ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY OF THE PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC GROUP

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Although the group leaders have encouraged attendance and punctuality from the very beginning of the group's development, there are often difficulties in the early stages of group development. Sometimes therapists have to listen to an avalanche of excuses (the nanny was late, and there was no one to leave the child with, problems with transport, the lock on the door broke, an emergency at work, etc.). Late arrivals and irregular attendance at group meetings are more likely to report group resistance. When the group becomes hard-working and close-knit, all babysitting problems disappear.

In other cases, resistance is individual rather than group in nature. When the participants were late for a long time due to absolutely unforeseen problems, then after working through their resistance, these same participants become very punctual.

Regardless of the reasons for the resistance, this behavior needs to be changed before it can be disassembled and worked on. First, the irregularity of the visit has a destructive effect on the work of the group. Irregularity of visits is contagious to the rest of the group and leads to its demoralization. Usually the group is supported by those people who try to come to meetings regularly, but often they are clearly not enough. Therapists try to influence group attendance in a variety of ways. During pre-therapy group meetings, many facilitators emphasize the importance of regular visits. Those participants who doubt in advance about the regularity of their participation in the group should be referred to individual therapy.

It is very important that facilitators are absolutely convinced of the value of the therapy group and the importance of visiting it regularly. The facilitator acts on this belief and instills it in the group members. Therefore, facilitators should come to meetings on time, give the group an important place in their list of priorities, and in cases where it becomes necessary to skip a meeting group, inform the group about it in advance.

A group member who regularly skips a group is unlikely to benefit from being in a group. Stone's research (cited from Yal. Group psychotherapy) shows that poor attendance is directly proportional to leaving the group at a later stage. Therefore, an irregular visit requires decisive intervention from the leader of the group. Like any event that occurs in a group, systematic delays or omissions are a form of behavior that reflects the characteristic pattern of communication with others for a given participant. The personal meaning of the group member's actions should be investigated. If Tatiana is late, does she apologize? Does Maxim enter the room ostentatiously? Is Natalia late because she feels insignificant for the group? Does Roman go to meetings, believing that nothing important will happen without him? Does Victor ask to be briefly told what happened in the meeting he missed? Does Margarita give careful excuses, believing that she will not be believed anyway?

It is in the interests of both the group and the participant who is prone to skipping, before analyzing delays and gaps, it is necessary to correct the situation. The participant who is absent will not hear any interpretation. But in cases where a group member who does not regularly attend meetings is present, you should very carefully choose the moment, referring to him with comments. Often, participants who were absent the last time or were late experience feelings of guilt or shame; they are not in a position to take comments in their address. Therefore, in such a situation, the best tactic is if the facilitator pays attention to maintaining the integrity of the group, and then, when the moment is right, tries to help the participant explore the hidden meaning of the behavior.