Initial/Beginning Stage

BEGINNING THE GROUP

  • Convey warmth, trust, helpfulness, understanding, and positive regard
  • Members form their impressions of the leader and determine whether or not they think the group is going to be helpful
  • Methods for Opening the First Session
  • Start with a brief statement about the group (1-2 min), then conduct an introduction exercise (most common)

Set a positive tone

  • Comes from the leader’s enthusiasm and the members’ comfort and trust
  • Draw out members, cut off hostile or negative interactions, hold the focus on interesting topics, and shift the focus when the topic is irrelevant or only interesting to a few members
  • For nonvoluntary groups, leaders may need to be firm but also show concern and understanding
  • Do’s
  • Get everyone to share
  • Be enthusiastic
  • Be creative for nonvoluntary groups
  • Get control early and let people see you are in charge and you know what you are doing
  • Don’ts
  • Let the group focus on negative issues
  • Let one member dominate
  • Start with boring group rules
  • Don’t let members attack each other

Clarify the purpose of the group

Explain the leader’s role

Explain how the group will be conducted

  • Types of exercises, risks of being in group, may be challenged to look at themselves

Explain any special terms that will be used (counseling terms, etc.)

Help members get acquainted

  • Consider how members will be introduced to each other
  • Time varies—when personal sharing will occur, then members need more time to get to know one another; less than 5 minutes for sessions less than 1 hour
  • May want to use an exercise that helps members remember names; may use exercise that is pertinent to the purpose of the group
  • May want to use name tags
  • Introduction Activities
  • The Name Round—members simply introduce themselves and may also give additional information that is relevant to the group purpose
  • The Repeat Round—first person says his/her name, then second person says the previous name and his/her own name, etc.
  • The Introduction Dyad—pair up and give information about themselves

Help members verbalize expectations (5 min)

  • Have members tell you what they expect to get out of the group
  • May need to point out if this will be met by the group or not
  • If members are nonvoluntary, then you may not want to ask

Explain group rules

  • May set rules, then ask for group input
  • Discuss during the first session for elementary and possibly middle school; otherwise, may not need to discuss until needed
  • Discuss in a pleasant, positive manner

Focus on the content

  • Try to transition from introductions, purpose, and rules into topic

Address questions—just don’t let it become a Q & A session

Checkout the comfort levels of the members

  • May spend a few minutes on the topic of comfort level

Draw out members

  • Don’t force each member to speak, just make sure that they have had the chance to participate
  • Use written exercises and rounds

Use exercises

  • Rounds—allows everyone to speak, name round, comfort round, 1-10 scales
  • Dyads—allows members to talk more personally with one member rather than the entire group (less than 5 min); make sure each person will have something valuable to contribute before doing this
  • Sentence-completion exercises—gives members chance to think about what to say
  • Don’t use too many

Assess members’ interaction styles

Cut off members when needed

  • Don’t let one person dominate or attack another member
  • Be prepared to refocus the group

Get members to look at other members

  • Tell members to look at the group rather than just you
  • Explain that at times your will not be looking exclusively at the person speaking because you will be scanning the group (could also be a signal for them to look at other group members)
  • Scan the group (the member will try to get eye contact from someone else)
  • Signal the member to talk to everyone by making a sweeping motion with your hand

Close the first session

  • Leader will need to summarize and comment again on the purpose and what the possibilities are for the future
  • Allow extra time for questions

Self-Assess the first session

  • How did the members interact?
  • Did all members participate?
  • How was the room, setting, etc?
  • How was the flow? Too much time on one person or topic? Too many topics discussed?

THE SECOND SESSION

Opening the second session

  • Introducing new members
  • Begin with introductions (will also help other members)
  • Catch the person up (may do this individually or spend few minutes in group)
  • Success of the 1st session
  • If successful, brief warm-up then move into content
  • If unsuccessful, restate group purpose, address what went wrong, or ask members for their reactions to the 1st session
  • Arrive early to answer questions

Planning for a potential letdown

  • May be different energy for second session
  • Moves toward more personal sharing, become nervous
  • Plan for an exciting, interesting session beforehand

Ending the second session

  • Allow extra time for closing
  • Ask members what has been helpful and unhelpful

COMMON MISTAKES DURING INITIAL STAGE

  • Letting it go on too long by allowing the warm-up to stray from the purpose
  • Skipping it and not allowing time for members to warm up

THE BEGINNING PHASE OF SUBSEQUENT SESSION

  • Every session has a beginning or warm-up phase
  • Plan your opening
  • Be creative