FINAL EXAMINATION PSY 628 GROUP THERAPY 2014

Please include questions when giving your responses. Please answer all questions. Exams are due via email no later than Saturday September 27.

Good luck!

  1. How could you combine a psychoeducational focus and an interpersonal, process-oriented focus into a group for adults? Describe specific techniques or interactions you would facilitate? What are the benefits of each? What populations might this serve?

12pts

  1. Describe what personal characteristics you feel you would need to develop or improve upon in your training to be a more effective group leader. How might your own issues or countertransferences impede your work, and how might you work to resolve this?

12pts

  1. What values do you hold that you might tend to want to impose on members in your group? Some common examples, are religious views, views on suicide, belief in need for total honesty/openness in therapy; belief in controlling one’s anger or emotions; beliefs about what is mentally healthy and what is mental illness; beliefs about healthy versus unhealthy lifestyle; beliefs about whether to stay or leave a relationship in which a person has been unfaithful. Permissive versus authoritarian parenting, or some you may come up with on your own.

12pts

  1. Describe the difference between creating useful group tension and “pressuring” How can members be pressured and coerced either directly or in a subtle way? How might you as a leader intervene appropriately when this occurs? Did you observe yourself doing this as a leader in your practice group?

14pts

  1. Alex, an MFT Trainee attends an all day seminar on group therapy techniques. He is excited to use some of the more dynamic approaches he observed, and uses them the following week in his therapy group. He says he was a bit frustrated that things didn’t go as well as they did for the group in the workshop, but he just plans to try again next week. What advice would you have for Alex, and what is your opinion regarding trying out new techniques without proper training? At what point do you feel it is appropriate to try new techniques?

12pts

BONUS: 5pts

Can you think of ways to help members recognize their own projections when they attempt to persuade and pressure others?