guiding group process by facilitation elizabeth a. keene reder, ma, ct harriet lane compassionate...

Guiding Group Process by Facilitation

Elizabeth A. Keene Reder, MA, CT

Harriet Lane Compassionate Care

Johns Hopkins Children’s CenterBaltimore, MD

September 11, 2008

Elizabeth A. Keene Reder, Harriet Lane Compassionate Care, Johns Hopkins Children's Center September 11, 2008

Examples of groups• Bereavement support• Disease-directed (cancer, HIV)• Caregiver support (Alzheimer’s, cancer)• Substance abuse support• Domestic violence• Offenders• Scripture study• Support for health care professionals• Chaplain peer support• Departmental work group


Responding to Suffering

I wish I could show you,

when you are lonely or in darkness,

the astonishing light of your own being.

-Hafiz

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Group Process• Therapeutic factors

– Instillation of hope– Altruism– Cohesiveness– Guidance– Identification– Inter-personal learning (input and output)– Self-understanding– Universality– Catharsis

Yalom, The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, 2005 (5th edition).


Group Process

• Support vs. psycho educational vs. self-help groups– Support groups focus more on

“mutual aid”; psycho educational groups strive for behavioral or social change

– Support groups have a professional leader; self-help groups do not


Role of Facilitator• Establish a “Gracious Space”• Set an accepting; nonjudgmental tone• Manage time• Establish group rules• Encourage sharing• Challenge when appropriate• Be aware of your own vulnerabilities


Group Facilitation Skills

• Skill of Silence• Skill of Connecting Group Members• Skill of Differentiation• Skill of Identifying Common Themes• Skill of Developing Group Rituals• Skill of Developing Group Cohesion

Adapted from The Dougy Center Facilitator Skills Manual, The Dougy Center, The National Center for Grieving Children and Their Families


Group Format

• Target audience-institution or community?

• Screening or “just show up”?• Voluntary or mandatory? • Open ended or time limited?• Structured content or free-flow sharing?• Fee or free?


Essential Communication Skills

• Reflect content or feelings

• Paraphrase• Clarify• Open-ended

questions• Metacommunicatio

n


Stages of Group Development

.

• Forming

• Storming

• Norming

• Performing

• Adjourning

Tuckman, BW & Jensen, MA. (1977) Stages of small-group development revisited. Group and Organizational Studies.

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Roadblocks

• Attendance• Resistance• Non participants• Murphy’s law for communities (Palmer)• “The conversation hog”• “The advice giver”• “The comparer”• ???


Resources

• National Catholic Ministry to the Bereaved: Ministry of Consolation Training Manual www.griefwork.org

• Wolfelt, Alan. How to Start and Lead a Bereavement Support Group, Companion Press.

• The Dougy Center, The National Center for Grieving Children www.dougy.org

• Hughes, Patricia. Gracious Space, Center for Ethical Leadership

http://www.griefwork.org/

http://www.dougy.org/


Resources• The Journal for Specialists in Group Work,

Routledge Press

• Association for Specialists in Group Work: Best Practice Guidelines 2007 Revisions published in The Journal for Specialists in Group Work, June 2008.

• Trainings through national associations:– Suicide prevention, cancer, HIV

• Trainings through local organizations:– Hospice programs, community outreach

programs


Implications from Bereavement Research

“All he ever does is work.”“I can’t stand to see her cry.”

• Grief Coping Styles– Intuitive: Process-oriented, focus on

feelings, cope by expressive approaches– Instrumental: Task-oriented, focus on

thoughts, cope by behavioral approaches– Dissonant: Unable to respond within

particular styleDoka, K. ( 2000) Men Don’t Cry…Women Do. Bruner/Mazel.



“Everyone tells me I should join a support group to talk about my feelings.”

• Effects of disclosure of emotions– No evidence that disclosure facilitates

adjustment (spousal loss)– Some evidence that teaching instrumental

grievers emotion-focused techniques/intuitive grievers problem-focused techniques is helpful

Parkes, CM. (2002) “Grief: lessons from the past, visions for the future.” Death Studies.



“I don’t know why you say good-bye, I say hello…*”

• Continuing bonds– Shift in grief model from severing the

attachment to the deceased to constructing healthy continuing bonds

– Continuing bonds support behaviors and attitudes of cooperation and help overcome depression, anger and resentment

*Browning, D. Innovations in End-of-Life Care, 2001.Klass, D. Continuing Bonds: New Understandings of Grief, 1996.


Grief and the Health Care Professional

• Model for health care professionals– Grief can be related to:

• Loss of relationship with child• Identification with parents’ pain• Loss of assumptions about worldview• Previous, unresolved losses (or future anticipated)• Personal mortality• Loss of sense of integrity, professional expectations

Papadatou, D. (2000) “A proposed model of health professionals’ grieving process.” Omega. 41(5), 59-77.


Grief and the Health Care Professional

• Interventions– Clinical support– Information– Emotional

support– Meaning-making


Outcomes

Do those served grow as persons;

do they, while being served,

become healthier, wiser, freer,

more autonomous,more likely themselves

to become servants?

-Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership

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Guiding Group Process

• Part of a comprehensive, multifaceted plan for support

• Take advantage of existing resources• Partner with community organizations• Be aware of your own vulnerabilities

guiding group process by facilitation elizabeth a. keene reder, ma, ct harriet lane compassionate...

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