I interviewed Stacy Davidson, a counselor at Genesis a New Life homeless shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. Stacy has a Master of Arts degree in counseling and is in the process of fulfilling her 1800 hours of supervised professional counseling in order to receive a Licensed Professional Counseling certification.
Genesis a New life is a homeless shelter for families with a newborn child age six months and under. In addition, most families in the shelter have one or more older children. The shelter houses up to 18 families with a maximum residency of six months. Ms. Davidson facilitates three separate groups within the facility. The children’s group meets one hour per week for four weeks. The parenting group meets one hour per week for eight weeks. The self-development group meets one hour per week for 12 weeks. Each group consists of approximately ten members, and the only requirements for the groups are that the members are residents of the shelter and abide by the rules and agreements of the informed consent. All of the groups are closed; however, members occasionally move in or out of the shelter, so there is the potential to gain or lose members during existing sessions. The majority of groups are fulfilled in a relatively stable environment with members participating for the full duration of the group.
Ms. Davidson is the most experienced of the group facilitators which placed her in the position of modeling for other facilitators within the program. She describes her leadership style as being encouraging, and she bases her theoretical approaches heavily on person-centered and cognitive perspectives. In these types of groups, she maintains that the most important structural skill requirements are hinged primarily on the abilit...
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...d. So, the most relevant question I asked Ms. Davidson is how she manages to stay present within the chaos of everyday obstacles. Her advice is to take a few moments to just breath, let the outside forces go for the time being, and focus on the here and now. If the outside world begins to take hold once again, breathe and begin again.
Overall, Ms. Davidson indicates that one must know as much as possible about the group that a facilitator is working with. Her advice is to be prepared, yet understand that one is not going to know everything. Group leaders are going to learn many things along with the group members. Some key items to remember when facilitating a new group are that nervousness is normal; have a plan; be organized; if there is tension within the group, continue to be friendly and open; and continue to focus on where the group is headed in the process.
There are many elements of a small group discussion each of which is important and play a key role. One of these elements is small group member roles and leadership which entails each member of the group taking on a specific role to benefit the group as well as gaining some form of leadership to help guide the group. The main roles that exist are; initiator-contributor role, information giver, orienter role, recorder role, and encourager and harmonizer roles. Each of these roles helps to keep the group and the discussion on the right path.
As the leader of a Level 2 group, I enjoyed the opportunity to create a safe, engaging environment for my members. While preparing for the group activity, good organizational skills are valuable in creating a highly structured group. Members of the group need an environment that
This essay will reflect on a series of activities, which were undertaken within the initial few weeks of forming a group. It will focus on the broad and specific approaches on how our current group dynamic and effectiveness was achieved. Tuckman’s model on the stages of group development will also be referenced throughout.
Topics explored with this group included; conversational skills, internet safety, bullying, conflict resolution, social media, and personal appearance. Accordingly, I was able to gain insight on how to plan activities tailored to the needs of the group as well as obtain tips on conducting groups effectively. Additionally, I was able to get a sense of the group dynamics, attain knowledge on the stages of a group through observing all the individuals belonging to the group, their uniqueness and how their personality impacted the group itself. Individuals were able to join the group at different stages hence; the forming stage was repeated each time a new member was recruited. This also provided me with the opportunity of gaining first-hand experience of the interaction on the basic dynamics on group stages of forming, norming, storming and
This essay is going to analyse and evaluate an interview between a service user (actor) and a social worker (myself) in regards to the use of communication skills and the theoretical framework that underpins those skills. Firstly, the essay is going to look into definitions of communication skills and secondly we will analyse the interview interaction and relevant communication theories.
I interviewed Manuel, co-owner of All Pro Motor Sports, because his business is extremely innovative and growth-oriented. The purpose of this interview was to learn the following:
The group and curriculum showed a support group dynamic. The facilitator led the group and provided ways to stimulate sharing, suggestions, and advice. He was able to provide support to individual participants and the group as a whole (Maguire, 2002). They read a book about a group of pigs that were doing a scavenger hunt to find a prize. One pig in particular didn’t listen to the instructions and in a humorous way he struggled to find the clues. He often would push others to get the next clue and other pigs were scared of him. The pig that didn’t listen had many struggles. It was resolved by the other pigs helping him, as well as the main character realizing what he should have done differently. Throughout the book the facilitator stopped and asked questions using the text and pictures. He added group empathy by adding their personal experiences to the
believes group members are not as ready as they should be. Here leadership style focuses on helping these team members develop confidence and trust in their own abilities.
Tuckman, B., & Jensen, M. (2010). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group Facilitation, (10), 43-48. Retrieved March 27, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global.
Choosing week one to be the leader was a strategy for me to get the concrete things done yet still try to make our task as clear as possible. I was aware of the fact that I do not have the strongest personality in the group. I normally just listen unless the topic is something I have strong feelings about. Taking that into account, I tried to make sure everyone in the group had an opportunity to speak. That is the most important thing I look for in a leader, I wanted to make sure my group to experience it as well. I felt that this made the first meeting go pretty smoothly. The topic we agreed on involved discussing the positives and negatives we would be facing during our field placements. On the first class, everyone seemed very uptight and nervous about how field was going to work and what sit...
To inspire and influence others, a leader must possess many skills and abilities. As motivational speaker Peter Northouse, states, “a leader should be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant” (Northouse, 2013) Moving an entire group of individuals toward a singular goal is a considerable undertaking. Without effective communication skills and a clear vision of what needs to be accomplished, one will feel like they are trying to herd cats rather than leading.
Interviews are very popular among most individuals especially researchers and scholars as they attempt to obtain information and data from an interviewee. However, there are many factors that influence the interview and which determines its success or failure. Often, the interviewer takes charge of the situation, and they have the sole responsibility of asking the questions while the interviewee provides an explanation or an answer to the question asked. As a result, an interview can be defined as a consultation or a discussion in person through which information and data are exchanged regarding a particular phenomenon event with the intention of establishing the interviewee’s position. It is easy to tell the mood and success of the interview
KOTTLER, J.A. ENGLAR-CARLSON, M. 2010. Learning Group Leadership, An Experiential Approach. 2nd edn. London: Sage
After analyzing my fears regarding group leadership, I have become aware of the many different techniques that are used in helping future counselors develop the skills they need to become a competent group leaders. Although task, psycho-educational, counseling, and psychotherapy groups require a different individual leadership style, there is one thing that they all require of a leader, the competence to administer and conduct the group in a manner that will be beneficial for all its members.
One important concept to remember is that as a group leader you need to be prepared to deal with members of different race, religion, and sexual orientation. They also need to be able to understand different perspectives and values. Another concept to remember as a group leader can get involved with legal issues. These issues occur if the leader does not use due care and acts in good faith. Therefore, leaders should always practice within their limits and not be negligent to their specific duties. Lastly, another important concept to remember as a leader is when dealing with the elderly population leads you have to have patience because the elderly patients tend to work at a slower pace. Also, when dealing with elderly patients group leader must be sensitive to certain issues relating to aging, death, and real physical or vital constraints they maybe