Friendship Across the Life Cycle

Abstract

Using a group work model, this article discusses a short term group for older women developed to explore the importance of friendship in late life. In collaboration with group leaders, group members determined weekly topics that explored the significance of friendship through the life cycle. Social work group practice that focuses on the meaning and development of friendship for and with older women is presented as an effective therapeutic intervention for practitioners in settings such as community mental health clinics, senior centers, elderly housing, home care agencies and nursing homes.     

The Essential Power of Group Work

SUMMARY

For almost two decades, leaders in the field of social group work have been warning that the foundational principles and practice of group work as a modality are in danger of being absorbed into generalist social work practice. This paper expands upon the appeal of leaders in the social group work field to generate an environment in which group work is recognized as an integral method in social work practice and education. This paper examines group work as a powerful methodology in social work practice with a specific theoretical framework and skill base that is fundamental to the social work profession. The characteristics of group work's strengths are explored with a comprehensive overview that inspires renewed commitment to preserving, practicing and promoting social group work as a viable and integral part of social work practice.     

Group Work Gets Physical: Self-Defense Class and Social Work

SUMMARY

This article examines how a self-defense class is a social work group when it incorporates basic group work principles. The ways in which stages of group development, member roles and mutual aid are used in a self-defense class will be explored. The article also highlights how a self-defense class can be a legitimate intervention for women who have been victimized.     

Integrated Group Program for Improving Sleep Quality of Elderly People

ABSTRACT

This article reports an exploratory study on the effects of an integrated group program for improving the sleep quality of elderly people in Hong Kong. Elderly people aged over 55 who had obtained a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score >5 were recruited as subjects of the study. While 19 subjects of the treatment group were taking part in an integrated group program involving social group work intervention as well as Chinese medicine therapeutics, 9 subjects of comparison group received no intervention. Using a pretest and posttest design, the study revealed positive effects of the integrated group program. It has added knowledge serving the development of interventions that can help to improve the sleep quality of elderly people.     

Facilitating Arts-Based Mindfulness Group Activities with Vulnerable Children: An Example of Nondeliberative Social Group Work Practice

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the process of facilitating arts-based mindfulness group work and activities with vulnerable children age 8 to 12 years who were involved with the child welfare or mental health systems. Specifically, it delineates connections between our group program and Norma Lang’s nondeliberative social group work practice. Importantly, in working with vulnerable children, the authors purposefully fostered the development of mutual aid, creativity, and strengths and recognized that each group had a life of its own.     

RAP Therapy: A Group Work Intervention Method for Urban Adolescents

ABSTRACT

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) places a premium on the development of cultural competence among practitioners. To this end, the present study highlights how social work practitioners, specifically group work leaders, can utilize elements of the culture of urban adolescents to develop effective group work intervention strategies. The article compares adolescent participants' perceptions of usefulness of traditional group therapy and similar group work sessions using RAP music as a conduit to support prosocial skills development. A nomenclature of three adolescent groups was tested: violent offenders, status offenders, and a control condition of high school students with no criminal history. Findings were unequivocally in favor of the RAP therapy as a tool for advancing prosocial behavior.     

Our Stories–Our Journey: An Empowerment Group Approach for Justice-Involved Women using Pecha-Kucha

ABSTRACT

This article presents Our Stories–Our Journey, a group-work intervention with justice-involved women. This narrative-based intervention helps members to develop insight into self-identity and to restructure narratives via mutual aid. Through a group-work intervention using empowerment and narrative theories with pecha-kucha (the word for chit-chat or chatter, in Japanese), incarcerated women work to create empowering stories that will support them in constructing new narratives. Considering the traumatic pathways to prison for women and the oppressive correctional environments, models of innovative programs that are strength based and empowering are needed that will guide the social work profession to work effectively with justice-involved populations.     

A Model for Group Work Practice with Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Victims of Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT

The Orthodox Jewish community has only recently acknowledged that religious practice and commitment does not make one immune to suffering from domestic violence. Effective therapeutic techniques for working with battered Orthodox women have only recently begun to emerge.

This article focuses on the use of group work as an effective therapeutic modality for working with abused Orthodox Jewish women. This research highlights the insight, knowledge, and experience of practitioners who facilitate domestic violence groups, focusing on proficiencies and ethnic-sensitive practice strategies that are perceived to lead to successful outcomes.

The application of ethnic-sensitive strategies is discussed to illustrate viable therapeutic considerations for working with this population. Implications and issues for educators and practitioners will be addressed.     

Nondeliberative Practice from the Field: Illustrations from a Group Worker

ABSTRACT

This article reviews features of Lang’s nondeliberative practice and provides illustrations from the field of group work that demonstrate these concepts. Nondeliberative practice enables problem solving in ways other than verbal and cognitive: the experience of a group of women who went on their first Outward Bound trip into the wilderness; adolescents who, through acting as their favorite living creature, made connections in nonverbal ways. The “doing” of the activity—be it symbolic, pictorial, performance, game, or other actional mode— is experienced affectively and analogically, and is transferable to other aspects of life.     

The Journey of Hope: A Group Work Intervention for Children Who Have Experienced a Collective Trauma

This article presents the Journey of Hope, a school-based group work intervention for children and early adolescents who have experienced a collective trauma such as a natural disaster. This broad-based intervention takes an ecological approach to prevention and treatment and focuses on normalizing emotions and building coping skills after a disaster. Through the use of group work interventions such as use of rituals, group problem solving, and experiential and reflective learning, children and early adolescents work toward enhancing protective factors to help them in their recovery. Considering the short- and long-term emotional strains children may experience after a disaster, such group programs should be more widely accessible in schools.     

The Purposeful Use of Performance in Groups: A New Look at the Balance of Task and Process

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the purposeful use of performance in an arts-based activity group that is rooted in social group work. It identifies the presence of three interconnected purposes: (1) a skill-acquisition purpose, (2) a performance-based purpose, and (3) a socioemotional purpose. This three-fold purpose introduces certain challenges throughout the life of the group, including the worker's negotiation of her role and the balance of task and process. The paper also discusses the benefits of the task-oriented goal of performance in the context of social group work. Illustrations from a co-ed pre-adolescent dance group are provided throughout the paper.     

Adventure Therapy: Nondeliberative Group Work in Action

ABSTRACT

Nondeliberative group work allows group members to generate their own solutions and provides experiential opportunities to transfer learning to life outside of a therapeutic setting. Adventure therapy is explored as a tool for engaging groups in a nondeliberative manner. The theoretical underpinnings of adventure therapy are presented and contextualized within the larger framework of experiential education. Specific methods and models of adventure work are presented and considered in relationship to nondeliberative social work with groups. Two case examples are presented to illustrate the nondeliberative nature of adventure therapy.     

Sing … Then Think: Musical Interventions and Nondeliberative Forms of Practice in Social Work Groups

ABSTRACT

The positive effects of music have been demonstrated worldwide in many fields including social work, psychology, medicine, and education. Musical interventions including music listening, lyric analysis, and singing have also been found effective in group work. This article, guided by Norma Lang’s nondeliberative theory, aims to provide the “why,” “when,” and “how” of incorporating music into social work groups. It also provides the reader with a toolbox of musical interventions and the encouragement to utilize these “artful, actional, and analogic” activities in group work.     

A group-based,acceptance & commitment therapy intervention for chronic pain

ABSTRACT

As the effects of the opioid epidemic continue, the availability of interventions that address the emotional and psychological needs of people who suffer from chronic pain are increasingly necessary. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is one of the more actively researched psychological approaches amongst the third wave of developing psychotherapies. In fact, ACT has been shown to improve chronic pain in several different populations. In order to widen access to treatment, the use of group-based, ACT interventions with individuals who suffer from chronic, non-cancer pain should be made available in more traditional, mental health settings. The purpose of the current article is to describe a group-based, ACT intervention for people who suffer from chronic, non-cancer pain. A 10-session group intervention is outlined, and recommendations intended to increase the intervention’s efficacy are provided.     

The Use of Purpose in On-Going Activity Groups: A Framework for Maximizing the Therapeutic Impact

ABSTRACT

This article explores the purposeful use of on-going activity in social group work. It examines the ways in which the group's purposes fluctuate over the group's life, with the activity-oriented purpose taking precedence in beginnings, the personal growth-oriented purpose taking precedence in the middle stage, and both purposes sharing importance in endings. Throughout the paper, illustrations from a co-ed teen ceramics group are provided.     

Practicing What We Preach: Creating Groups for Ourselves

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the professional isolation faced by social group work practitioners and educators. It identifies the need for peer support and connection in an environment of limited opportunities for professional development. The paper describes and assesses long-term peer support groups initiated and developed by each of the authors, one for group work educators and the other for practitioners. It discusses the potential for expanding the development of such groups, which could benefit individual group workers as well as strengthen efforts to ensure the survival of group work.     

Results of an Intervention to Reduce Perinatal Depression Among Low-Income Minority Women in Community Primary Care

Abstract

With little past research on interventions to reduce perinatal depression among minority women, we tested a multicomponent psychosocial intervention that spanned the puerperium. We recruited 187 low-income African American and Hispanic women from three innercity community health centers. Women with depressive symptoms were randomly assigned to a multicomponent psychosocial intervention or to the usual health center social services. The two intervention conditions were equally effective in reducing depression. Lack of difference may be due to the similarity of the two treatment conditions and logistical barriers in delivering full “doses” of the specialized intervention. Continued research to identify characteristics of effective interventions during pregnancy and postpartum is recommended.     

The Use of Purpose in On-Going Activity Groups: A Framework for Maximizing the Therapeutic Impact

SUMMARY

This article explores the purposeful use of on-going activity in social group work. It examines the ways in which the group's purposes fluctuate over the group's life, with the activity-oriented purpose taking precedence in beginnings, the personal growth-oriented purpose taking precedence in the middle stage, and both purposes sharing importance in endings. Throughout the paper, illustrations from a co-ed teen ceramics group are provided.     

Transcending Differences: Using Concrete Subject-Matter in Heterogeneous Groups

ABSTRACT

The need to conduct social group work with heterogeneous members is a reality. Yet the social work literature does not offer much guidance in how to work with diverse groups of people. This paper illustrates a method of social group work that utilizes tangible and palpable subject matter as a therapeutic vehicle to create strong group cohesion with heterogeneous group members. It aims to explain how and why using non-personal subjects as the heart of the group helps people connect to themselves, to the world and to each other in a personal way. The examples given are from two groups that are very different in their compositions and very different from each other. One is a psycho-educational group at a Continuing Day Treatment Program for severely and persistently mentally ill elderly and the other is a group with adolescent and pre-adolescent females in a community center. Four benefits of using this method of social group work are outlined.