Spotlighting the skills of social group work, this handbook offers practical guidance and theoretical knowledge, enabling the reader to facilitate groups of varying types with increased clarity, purpose, and confidence. The reader is helped to understand what skill to employ, when, and why. New or veteran group facilitators are reminded to empower group members to both employ their strengths and engage in mutual aid – the fundamental value and methodology that underlies social group work. Specific skills help group members to coalesce as a cohesive group and optimize their capacity to reach their goals whether exploring therapeutic answers or accomplishing work tasks.
This book illustrates that there are “basics” to the method of human service work with groups that can help you to feel more at ease with and more effective at working with people in groups. The group work method is delineated for you, outlining: (1) skills of working with groups (ways of thinking or doing to make things happen), (2) practice principles (the moral reasoning that underlies what you choose to think and do in your practice), and (3) theoretical underpinnings for those choices (why your choices will achieve desirable ends). Anecdotal material and skills in action provide explicit examples of what skills look like in real time.
Social work students and academics as well as students and professionals working in the fields of youth work, counseling, mental health/clinical social work, and related health subjects will find this book of interest.
Author(s): Dominique Moyse Steinberg, Eileen C. Lyons
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 130
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Foreword
PART 1: Introduction, Purpose, Context
Introduction
Why This Book
PART 2: The Basics of Group Work Method and Skill
Definitions of Key Terms
Groups
Group Purpose
Group Work
Practitioner
Group Worker
The Worker as Educator
Practice
Skills
Group-Specific Skills
Principles
Theory
Mutual Aid
Underlying Values
Commitment
Consensus/Democracy
Difference as Enriching
Empowerment
Humanism
Holistic Thinking
Knowledge
Self-Determination
Transparency
Underlying Assumptions
Modifying Practice
Professional Development
Professional Values
How This Book Is Organized
A Word About Professional Literature
PART 3: The Skills of Group Work Deconstructed
Introduction
1. Skill Set: Need
Overview
Major Concepts
Skills
Assess Your Work Setting
Assess Client Perspective
Assess Goodness of Fit
Pay Ongoing Attention to Need
Help People Decide on Membership
2. Skill Set: Purpose
Overview
Major Concepts
Skills
Conceptualize a Potential Group Purpose
Try It* on for Size (*Your Idea About a Group Purpose)
Land on a Particular Group Purpose
Operationalize Group Purpose
Consider Size of Membership in Relation to Group Purpose
Pay Ongoing Attention to Group Purpose
Constantly Think Purpose
3. Skill Set: Worker Role
Overview
Major Concepts
Skills
Become Informed
Apply New Knowledge
Tune In
Educate the Group
Maintain Dual Focus
Sit on Your Mouth (Roman 2002)
4. Skill Set: Group Process
Overview
Major Concepts
Skills
Start the Meeting
Secure Consensus on the Work
Confirm Consensual Agreement
Invite Shared Ownership
Attend to Group Stage
Reach for Ambivalence
Consider the Possibility of Latent Content
Help the Group to Problem-Solve
Synthesize Information Received
Evaluate the Process
5. Skill Set: Mutual Aid
Overview
Major Concepts
Skills
Mutual Aid Dynamics: An Overview
Explain Mutual Aid
Identify Group Strengths
Harness Group Strengths
Invite Group Members to Help One Another
Evaluate the Helping Process
6. Skill Set: Conflict
Overview
Major Concepts
Skills
Help the Group to Expect Differences
Help the Group to Accept Expressions of Difference
Help the Group to See Difference as Perspective
Help the Group to Talk About Differences
Help the Group to Make Meaning of Its Differences
Address Conflict Directly
Endnote
Appendices
Appendix A: On Identifying a Tentative Group Purpose
Appendix B: On Hidden Agendas
Appendix C: On Self-Disclosure
Appendix D: On Problem Solving with Mutual Aid in Mind: Casework in a Group vs Group Work
References
Index
