Charro Moore

Group Analysis
Paper II
SW 4010
July 25, 2015

Assessment/Group Dynamics within the Sessions/Middle & Ending Phase

The fourth session begins the middle phase of the group. At this point within my group the
process and content of the session is important to my group and me. The members within my
group seem to interact and are willing to receive feedback from each other that helps us
rethink our behaviors within the group and move toward productive change. This session was
based on 3 main messages being communicated through song, and how would we respond to
these messages. Within my group it was three of us in this session and two members were
absent this day. We all collectively listened and discussed each song giving our own opinion of
what we thought each song meant. During this process I felt we worked well together, and
assessed each song well and thoroughly. I realized I use to take listening for granted, because
listening is the most important skill when facilitating a group which needs to be nurtured and
developed. Effective listening was the foundation our group and helped create a strong
relationship amongst our group.
The middle phase identified the experience, by helping the group work on and achieves its
purpose. I felt we were cohesive and showed signs of operating at our best by helping each
other create smoother and more effective communication skills. We all contributed ideas,
facts, and values from our own perspective that helped the group deal with the obstacles. For
example some of my group members were knowledgeable and familiar with some of the songs,
which gave our group a better understanding of the meaning of the songs. Sharing this
information gave our group an advantage, by ensuring the group adequate time to achieve our
work and also giving us enough time to meet overall requirements for the group session.

The fifth session was based on a role play in which we conducted individually with a partner, so
we only had two people in attendance, without the supervision of our instructor. We relied on
each other for guidance and support. During my session I felt comfortable with being open,
expressing my personal feelings, and experiences that I am currently coping with in my life. I
was surprised and impressed how well we both did during our role play. Our sessions flowed as
if we were having a personal conversation amongst friends, not like the tension we experience
in class while being critiqued. We utilized clarification skills, relationship building skills, and
attentive listening skill, which we both discovered we learned from our group sessions
(beginning phase). I enjoyed this class session, and it was my favorite role play because it
seemed more realistic because it was an issue that I am currently dealing with. Throughout the
process of this session the social worker was able to unveil some of the issues I had and I was
able to better understand how these issues manifested. The social worker and I were able to
develop a rapport, set goals, and she encouraged me to commit to the process. Overall I was
satisfied with the session because I was able to utilize this experience with the following group
work and it ended with the feelings of my needs being met.
During the sixth session my group developed confrontational skills. I was one of the main clients
in this group session and one of my other group members whom missed our previous group
session volunteered to be the social worker. Once we figured out the issue we began to
develop a deeper relationship. We began to talk about the issue within the role play, which was
me feeling like I was overwhelmed with school and work. My presenting problem was that I

couldnt understand how receiving bad grades in school was not due to my professors
incompetence, but due to my lack of studying and preparing for my assignments adequately. As
the client, myself and the social worker began to talk and a level of trust and rapport was
developed. During the development stage concerns shifted from the external to internal.
Although I had complaints about my life as the client, the social worker in my group slowly
guided me to look deeper to see what internal emotional conflicts and issues were triggers for
me. I wanted things to stay the same and because they werent it made me feel as if I was no
longer intelligent, because now I have to study and make an effort towards my academics. This
is an extreme emotional issue which is tied to self-concept and self-esteem.
I felt a resistance to not want to take the next step, which is confrontational. I showed
resistance to change. I was comfortable with where I was, which was in a place of not wanting
to study. I explained this entire scenario, because I felt this was a challenging but relatable topic
for my group. We discovered how conflict with a client can be very difficult to handle. We will
probably come in contact with people with issues who will place the blame on others when in
fact its probably a situation they created. The social worker provided support and guidance.
She placed herself exactly where I was, and gave me the options of how I could handle this
issue. Finally, I worked my way through the issue and I came up with a resolution with the help
of my social worker in the role play.
Unfortunately I didnt attend class during the seventh session and part of the ending phase,
which was the evaluation process. I was able to talk to a member within the class to get the just
of the group session, and I was informed that the role play was about a foster care social

worker and parents meeting the requirements to receive parental custody of their children.
From research and the interpretation from my classmate I gathered the approaches to
evaluating a group, would be to determine whether the group or individuals within the group
goals and objectives have been met. What happened during the group process and the
outcome are effective methods that can be used for evaluating group session and individual
clients. Overall documenting and assessing the progress or process that your client is working
towards is part of the evaluation process. An example for the scenario that was given would be
to evaluate how the parents cope with challenges and how can they meet the requirements to
retain or get permanent custody of their children. I used this same process to determine how
to assess my group within the course. Documenting, assessing and evaluating helped me build
the core and body of work to write my paper. Of course group cohesiveness and attendance
creates stability and is a necessary condition to create an effective group, but missing one of
the group sessions displayed the support of the group.
Impression
I feel as a member of this group I have delivered a competent influence in the group. The
groups goal of all of our sessions that I attended was to learn how to trust one another and I
feel we completed that goal. I trust my group and the climate we created. We were able to
communicate effectively in all of the sessions due to using our attentive listening skills, thus
giving us the ability to adequately work through challenges, and utilize these skills in our
internship and everyday life. The group has remained positive and supportive in most of the
sessions and working together in a cohesive and group norm style has helped us attain

cooperative behaviors and achieve common goals to successfully fulfill the group goals and
course criteria.
Plan of Action
I feel in the beginning of forming my group, we needed to make changes to make the group
more effective in the process. After the first few sessions through observation, we were able to
give each other feedback on our input and behaviors within the group. This helped with my
own fear of being restricted or being enabled in the group, which were feelings I had in the
beginning. Moving through the different levels of forming a group helped my group establish
goal clarity. As we navigated through the process and we developed a better understanding of
how to assess a task, such as what are we doing, why are we doing it, and what do we want to
do to achieve our goal within the session? I planned to implement the ability to think critically
about my own ideas and present them to my group, and respect the different perspectives and
opinions that others had. I in fact completed this goal and discovered it was a part of forming
group norms. I plan on having the capacity to share leadership skills within my future groups
and take responsibility for group process through shared decision making and problem solving.
Im understanding that this class was not only developed to form a group and facilitate groups,
but part of its purpose is to show mutual aid group work through elements such as offering of
moral support, seeing each other as a source of information, and working through conflict
together for the goal of the group as a whole. Im hoping the information that my group and I
have gathered from this course will help us become more of an effective and competent
individuals in our practice when forming or facilitating group and individual therapy.

Ending Phase
Everything except the termination process, so far was implemented in the course to help
develop the process of forming a group. I have been able to understand and examine the
impact the group has on each other, giving and receiving feedback about the group experience
and each members role in it. Within the sessions it was important to explore ways to continue
learning about the topics discussed in the group, which will help with retaining the information.
I hope in my last session I will learn and be able to acknowledge the feelings triggered by
departure, be able to put closure on the experience, and terminate the group therapy sessions
in a proper and professional manner. My roles in terms of being a member of the group gave
me the feelings of acceptance. I felt a sense of belonging, and discovering my group had similar
concern and shared experiences gave me confidence in the group because we shared problems.
Having support and not being judge led me to be an active member in the group, giving me
feelings of being valued, having a purpose and strengthening our group as a whole. I appreciate
the course and my professors teaching style, it was personable and gave me a chance to be
open and comfortable in a group setting.