Group Therapy Certificate Course: Evidence-Based Strategies to Develop and Facilitate Dynamic, Purposeful and Effective Group Therapy

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Program Information

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

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Speaker

Hannah Smith, MA, LMHC, CGP Related seminars and products

Potential Finders Network, LLC

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Hannah Smith, MA, LMHC, CGP, an author, business owner, and innovator, is a licensed mental health therapist and internationally board-certified group psychotherapist, consultant & clinical trainer with nearly 25 years of experience in her dual passions: helping others recover from multiple difficult life circumstances and improve their well-being and enhancing the knowledge of clinicians who work in the field of clinical care. With undergraduate degrees in hard sciences and master’s degrees in in special education and counseling psychology, she combines her knowledge in unique ways to analyze and synthesize difficult concept into "feet-to-the-pavement," practical applications for clinical practitioners at all levels. She has done extensive study and work in neuroscience-informed treatment of anxiety and trauma and is certified in interpersonal neurobiology through the Mindsight Institute. Her work experience, both in the US and abroad, has given her a unique perspective, cross-cultural awareness, sensitivity & respect, and a relatability that puts people at ease and makes her highly approachable. Her dynamic and thought-provoking, teaching style is invigorating, making learning fun, personal, and practical.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Hannah Smith maintains a private practice and receives a speaking honorarium from Cascadia Training. She receives royalties as a published author. Hannah Smith receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Hannah Smith is a member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, and the Washington Mental Health Counselors Association.

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Objectives

1. Analyse the core principles of Modern Psychoanalytic, Systems-Centred Therapy, Expressive, and Cognitive-based models.
2. Utilise neuroscience understanding of human attunement in the practice of group therapy.
3. Identify the challenges of group therapy to increase therapeutic effectiveness.
4. Determine appropriate group structure, topic choice, and membership to enhance engagement.
5. Examine the stages of group development, including the creation of subgroups, “levelling out”, synergising, and identification of termination needs and practices.
6. Identify traditional paradigms regarding the value of silence, resistance, and degrees of empathy in group interactions.
7. Examine the ethics involved in group therapy, including HIPAA/confidentiality, facilitator role, and dual-relationship issues.
8. Determine your leadership style, orientation, approach, and methods of self-care to reduce burn-out.
9. Examine how transference, countertransference, immediacy, bridging, and reciprocity increase group connections and build intimacy.
10. Utilise new skills in addressing microaggressions, resistance, and other threats to vertical and horizontal group cohesion.
11. Connect group modalities and their issues as they apply to children, adolescents, adults, and special populations.
12. Create a plan for effective evaluation of group progress and responsive modification.

Outline

• Harness the “right-brain-to-right brain” benefits (modern neuroscience advantages)
• Real-time practice of skills learned
• Remediation of attachment, injuries, positives for the provider, and more
• Understand group dynamics and logistical issues
• Client and group-type selection
• Get client, family, and colleague “buy-in”
• Attrition and dealing with maladaptive group behaviours

• A brief history of group (development of group as a specialisation/key players)
  • Predominately support/adjunct orientation
  • Yalom’s therapeutic factors

• Predominately brief, solution-focused, psychoeducational orientation
• Integrated approaches
• Neuroscience-informed care
  • Brain-based treatment necessitates group process
  • The group modality in the current age
    • Increase our sense of efficacy in the current infrastructure
    • Limitations in the infrastructure – changes needed

• Interpersonal neurobiology
  • Domains of integration
    • Consciousness
    • Bilateral
    • Vertical
  • Attachment issues
• Positive connections to neuroscience
  • Address comorbid attachment issues by rewiring the brain
  • Model secure attachment-based interpersonal behaviours
  • Reduce shame and increase a sense of acceptance, connection, and self-worth in clients
• Challenges & limitations
  • Current understanding
  • ”catch 22” issues (anxiety – the very thing we need to treat – naturally shies away from this modality
  • Time/finances

• Reduce shame with a whole-person, neuroscience-informed approach
• Create buy-in in client-friendly terms (educate client on brain-body-social connection)
• Increase motivation by prioritising symptom relief (reduce emotional pain) and teach agency (increase self-efficacy)

• Principles & goals for effective group practice: pre-group development
  • Group types: psychoeducational, process, cognitive, expressive, support, etc.
  • Group structure: logistics, duration, open/closed
  • Topic, approach, & member selection
  • Agreements & goal setting
• Stages of group development
  • Sub-grouping, attuning, synergising
• Termination needs

• Emotional granularity, intimacy, empathy & resonance
• Transference/countertransference
• Immediacy, reciprocity, bridging
• Connection, intimacy, & emotional communication
• Micro-aggressions and affective dysregulation

• Define yourself as group leader
  • Personal philosophy
  • Interaction orientation
  • Self-and-object issues
  • Emotional communication skills
  • Self-care

• Evaluation methods and tools
• Responsive modifications within the existing group

• Mock group practices
• Case-study & video evaluations
• Supervision group
• Next-step planning

Target Audience

• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Counsellors
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counsellors
• Therapists
• School Counsellors
• School Psychologists
• School Social Workers
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals