GROUP

PROCESS
Bon Homme Richard G. Torres, MAEd, RPm, RGC
 Group Exercise
UNFREEZER

HUMAN ATOMS
 GROUP “forces within a group”
DYNAMICS The study of group
operations.
The interaction of the forces or
energies of the environment
(process elements) at any given
point of time, which actively
influence the individual, the
group, and the situation
(Kurt Lewin)
GROUP WORK: A COUNSE
 GROUP Group dynamics refers to
DYNAMICS the study of the
interrelationships and
interactions between
group members.

Any factor that has an

impact on the group can
be referred to legitimately
as a dynamic.
 Elements of Group Dynamics
1. Group content – refers to what the group is
discussing (topic, information, words, ideas
exchanged) and purpose of the group
2. Group process – refers to analyzing the
communications, interactions, and transactions.
The process is the way in which the discussion takes
place in a group.
Note: the amount and mixture of group content and
group process determine group dynamics.
Picture with labels of boat and a river
 Types of
Group
Processes
in Group
Counseling and
Psychotherapy
Checking one’s behavior with
another group.

CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
Checking one’s behavior with
another group.

CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
The discovery that others within the
group have similar experiences and
feelings.
CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
The discovery that others within the
group have similar experiences and
feelings.
CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
Friction or opposition resulting from
actual or perceived differences or
incompatibilities.

CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
Friction or opposition resulting from
actual or perceived differences or
incompatibilities.

CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
Review Note:
Individual members in a group is
triggered by matters involving conflict in
their own lives (authority, intimacy,
growth, change, autonomy, power,
loss).
Conflicts in group should not be
avoided, although, how a group leader
handles conflict makes a difference.
 The process by which group members who feel
hopeless maybe able to come to terms with their own
issues and experience a sense that their issues can be
resolved.

CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
 The process by which group members who feel
hopeless maybe able to come to terms with their
own issues and experience a sense that their
issues can be resolved.

CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
It is the group process in which member
behavior elicits group interaction.

CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
It is the group process in which member
behavior elicits group interaction.

CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
The extent to which the group
can mirror the family.
CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
The extent to which the group
can mirror the family.
CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
 It is a feeling of
uneasiness and worry.
CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
 It is a feeling of
uneasiness and worry.
CONTAGION CONFLICT ANXIETY

CONSENSUAL FAMILY
UNIVERSALITY
VALIDATION REENACTMENT

INSTILLATION
OF HOPE
 Review Note:
Group members’ strategies to cope with
anxiety:
1) restrictive solution – changing the subject, attacking a
group member, intellectualizing, detaching from the
group, ignoring a member;
2) enabling solutions – open listening and discussion
about the anxiety that is present.
Anxiety is a mobilizer of group process,
especially if faced openly and honestly.
 Group Exercise
UNFREEZER

The
Wall, Sodier, Rabbit
 Setting-up
Conditions that
can Influence
the Group
Process
 Review Notes:
Group leaders (Counselor, Therapist, Facilitator) can set-
up conditions and structures that will help the group
potentially run smoother and better in both short-term
and long-term run.
This includes the following:
•Preplanning
•The Group Structure
• Group Exercises
•Group Interaction
•Member’s role
Preplanning
Includes factors to consider when
planning a group:
Clarity of purpose Goals
Setting/Venue Commitment
Time Openness
Size Risk taking
Membership Attitudes
Group structure
The physical set-up of a group
which might influence group
interaction.
Group Exercises and Activities
Group dynamics exercises develop group cohesiveness
and problem-solving skills, and encourage collaboration
and creativity.
These activities generally begin with an introduction by
the facilitator who sets up a problem or challenge for the
group to solve.
Some are physical and active, while others are brain
teasers. The exercises should be fun while providing
experience of using teamwork to solve specific problems.
Processing
It refers to helping group members identify
and examine what happened in the group
and their individual experiences of the
event, how the event occurred, and how
the different members responded to it
- helps group members better understand their
experiences in the group and relate these to
their personal lives
 Balance between content
and process
Leaders can use two sets of questions to guide the
interplay between content and process:

CONTENT QUESTIONS
What do we have to do?
What do we need to do to accomplish our goals?

 PROCESS QUESTIONS
Who am I?
Who am I with you?
Who are we together?
Processing: PARS model
PARS model
(Processing: Activity, Relationship, Self)
Three stages:
1. Reflecting - retracing the steps of a particular activity and ask
“What did we do?”; recreate the experience by describing
actions the group went through to complete the exercise
2. Understanding – discussing specific interactions and offering
explanations and interpretations of what occurred, especially
in relationship to others
3. Applying – emphasis is on utilizing what has been learned
through experience and interaction in the session to one’s
own life, involving a transfer of insight and learning
 Member’s Roles
Types of roles
1. Facilitative/Building role – adds
to the functioning of the group in a
positive and constructive way
Types: initiators of action and ideas,
information seekers, opinion
seekers, coordinators, orienteers,
evaluators, recorders.
 Member’s Roles
Types of roles
2. Maintenance role – contributes
to the social-emotional bonding of
members and the group’s overall
wellbeing
Types: encouragers, harmonizers,
compromisers, commentators,
followers);
 Member’s Roles
Types of roles
3. Blocking role – essentially
an antigroup role
Types: aggressors, blockers,
dominators, recognition seekers,
self-righteous moralists).
 Major Forms of Role Difficulties:
1. Role collision – a conflict exists between the role and
individual plays in the outside world and the role expected
within the group.
2. Role incompatibility – a person is given a role within the
group that he or she neither wants nor is comfortable
exercising.
3. Role confusion – when a member simply does not know
what role to perform, usually experienced in leaderless
groups.
4. Role transition – a person is expected to assume a
different role as the group progresses but does not feel
comfortable doing so.
 EFFECTIVE
GROUP
LEADERSHIP
 LEADERSHIP
• Leadership is a special form of social
interaction: a reciprocal,
transactional and transformational
process in which individuals are
permitted to influence and motivate
others to promote the attaining of
group and individual goals
 LEADERSHIP
• Transformational leader – a
person who empowers group
members and shares power with
them in working toward the
renewal of a group
• Traditional leader – a person who
is controlling and exercises power
from the top down as an expert
GROUP LEADERSHIP STYLE
• Authoritarian – envision
themselves as experts and tend to be
rigid an conventional in their beliefs
• Often charismatic and
manipulative
• Results in leader-centered group
• Theory X leader
GROUP LEADERSHIP STYLE
• Democratic – more group
centered and less directive
• Serve as facilitators of the
group process and not as
directors of it
• Group centered leaders
• Theory Y leader
 GROUP LEADERSHIP STYLE
• Laissez-faire – leaders in name only
• Do not provide any structure or direction
for their groups, so members are left with
the responsibility of leading
• Group centered perspective focusing on
members and internal processes
• Leaderless groups
• Theory Z leader