Personal Reflection On Group Stages

When reflecting on this class, overall I really enjoyed it and I learned so much from it. The class my structure was really helpful and enabled us to experience a group as well as learn about it. There are many key factors to a group, the most important of these are the group stages. There are four group stages: initial, transition, working, and final. The initial stage is the first stage of the group and one of the most important. The initial stage is characterized by exploration and orientation. The overall guidelines of the group are set up and in the first couple of sessions introductions are made. One of the major characteristics of the initial stage is trust. The initial stage is where all of the first trust instances occur. For example, in our group, in our first session Hannah made herself extremely vulnerable and cried in front of us. She also shared how she felt about living off campus this year and the fears associated with being alone. Hannah placed a great deal of trust in us and allowed us to show that trust by keeping confidentiality about her struggles. Another factor of the initial stage is the hesitancy of the members. Members of a group may feel scared to speak up, for example, I was terrified …show more content…
The overall success of psychodynamic in our group was interesting. It was very difficult to fit psychodynamic into a group. Groups are supposed to be in the here and now and it was very difficult to dwell on the past while trying to maintain being in the present. When Chelsea shared about her past and her issues there, the psychodynamic approach was very effective. Melissa was able to get the past out of Chelsea and show her how it affects her currently. Overall Psychodynamic should not be used in a group (or really at all in my opinion). It deals too much with the past and unconscious motives that are not always