Download a printable application form (PDF, 660k) for this course.
Increase your creativity, motivation and effectiveness in running groups:
- Identify different group types and learn how to select the right techniques for each
- Evidence based
- New creative group exercises that work
- Video demonstrations of group techniques
- Photocopiable worksheets, checklists and forms to use immediately with your groups
- Learn how to work through group conflicts and misunderstandings
- Strategies for neutralising group sabortage
- Learn how to evaluate how effective your groups are
- Use group room layout to your advantage
- Recognise the most common mistakes made by group leaders – before they happen
- Decide which group recording method is right for you
- Invaluable in a range of health and social care environments across the age span
“Before this course I felt pushed into the group work by circumstances/managers and hated it. Any training for this topic was hardly available. This course was just ‘what doctor ordered’ in terms of practical ideas and great opportunities for sharing and networking. Thank you.”
L.M.S., Social Worker, Lincolnshire
Course Outline:
09.15 Registration & refreshments (for 10.00 start)
10.00 Do groups "work" or are they just a way of increasing contact numbers with clients?
The evidence base (and otherwise) for group work. What works with whom and how does it compare with the effectiveness of one-to-one work.
10.30 Failing to prepare means preparing to fail (1)
Why preparation is the single most important element of your group. A 17 point checklist and how to use it to ensure maximize group success. How to anticipate potential key weak points in your group and how to manage them.
11.15 Refreshments
11.30 Failing to prepare means preparing to fail (2)
Checking our own practice against the checklist
11.45 Relationships with group co-leaders
Ensuring that co-leaders are assets and how to address difficulties in the relationship
12.15 Non-verbal behavior in groups and how to use it to ensure group success.
Understanding and shaping both our own and the group’s non-verbal behavior is a key skill for ensuring a productive group and preventing common problems arising
12.30 Record keeping and supervision
Options for record keeping of group sessions including sample protocols. How supervision of group work differs from supervision of one-to-one work. Lessons for supervisors and supervisees.
13.00 Lunch (by own arrangements)
14.00 Common problems in groups and how to manage them (1)
Whole group issues. Split groups, negative immobile groups, antagonistic groups. issues of poor attention span and poor engagement. Chaotic groups and how to use their energy to the group’s advantage. Dealing with repeated ground rule breaking and declining or variable group attendance.
15.15 Refreshments
15.30 Common problems in groups and how to manage them (2)
Individual issues. From individual "annoying habits" through to individual disruption. Spotting subtle sabotaging strategies and how to neutralize them. Using the group room to manage difficult group behavior. attending to individual needs that divert attention from the group.
16.30 Finish
Course Leader:
Paul Grantham
MSc, M.Clin.Psychol, C.Psychol
Paul is a clinical psychologist with a background within the NHS in community care. He currently trains extensively within the NHS, Social Services and the Independent sector on a range of therapy based topic areas. His interests currently lie in addressing obstacles to personal and behavioral change. An extensively informed, and humorous presenter, he emphasises the practical rather than just the theory of client based work
