64th Annual Conference

Saturday, March 10

Morning Workshops

8:45 A.M.- 12:00 noon

Workshop 75

The Place of Theory in our Spontaneous Interventions as Group Leaders

Chair:

David A. Altfeld, Ph.D., CGP, FAGPA, Co-Director, Supervisory Training Program, National Institute for the Psychotherapies, New York, New York

Theoretical orientations are useful structures for guiding leader interventions. How critical are these structures in determining moment by moment therapist responses? Temperament, personality, group composition, and historical experience may also motivate a group leader's behavior. Let's think together about some of these subtle but defining issues in group leadership.

demonstration, sharing of work experiences, didactic, experiential

Learning Objectives:

The attendee will be able to:
1. Specify interventions that a particular theoretical allegiance might lead a therapist to make in group.
2. Identify which theoretical commitments or beliefs, if any,  tend to guide his/her choices.
3. Find moments in group when theory had little or nothing to do with their work as leaders.

Course References:

1. Ormont, L  (2001). The Technique of Group Treatment: The collected papers of Louis R. Ormont, Ph.D. L. Furgeri, (Ed.). Madison, CT: Psychosocial Press.
2. Kennard, D., Roberts, J., and Winter, D. (1993). A Workbook of Group-Analytic Interventions. London and New York: Routledge.
3. I. Harwood  and M. Pines (Eds.). (1998). Self Experiences in Group. London and Philadelphia. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.