Engagement and Authority

Answer

Group Facilitation: Engagement and Authority

In examining sessions within the multimedia piece, Group Therapy: Formation and Ongoing Dynamics, my observation will concentrated on group engagement and issues related to group authority. This assignment entails detailed discussion of all the seven observation parameters that take place within the stated sessions. In particular, it seeks to examine the aspect of group therapy. During the first session, Dr. Yalom assists group members to improve on their relationship with other group members. Moreover, he intends to talk about the issue of imposing undue judgement on others. In particular, he wanted the group members to consider the firm impressions, “sizing people up”. Moreover, he wanted the members of the group to clearly articulate their perceptions and feelings about other members within the group setting.

Part 1: Group Engagement

The first parameter entails the description of the attempts to establish an effective group foundation within the first session. During the first session, an effective group foundation assists members to feel relaxed within the setting. Forming a non-judgmental and defensive environment will allow the clients to willingly express their ideas and views without being victimized (Cummins, Sevel, & Pedrick, 2012). To establish a strong foundation, the client will empathize with the views and concerns of others. At the same time, Dr. Yalom will create an effective relationship by focusing on topics that touch on the lives of the members. The roles that Dr. Yalom undertakes are essential during the first session. Essentially, his roles encompass sensitivity, confidence, understanding various needs of the client, and building positive relationship in order to have an honest interaction and communication with the clients. It will create a foundation that is essential for effective group therapy.

The second parameter encompasses using empathy together with other interpersonal skills. During the first session, Dr. Yalom uses empathy to assist the members of the group to empathy towards each other. This requires Dr. Yalom to have the traits of honesty and caring. For instance, a female reveals that is she is disinterested in talking since she is shy. Because she is anxious, she feels uncomfortable sharing her information. Although it is challenging to understand the complete feelings and experiences of clients, it is prudent to note that empathy is adopted. As such, using empathy in the group ensures that all the issues and concerns raised by the client are listened to and addressed properly. In the last ten minutes to the end of the session, Dr. Yalom is seem assisting the members of the group learn how to exhibit empathy. He wants everyone to stop the idea of judging others. Through this, he believes that the clients will respect the feelings of one another. Moreover, it is prudent that clients understand their feelings and those of others as this will assist them design their empathy stages so that their empathy behaviors are depicted naturally during sessions. For this reason, the leader must be experienced in supporting the concerns and emotions of the client. The major reason for possessing empathy skill is to enable the leader to honestly understand experiences of the client while at the same time maintaining boundaries (Hunter, 2012).

There are myriad of other interpersonal skills depicted during the first session. During this session, Dr. Yalom used conflict resolution. For instance, some of the females have unresolved matter with Allen and Bob concerning them being competitive. Dr. Yalom will assist clients deal with the relational conflict encouragingly or constructively. He adopted the interpersonal skill of decision making and problem solving. By solving the conflict, Dr. Yalom will assist customers to point out issues and guide them through approaches to deal with their challenges. The two forms of verbal communication entail active listening and confrontation. During this process, the leader of the group will pay attention to clients’ problems and assist them get assurance to share their concerns with others so that they can be helped (). Dr. Yalom will try to shape necessary active listening so that the clients can copy this skill within their groups. Active listening will enable Dr. Yalom to develop positive relationship with the clients and also improve communication. Essentially, confronting the client will enable the doctor to challenge certain behaviors and provided the members with the group with the opportunity to do the same. For instance, a good number of group members have raised their concern regarding the silence that Alice portrayed during the session. Therefore, Dr. Yalom will come in by assisting the members airing their views about others and point out various concerns that others may have. Adopting this skill as stated by Frey and Dupper (2005) requires a leader to be experienced in challenging the group members. Principally, the interpersonal intervention refers to a technique through which a person communicates with atleast two people and share feelings and information (Toseland, & Rivas, 2012). Cummins, Sevel and Pedrick (2012) mentioned that the interpersonal intervention concentrates on the relationships that one has with others through either verbal or non-verbal messages. Essentially, the interpersonal intervention is concerned with discussing and sharing of views and thought about clients.

The third parameter encompasses recognizing the diversity within the group. Doing this assists clients from different cultural backgrounds to impact the relationships that happens within the counselling sessions. Franco and Nielsen (2018) mentioned that in the group therapy, diversity creates cultural awareness within the setting and thus differences plays a critical role in the group therapy since it helps develop cultural awareness. The cultural awareness stresses on a person’s understanding of his or her tradition, contextual, ideology, and culture. Frey and Dupper (2005) recommended that the group therapy profession need to pay attention to the self-exploration that leads to the development of cultural competence. Essentially, Dr. Yalom can bring on board cultural awareness into his practice to shape and respect divergent thoughts, values, views, the way, as well as, diverse cultures. The sensitive ethic will allow the doctor to acquire and sustain cultural competence. Principally, diversity is a critical element to improve the group therapy. Reportedly, the aspect of diversity is a key component that plays a critical part in the group.

The next parameter entails dealing with co-facilitation. To develop co-facilitation, the leader develops a clear communication with the co-leader. Similarly, the group must use similar skills they are recommending for clients to use. Through this, the co-facilitator and the leader should create adequate time to deliberate on the issues they seek to address.  The most appropriate method to deal with a co-leadership entails communicating with one another and expressing any concern that may be present during the session. Essentially, it is deliberate on the plan or activities together before so that all the concerned parties will read on the same line.

Part 2: Group Authority

            During the second session, Dr. Yalom tackles the distresses that clients raised about videotapes, as well as, their feelings regarding this material. Moreover, he offers a detailed description of the issue of confidentiality. Indeed, he issues clear statements regarding confidentiality and wants every client to feel comfortable and have total trust regarding their privacy. He also assists clients to deal with the challenges they have with Bob. Essentially, this session concentrates on the myriad of challenges that the group experiences.

            The first parameter encompasses the efforts that the facilitator makes to assist the group establish the components of a good meeting. To point out what makes an effective meeting for the clients, Hunter (2012) posited that the leader should depict honesty, flexibility, empathy, and encouragement. Dr. Yalom will develop a non-judgmental environment. Moreover, he will separate his issues from various concerns raised by the clients. Once the session ends, he contacts every client to ensure that everyone is fine and feels safe to share information. Essentially, he paid attention to all the concerns and needs that the clients raised; a situation that made clients to have positive view about the session.

            The next parameter encompasses deliberation surrounding confidentiality. Confidentiality denotes safeguarding information that passes between clients and group leader (Toseland & Rivas, 2012). Essentially, clarifying issues surrounding confidentiality helps create and strength positive relationship with the client. Dr. Yalom will play a critical role in creating positive relationships and ease the development of a confidence association. Moreover, he can comfort clients regarding the nature of confidentiality within the discussion by assuring them that everything they disclose will remain private. Further, he can console clients regarding the nature of confidentiality present in their discussion by finding a safe environment for the session. Doing this makes clients have confident in sharing their secrets.

            The next parameter encompasses identifying the person with the authority within the group setting. In this session, Dr. Yalom is the leader and thus has the authority. He also allows the clients to have authority as well. This is good for group dynamic since it enables clients to discover differences in each other and members to air their views and share more information using this technique.

            In conclusion, it is effective to review the overall performance of Dr. Yalom because it shows how the doctor was competent in presenting his skills. He also uses approaches that enable clients to continue applying even after the session ends. Moreover, he adopted various interpersonal skills. He was keen during the session and paid attention to clients’ concerns, feelings and needs. The overall suggestions and strengths is that he ensured that the client remain comfortable during the entire session. Moreover, he informs clients about the challenges they were experiencing in their lives. A major suggestion I would recommend is that Dr. Yalom should not single out specific clients. Moreover, he should ensure that he does not give judgmental feedbacks. He must ensure that his feedbacks are direct and accurate. Nonetheless, the sessions were exceptional.