Full Description
In this text, Jarlath Benson presents the basic knowledge required to set up and work with a group. He looks at how to plan and lead a group successfully and how to intervene skillfully. As well as covering the different stages in the life of a group, the book emphasizes the group experience and gives suggestions for working more with them. For this second edition the author has added two new chapters reflecting how his own thinking and practice has developed since the book was first published. In the first chapter he presents a new model for understanding human behaviour which emphasizes particular contexts for work in groups: the psychophysical, the psychological, the psychosocial and the psychospiritual. In the second chapter, by means of a series of clinical vignettes, he provides the groupworker with practical and helpful techniques for facilitating each of these contexts and perspectives.
Contents
How to plan the group; leading and setting up the group; an introduction to group dynamics and process; work at the beginning stages of the group - inclusion issues; work at the middle stages of the group - control issues; work at the later stages of the group - separation issues; the foundations of creative groupwork; the skills of creative groupwork; the techniques of creative groupwork working more intensively with groups; focus and context; working more synthetically with the group; keeping your practice going.
