Mutual Aid Group Reflection

In this paper I will identify the need for the group that was chosen. Part of the discussion will concentrate on the three key values used in the group approach with this population. The other will address models and theories of group practice, and the approach used by this group. The paper will also look at the key challenges or obstacles in group interventions with this population. Using the worksheet planning guide for social work group’s eight headings will be discussed. Briefly the readings from the course syllabus will be used in the development plan and incorporated in the paper will be the plans for an initial group session. Based on the skills inventory three critical skills will be addressed. Lastly a critique of a proposed group will be conducted.

Within this assignment I will explore the ways in which I relate to others. I will identify any barriers or difficulties which could affect my ability to relate to others and therefore have an adverse effect on my role as a helper. Egan (1994) states that to be a fully developed helper, a key component is self awareness. He also suggests that there can be a “shadow side” to helping, which can adversely affect the outcome of the helping process.

Dominique Steinburg describes mutual aid as a process through which people develop collaborative, supportive, and trustworthy relationships; identify and use existing strengths and/or to develop new ones; and work together toward individual and/or collective psychosocial goals. (Steinburg, 2010)

Group therapy has been used for many years as a therapeutic method in which members can offer support and understanding for each other. It can be defined as two or more people, who share common issues, meeting and interacting face-to-face to help one another reach an identifiable goal. There are several types of group therapy, one that I will be discussing in this paper is the self-help group. In recent years, self-help groups have increased in number and credibility. Members can speak freely about their experiences, while receiving advice and support from others, which in turn, can help them realize that they are not alone in their struggles. In this paper, I will analyze my observational experience of two self-help groups, Alcoholics Anonymous,

On May 26, 1965, in the U.S. Senate the voting rights bill developed the U.S. Senate by a 77-19 vote.On July 9, the U.S. House of Representatives finally developed the bill, after questioning it for over a month, by a tally of 333-85.On August 6, Johnson, as along with Martin Luther King Jr. and some other civil rights commanders at the ceremony.

The story took place in the 1930’s in a town called Maycomb, Alabama. The story is told to us by a young child in her perspective. It was during the time where racism was a big part of the word still. The story told by the child during a trail of an African American facing charges of rape of a white women. The child name is scout and her father Atticus given the trial to defend the African American name Tom Robison, but Atticus already knew how the outcome of the trial was going to be. Atticus raised his children Scout and Jem in a very different way from many different white folks raised their own. Jem and Scout get to see a different perspective of the world from their father Atticus and there black cook Calpurnia. Jem and Scout did not have a mother figure so Calpurnia took the role of being the mother figure by giving her life lesson to Scout and Jem. Jem and Scout to see the world how it is instead of seeing the black and white like most people. Atticus try’s to be honest with his children and does his best to explain things to his children that would make his children understand the situation. As a reader we see that Atticus try’s to do good for the community for the whites and blacks. He want his children to believe that tolerance of people and for the word of the bible, but to accept and forgive as well of other people way of thinking.

The type of group for this proposal would be a reciprocal or mutual-aid group. This is a type of group that, while having a group facilitator, is more of a self-help group. The idea is for all of the group members to find the strength

The process of running a group therapy session is a unique time to tests a person’s skills abilities when it comes to facilitating that group. This paper will mainly look at ways when it comes to my learning's of this class that I took ways; I will also show examples and skills to run a good group therapy session. This whole paper is a reflection of the many things that I took was on being an active group counselor facilitator.

Groupwork can be defined as a method of social work that is utilised in order to help individuals to enhance their social functioning through purposeful group experiences and to help cope with their personal group or community problems (Konopka, 1972). The role of groupwork places emphasis on sharing thoughts, ideas, problems and activities, allowing social action groups for instance, to “empower members to engage in collective action and planned change efforts to modify particular aspects of their social or physical environment” (Toseland & Rivas, 2014, p. 38; Pyles, 2009; Staples, 2004). Therefore, reflecting on the processes of groupwork is an essential mechanism for all professionals in order to develop better communication skills, conflict resolution and enhance future performance. This essay will reflect upon the task group processes that were conducted this semester, while evaluating my own role within the group and what was learnt working within a small group.

As social workers, we want to learn about how to develop a mutual aid group together. Our group chose to do this in a mutual aid group focused on managing stress, as well as recording group process and development. This group analysis and reflection paper will be based on the description of the participants as well as identifying, describing, and explaining the analyzing of the group processes and key concepts. Included will also be a facilitator’s reflection from my behalf of the third session of the mutual aid group.

A mutual aid group is a group of people with similar challenges, helping one another to overcome the obstacles they each face and become a system of support for one another. This mutual aid group is composed of five female members of a Social Work 420 course at St. Augustine College in Chicago. The topic of the group is self identity. This group analysis and reflection paper provide a review of the mutual aid process as it relates to a mutual aid group and examines and reflect on a group session led by the author.

In the grief support group I co-lead with a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) and supervised by a Master of Social Work I learned how to facilitate a meeting. The LPCC taught me the person-centered approach and the social worker taught me to monitor client’s progression of goals. She allowed me to take lead, to link members together by similarities they share, and to give members homework. The LPCC believed in self-disclosure, she demonstrated this for me in a fantastic manner the social worker I was with did as well. Teaching me that it is great to self-disclose when appropriate and when it will benefit the progression of the group or for them to feel comfortable trusting the leader. In my group sessions I did not deem self-disclosure appropriate to use. How I will translate this is to be aware of my clients, to ask them what goals they hope to achieve, and for them to keep journals of progress. I will create a safe atmosphere for clients to speak, provide affirmation, and help clients set and maintain goals.

I learned two significant things about group counseling in this course. The first thing that I learned is the importance of setting up a treatment plan. The intention is to follow the client from their entrance into the program until the client is discharged. In this process the clients’ problems are identified through various assessments and as each problem is addressed, it is checked off of the list. Once all of the problems are checked off of the list, the client is considered as having completed the plan. This plan is especially important because it evokes thoughtful conversation between the client and the counselor and is the best method to gain information from the client regarding the help they want to receive. The second most significant thing that I learned about group counseling is how to design a group from start to finish. From pre group design, planning the goals of the group and determining the members to setting up the environment and structuring the sessions, each step adds its own important components to designing group counseling.

In my undergraduate work, almost all of my classes that were directly related to my major required at the least one group project. In the beginning this was not something I was very fond of mostly because I had some bad experiences when it came to working with others on projects. Usually it was the problem of people not pulling their own weight, and doing their parts to help with the tasks. When it came time to have the assignment complete it was even harder to give a grade to those people. I did not want to be the guy who caused someone to throw someone under the bus. However, after I thought about it, I did want to be that guy because in the real world on a work project if there was someone who did not pull their weight in the job projects would not be successful. So, when it came time for grades, I was always honest, and usually if a person did not do their part I told it how it was.

In the past decade, language memoirs, linguistic autobiographies, and learners’ journals and diaries have become a popular means of data collection in applied linguistics. It is not always clear however how one should go about analyzing this data. The aim of this paper is to offer a critical review of analytical frameworks applied to how one language autobiography can say a lot about one person’s past experiences and shapes them into who they are today. I will discuss the dialect, both geographical environment and social factors, and associates within through developing, using and changing an idiolect which constitutes part of a persona and self-identity of these frameworks in relation to the type of information they seek: subject reality, life reality, and text reality. I argue that some analytical results, in particular content from academic journals, are insensitive to the interpretive nature of autobiographic data. Subsequently, I will talk about my idiolect that is a collection of features of vocabulary development through parent-child directed speech, neighborhood and the Hawaiian Island Voices, textism behavior with school children and academic attainment, depression and its effect on language, and gaining identity through second language learning.