Given that I thought I’d cultivated my listening skills, it was uncharacteristic of me to so abruptly interrupt a patient who felt compelled to plead his court case of a criminal charge in group therapy. We in group, of course, were experiencing the very common occurrence of denial. As part
Tag: Group Work
Group Work
The following vignette describes an actual situation that occurred in one of my diversity workshops. In this case, I was called in to show a film at a university in the Midwest to about 300 students, faculty members and folks in the community. A young Jamaican man volunteered to share
This vignette and those to follow in the coming months are actual situations that have occurred in my diversity workshops. They will include my thoughts/rationale and the interventions I used, as well as questions for the facilitator, group/dyad exercises and a summary that helps to place the event in a
This vignette and those to follow in the coming months are actual situations that have occurred in my diversity workshops. They will include my thoughts/rationale and the interventions I used, as well as questions for the facilitator, group/dyad exercises and a summary that helps to place the event in a
Working with individuals with sex offense convictions is a specialized area of counseling. There are also “specialties within the specialty” when factoring in the different venues for treatment, including programs in prison, in private practice (often with those on postprison supervision or probation) and in mental institutions. The individuals within
It’s 3 p.m. and you are anxious about going to the group you are leading because its members are being forced to attend by the court, the principal or some other authority figure. Being tasked with leading a group whose members don’t actually want to be there is an assignment
Dan sat motionless, riveted to his chair as he recalled his recurrent nightmare. “Every night …” He trailed off and faded back. “It’s the eyes. I see his eyes! Staring at me.” Dan was recalling a soldier, frozen to death and still at his post. The memory, too, was frozen
“Yoga? I’m not doing no yoga! Not enough testosterone! Yoga’s for girls! It’s just not me!” These were the kind of comments thrown at me when I first introduced a yoga/meditation/relaxation (YMR) group to 15 adolescent boys. Now, three years later, when a new boy joins the program, I still