Improving academics
Agencies:
- Severe behavior problems
- Divorce
- Alcoholic parents
- Abused children (upper ages; need a very skilled leader)
Understand the ego states of a person as defined by transactional analysis and how they function.
- set of related thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in which part of an individual’s personality is manifested at a given time
- The Parent ego state: values, morals, core beliefs, and behaviors incorporated from significant authority figures, primarily one’s parents. (nurturing parent/ controlling parent)
- The Adult ego state: objective and computer-like part of our personality that functions as a data processor; it computes possibilities and, like the other two ego states, makes decisions, and represents what we have learned and thought out for ourselves.
- The Child ego state: original part of us and is most naturally who we are. (natural child/ adaptive child)
three cognitive behavioral approaches to group therapy
- Focus is on members’ current problems
- Aim is to change maladaptive behaviors to adaptive ones
- The therapy is largely educational—teaching group members skills of self-management
limitations of cognitive behavioral therapy
- May prevent members from meeting personal needs if too highly structured
- Problematic if overly didactic
- If rigidly applied, can focus exclusively on problems or symptoms rather than on the meaning of a behavior
history of REBT
- Albert Ellis:Father of REBT/Grandfather of CBT
- Ellis was known for his abrasive, humorous, and flamboyant style
- Ellis believed we have a strong inclination to disturb ourselves
- Ellis developed active and direct ways of working; he stressed taking action on insights gained in therapy
- Premise of REBT: to bring about lasting emotional and behavioral change, members must change their thinking
A-B-C theory in relation to REBT
Activating event –> Belief –> Consequence (emotional and behavioral)
Disputing intervention –> Effect (an effective philosophy is developed) –> Feeling (new feeling)
basic human needs according to reality choice therapy.
Love and belonging
Power
Freedom
Fun
Survival (Physiological needs)
- reality choice therapy sees all internally motivated behavior geared towards the meeting of one or more of our basic human needs.
- We perceive the world in the context of our own needs
- The focus is on internal control and the subjective world
- We choose our own goals and are responsible for the kind of world we create
key concepts of solution focused brief therapy.
- SFBT is grounded on a positive orientation—people are healthy and competent
- The past is downplayed while the present and future are highlighted
- Therapy is concerned with looking for what is working
- Group leaders assist members in finding exceptions to their problems
- There is a shift from “problem-orientation” to “solution-focus”
- The emphasis of SFBT is on constructing solutions rather than problem solving
major aim of motivational interviewing
- reduce ambivalence about change
- increase intrinsic motivation.
essential group leader’s tasks no matter what theory is
- Initiate and promote interaction via structure of group and modeling behaviors.
- Orient members to the group process.
- Capable of sensitive, active listening
- Creating a safe and supportive climate to explore issues
- Responsible for setting limits, informing of rights m responsibilities and protecting members
therapeutic essentials that influence how a group proceeds.
- Making art in a group setting creates a sense of ritual that provides psychological safety and promotes interpersonal emotional risk taking.
- Making art with others is a safe way to express pain, fear, and other difficult feelings.
- Making art in the presence of others is an expression of hope.
- Making art is a way to communicate that does not depend solely upon verbalization.
- Making art in the presence of others reduces isolation and creates a sense of community.
- Making art in a group setting provides ways to symbolize and express feelings regarding interpersonal relationships.
- When members of a group make art they create shared experiences in the present.
- Making art with others fosters a sense of personal and communal empowerment.
- Making art in a group setting promotes positive regard for the other members of the group.
- Making art with others is a gratifying and pleasurable experience.
- Making art in a group setting is an act of self-transcendence.
- Art making in a group setting often leads to expression of the ultimate concerns of existence.
Moon’s five steps used to actively listen and relate to group members and their artwork.
- Looking to see what is literally there in the artwork— made, materials used, textures, lines, shapes, and colors
- Looking closely in order to explore feelings the artwork evokes
- Looking for a range of metaphoric and possible symbolic meanings
- Listening closely to what group members say about their artworks and about their lives
- Responding to group members’ artworks and stories
According to Moon, how hope is built in an art therapy group
- group leader’s conviction that making art in the company of others is both healthy and healing
- Faith in the art-making process is nurtured in the group milieu that regards creative self expression as a declaration of hope.
- Dark and troubling aspects of life are welcomed into the studio or group room and are allowed to make their way toward transformative healing.
- My work with people in art-based therapy groups has convinced me that clients’ pain, along with their artistic activity, are indispensable partners in the process of building hope. ~Bruce Moon
what distinguishes the work of art based therapy groups from other modes of group therapy.
- The linear language of logical conversation cannot convey the subtle nuances of artistic expression, nor even the most basic qualities of a creative enactment.
- “The core of the therapeutic work that occurs in art-based group therapy has been done before clients say anything about their creative expression. Talking about the creative process and finished artworks is the icing on the cake”.
- The crucial therapeutic work in the art-based therpy group sessions takes place among artist participants, media, processes, and images, in the presence of the group leader.
creative empowerment work in an art therapy group according to Moon.
- The principle that images speak louder than words.
- The tenet that there are many ways to interact with images that does not rely solely on linear discourse.
- The notion that expression of feelings is healthier than suppression.
- The principle of cathexis-that original feelings related to events in a person’s life remain powerfully attached to artistic portrayal.
Buber’s I-It relationship versus the I-Thou relationship
I-It: view objects and people through the lense of their function causing us to remain distant and apart to protect our vuneralbilities or get something from another
I-Thou: puting oneself completly into a relationship, being present with and understanding another person. each person responds by trying to improve the other person resulting in genuine, recripricol, and authentic sharing
painful and complex emotions that Moon sees that clients bring to group.
- Freedom
- Aloneness
- Guilt
- Personal responsibility for one’s own life.
- Inevitability of suffering and death.
- Longing for purpose and meaning.
These can be ignored (denial) or acknowledged by living in a state of “mindfulness”
