Diversities in Group Specialty Practice

Chapter 11 details diversities in group specialty practice. Group therapies and other group intervention strategies are uniquely positioned to focus on issues of diversity, those issues of multiculturalism such as race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and age.

Teaching and Advocacy in Group Specialty Practice

Chapter 9 explores teaching and advocacy in group specialty practice. Group leaders who promote advocacy of groups by teaching group skills to interns or colleagues unfamiliar with the requisite skills for successful group specialty practice. This way, graduate students and professional psychologists can attain the requisite group skills necessary to lead successful groups.

Supervision and Consultation in Group Specialty Practice

Chapter 8 discusses supervision and consultation in group specialty practice. A group therapist relies upon professional consultation and supervision to remain competent about his or her plan for each group member within the group setting and throughout the group sessions. Group interactions are highly complex given the exponential components of many members (as contrasted to individual therapy). Assuring clear metavision (tracking both process and content of all interactions between member-leader, member-member) is greatly assisted by giving and receiving consultation when necessary.

Group Formulation and Case Conceptualization

Chapter 4 explores individual and group formulations or group case conceptualizations that take a group member’s personal and interpersonal issues into account in a consistent, thoughtful way that utilizes a theory with clear intervention strategies to bring about change.

Group Specialty Practice

Chapter 1 discusses group specialty practice and a pro-group approach that utilizes group therapy as a potent treatment in and of itself, not simply as an inferior therapy when compared to individual therapy.

Professionalism in Group Specialty Practice

Chapter 12 discusses professionalism in group specialty practice. Group leaders possess a strong sense of professional identity as experts in the direct delivery, training, consulting, and research of group interventions. Such group therapists have one trait in common: They value the interpersonal domain in which group members are viewed as contributors to the potent interpersonal fabric where they both give and receive help. Group therapists have the requisite licenses or certifications first, as professional psychologists, and following that, further credentialing such as the American Board of Professional Psychology’s Group Diplomate or the of American Group Psychotherapy Association’s Certified Group Psychotherapist.

Ethics, Legalities, and Other Issues in Group Specialty Practice

Chapter 10 discusses ethics, legalities, and other issues in group specialty practice. Group leaders must be alert to professional ethics, core knowledge and skills, best practice guidelines, and legal parameters of their particular state or provincial areas.

Evidence Bases for Group Practice

Chapter 2 explores evidence bases for group practice and examines, among other things, that group treatments can rival and sometimes exceed gains made in individual therapy.

Structured and Unstructured Groups in Various Settings

Chapter 7 discusses structured and unstructured groups in various settings. A group treatment approach that uses intervention strategies ranging from highly structured to unstructured , for instance, manualized treatments found in short-term groups such as 12-step programs dealing with addictions, to less structured long-term process groups for personality disorders. Appropriate use of structure enhances group member involvement and often depends upon what is most appropriate for various settings (hospitals, schools, community mental health centers).

Other Therapeutic Factors and Leader Interventions

Chapter 6 explores other therapeutic factors and leader interventions. A skilled group therapist utilizes proven leader interventions and therapeutic factors , such as insight, interpersonal learning, catharsis, installation of hope, all of which occur as the group developmental processes unfold over time from group beginning to group termination (forming, storming, norming, performing).