Human Behavior in the Social Environment by Irl Carter

Author:Irl Carter [Carter, Irl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Social Work
ISBN: 9780202361154
Google: LCectAEACAAJ
Publisher: Aldine Transaction
Published: 1999-01-15T04:35:21+00:00

Therapeutic groups are structured to serve as vehicles for persons struggling with intrapsychic concerns. Often the group is open-ended and long-term, with members cycling in and out. Therapeutic groups usually have an expressive focus with leaders clearly differentiated from the group. Socialization and communication are emphasized. Group process may be subordinated temporarily to the need of an individual member.

C. Self-Help and Support Groups

Over the last sixty years, there has been a phenomenal increase in the incidence of persons who come together around a common personal concern; groups exist for virtually every such concern. Self-help and support groups differ primarily in the amount of direction the leader or facilitator provides.

The role of the worker is to encourage sharing, risk taking, and mutual problem solving. He or she may ask members to speak directly to one another, may focus the discussion, and may limit story telling. ... The worker helps members explain their situations, offer suggestions to others, provide support, and learn from each other. (Reid, 1997:11)

Self-help and support groups differ from therapeutic groups in that members of self-help and support groups are not seeking (at least overtly) personal psychological insight or growth. Sharing experiences and ways of coping are vehicles for mutual help—self and other, helping and accepting help. In self-help groups, professional direction is usually not wanted, although in some circumstances, a professional helper may convene a group or sponsor it. The focus is either on participants working on a kind of personal problem they share with the other group members, or joining together to influence external systems to provide resources or recognize members’ needs and rights (e.g., a battered women’s group, or a group of neighbors in a community who seek better policing or better housing, or a feminist group). Such groups are:

a source of immediate support, where the knowledge that the meeting will take place every week provides a safety net in itself, e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous;

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