yalom group psychotherapy: essential skills for effective group facilitation

Speakers:

Mr Clinton Power Clinical Counsellor & Gestalt TherapistFounder of Australia Counsellingwww.AustraliaCounselling.Com.Au

Psychotherapist, counsellor, master trainer for Counsellors in Addiction InterventionCo-founder and Director of Australian Institute of Counselling in Addictionwww.lakescope.com

www.AustraliaCounselling.Com.Au

“Yalom Group Psychotherapy: Essential Skills for Effective Group

Facilitation”

http://clintonpower.com.au/how-i-work

[START OF VIDEO]

Clinton Power:Hello, this is Clinton Power, founder of the AustraliaCounselling.Com.Au.

It's my great pleasure to be here today with June Lake, who is co-founder and director of the

Australian Institute of Counselling in Addictions since 1997. She is an experienced

psychotherapist, counsellor, interventionist, clinical supervisor, teacher-trainer and consultant,

and she has designed, implemented, and evaluated training programs in the private and

government sectors. As a senior lecturer and trainer at the AICA, June trained hundreds of

counsellors as addiction specialists and is a master trainer nationally for the USA originated and

internationally applied program “Life Management, Relapse Prevention, and Building Health

Relationships.” And I personally know June to be a passionate group facilitator so we titled this

interview “Yalom Group Psychotherapy: Essential Skills for Effective Interpersonal Group

Facilitation.”

So welcome, June.

June Lake:Hello, Clinton, thank you.

Clinton:Well, let’s start by letting us know a little bit about how did your passion for

group therapy come about?

June:In starting this cofounding and beginning the Australian Institute of Counselling in

Addictions, I met three United States Marines from the Navy School of Health Sciences. There

was Ed Lacy, Paul Mullen, and Barry Gillen, three amazing group facilitators and therapists, and

I was just so inspired and motivated that I determined after working with two of them that I

wanted to be just like them. I wanted to be able to make the changes in people’s lives or

facilitate them to make the changes that I saw these 3 men were able to do.

Yalom Group Psychotherapy: of 18Essential Skills for Effective Interpersonal ©2012 Australia Counselling & Consulting Pty LtdGroup Facilitation

Clinton: But tell us what was it you saw in those group therapy demonstrations that was

so powerful impacted you in such a big way?

June: It was the skill levels, they were based in theory, they understood what they were

doing, it wasn’t a hit-or-miss, they were just so highly skilled that I knew if they had learned it

I’d be able to learn it too. And I was determined that I would learn it.

Clinton: Wonderful. So let’s talk a little bit about how the skills in the therapy room are

similar and different from group facilitation skills because I understand there are points of

difference. Can you tell us a bit about that?

June: Well, they certainly are. There are points of similarity in terms of micro skills and

there are points of differences in – I think the biggest difference is in group psychotherapy

where instead of just applying the therapists and the client in the interactions, we’ve got client

interaction or group member to group member and we’ve got therapists to client or group

member. And Irv Yalom’s work has a very definite process focus. So we’re actually assisting

clients to self-explore to go in the journey of self-exploration and that’s done through the

interpersonal interactions with the other group members.

Clinton: So tell us a bit about the Yalom approach, can you give us a brief overview? I

understand it’s certainly an extensive approach and if anyone has seen the textbook, it’s

sometimes called the bible of group psychotherapy, it’s an enormous paperweight. But can you

give us a brief summary of the Yalom approach?

June: Yes. Irv Yalom – and you’re right, his theory and practice of group psychotherapy

is the bible and it’s voluminous, I mean it takes ages to get through, but everything about group

is there that you would want to know. His approach is definitely based on process and when


Irv Yalom talks about process, he’s talking about the nature of relationships between and

among members, and he works primarily with the dynamics that occur as members relate to

one another. So it’s quite a different approach and he’s over time looking to empower group

members so that the power is in the group, and as you and I have said many times, the agent of

change for individuals is the group. The power is in the facilitator’s use of skills rather than

team working one-on-one with members to effect change.

Clinton: Well, I think that in itself is probably a very big statement that the group is the

agent of change, and I guess another point of difference with individual therapy as well?

June: Absolutely. It’s something like I’m not good at math, Clinton, but the figures are

something like when you’re working with the group of eight people there’s the potential for

something like 320 different relationship formulations, so you’re pretty busy as a group

facilitator.

Clinton:Wow, that’s extraordinary. So what are other qualities of an effective group

therapist, can we touch on that?

June: Sure. I believe that the qualities that a therapist needs to begin facilitating, and

let me stress that after extensive training they certainly need to have respect. They need to

have patience, they need to be able to sit with tension and even arouse tension in some

circumstances. They need to be able to accept criticism without getting angry and they

certainly need to be able to look beyond what’s being said in the group in order to move that

group in the direction where healing can be most effective. There’s no point. If you don’t have

respect for your group members, your group members won’t respect you and the potential of

the group – and the potential growth for the individuals will never be realized. It’s essential


that people have patience if they’re going to be group facilitators because the very best you can

expect the group process is slow and of course it’s very complex. So sometimes you need to

sit with things that are happening over and over again and not jumping too quickly. You will

also need to be able to allow tension to arise in the group because quite often it’s in that

tension where group members will be more inclined to speak the truth. And because of the

different stages that groups go through in the developmental areas when you hit what we call

adolescence and members start to flex their muscles, they start to challenge, they start to

become competitive, angry, you really need to be able to sit with that and use it to promote

growth rather than trying to shut them down. And you need to certainly look beyond what’s

being said if you’re going to work effectively with that group. It’s no use just focusing on the

content.

Clinton: I think what I hear you saying there, June, is that the personal development and

professional development of group facilitators are essential and I’m wondering how important

do you think it is for group facilitators to actually have been a group participant themselves in

the past?

June: Really good question, I think it’s essential, Clinton. I think unless you had the

experience of actually sitting in the group and feeling the emotions that are felt when you’re

receiving feedback, when you’re giving feedback in moments of tension, then there’s two

things that can likely happen: One is you’ll be too fearful to be bold and enthusiastic enough to

interact or intervene in the way that will promote growth and change. Or secondly, because

you’re not being there yourself, there’s a strong likelihood that you’ll start making demands on

group members and wanting them to go there and trying to control the group. And of course if


a facilitator is doing this, they will actually shut the group down and the potential of the group

will never be realized.

Clinton: So you mentioned that groups go through stages. Do you mind us touching on

what other stages or what others expected developmental stages that a healthy group would

go through?

June: Okay. There are four stages and there are many different terminologies depending

on the modality of therapy where the facilitator comes from. The one I like, because I think it

most aptly describes the stage, is adolescence – I beg your pardon – infancy, adolescence,

maturity, and termination. An infancy parallels what we know in infants, they’re dependent on

the leader, they’re looking for structure, and probably they’re going to keep themselves

relatively safe, they’re not going to rock the boat. When they move into the adolescent phase,

they’re a little more venturous, just like adolescent boys and girls, they’re looking to prove

themselves, they’re looking to prove in the case of families the parents or authority figures

don’t know anything and they want to rock the boat. And unless you allow them to try out

different roles and behaviours in this adolescent phase, they’re probably never going to move

into the maturity stage of the group which is where the real work happens. And then of course

if each time walks through it is going to go into termination or even when one member

terminates the group, you’ll often see regression back to a safer type of group that was seen in

the very all strategies.

Clinton: Well, let’s talk about what are some of the specific skills that therapists need to

be to facilitate a group, and I think you’ve touched on a few of this already. One that’s standing

out to me, June, is certainly the ability to be out to hold tension and certainly as a group moves


into adolescence, you know, imagining you will also need to be out to tolerate criticism and

people getting upset and angry with you. Tell us more about some of those skills.

June: Well, all of those that you just mentioned are vital. I think the most specific skills,

Clinton, you need to be able to differentiate between process and content. And we’re

socialized as a society to focus on content, what’s being said, and a perfect example of this is

one I like to use because we’ve come over late to it is the family Christmas table where ten or

twelve members of the family come together and they range from 5 to perhaps 85 and Uncle

Harry is holding cotton reminiscing as he loves to do and tell the stories about Christmas he’s

gone and his experiences and people hear this year-in, year-out, they know it off by heart,

they’re tired but Little Mary sits there and says, “Uncle Harry, you haven’t stopped talking since

we sat down.” And of course everyone says, “Mary, be quiet, don’t be rude to Uncle Harry!”

You see, he’s called the process that everyone is sitting bored to death listening to the content.

So you need to be able to differentiate between process and content. You need to strike a

balance between maintaining the group, keeping the group working, and achieving the task of

the groups. So we look very closely at facilitators acquiring the ability to differentiate between

functional and non-functional roles, and we call them behaviours and roles; those that are the

functional and those that are non-functional.

There’s also the list of Irv Yalom’s security factors or I think he calls them therapeutic

factors now. And there are those happenings that occur, the experiences that come up in the

group as group members go about interacting with one another and have the potential for

healing. You also need to know the stages that you just asked me about and let me say every

word that comes out of a facilitator’s mouth is not an intervention. We interact as facilitators


as well depending on the stage of the groups. So in order to intervene at a crucial, at critical

point, something that has the potential to hum the development of the group and the growth

of the members in the group, you’ll also need to know when to intervene and to intervene

effectively at each of those four stages because they’re quite different.

So there’s a whole range of skills. You need to know what the process elements are. It’s

no good just understanding that process is about the nature of relationships and there’s people

interact, they’re the dynamics that we work with. You need to know what those process

elements are.

Clinton: So I guess, what I’m taking from that, June, is if you want to be a facilitator,

your want is not for the light of heart but also that it’s obviously important to have really

specific and extensive training in group facilitation skills. These are often not skills that are

taught in a regular counselling or psychotherapy degree.

June: Right, they’re specialized. They’re specialized skills, Clinton, they do need

specialized training. I think that because groups are cost-effective there’s a tendency to think

well throw them into group, but it’s a whole lot more than this. Just as such amazing abilities to

create growth and healing that needs to be in the hands of somebody that’s trained.

Clinton: So what are some of the most common mistakes you see perhaps beginner

group therapists make?

June: I think it’s concentrating. You know, when you knew and I remember those days I

intently listened to every word that was being said because somehow I thought that if I heard

everything and I do listen intently still but I was missing the process, I was so focused on what

was being said and of course that was in order to solve the problem. And I think that neophyte


facilitators get caught into that. And that’s understandable, the desire to look intelligent, know

what you’re doing and bring about some change in probably group members. I think also that

unless you have a really good knowledge of how groups maintain and develop, that for instance

when they hit that second stage and it’s fire in Brimstone then there’s a tendency for untrained

facilitators to go into some sort of control to be either in facilitator-initiated transferential

energy or part of transferential energy, and of course you’re just supporting the members in

acting out more.

So I think there’s a lot of traps for new facilitators and I think it can be helped when they

co-facilitate with somebody with a little bit more experience or they’re trained and they have a

sense of mastery and direction about what they’re doing. I think they can let go of some of the

nerves then.

Clinton: And just another point, June, I mean is it necessary to have a co-facilitator or

can you still be just as effective running a group on your own?

June: I like that, Clinton. It’s much easier on your own, you don’t have to consider the

rhythms of the other person. I think what I see, I do a lot of clinical supervision of health

professionals and what I see so much around, not just New South Wales but other states when

I’m working, is I see a lot of shared facilitation versus co-facilitation.

Co-facilitation is like marriage and members will always try and split and divide and a

strong echoing in situation they’re unable to do this. Shared facilitation is something quite

different, it’s where the two facilitators decide who’ll do what. It has its place and particularly

in psychoed groups or something like that, but in the process group it’s never as effective as

echoing process.


Clinton: So, June, I’m aware that you’re under a training, a week-long training in group

facilitation, tell us a little bit about that.

June: Well, it probably covers most of the things that we’ve been talking about but

obviously a whole lot more, what I can say in a few minutes is not what we can do in five

intensive days. It’s a five-day program, mornings are devoted to theory, afternoons to actually

putting into practice what they have learned that morning and accumulative over the five days

because the training group is co-facilitated.

One of the facilitators will coach each member individually as they co-facilitate with

whoever is co-facilitating the training group. It’s a very, very effective way of learning because

you’re not just relying on yourself, you’ve got a co-facilitator and you’ve got another

professional beside you that’s just coaching you, allowing you to say things but being there as a

sort of a backstop if they needed.

Clinton: Wonderful. I – sorry, go ahead.

June: I try and do two training programs a year in Sydney, so far I haven’t managed one

but we do have one commencing on the 28th of June and that’s a Friday so it runs Friday,

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday which is the 2nd of July. And I’ve done this, Clinton,

because therapists, as you know particularly in private practice, find it difficult to take five days

Monday through Friday, of course they cannot fit in a Saturday and a Sunday and only three

days out. And this is being held at Mary Mackillop Place in North Sydney, only run generally

8:30 to 4: 30.

Clinton: Wonderful. Now, I’ve done, June, this training a number of years ago and I can

certainly testify it certainly is intense in a good way, and one of things I love about your


training, June, was just the way we did the intense theory in the morning but then going into

group and actually living it, actually experiencing what it likes to be a member or to be

facilitator. I mean, there really is no – there’s no better way to learn and actually doing it and

no theory can kind of capture that.

June: Oh, I’m so pleased to hear you say that because it’s my belief. That’s how I

learned to be a group therapist, and it’s for the last 20 odd years it’s how I thought I was to be

amazing group therapist.

Clinton: And I think for many therapists, it’s also a wonderful way to augment your

common practice so to become – to do training in group and then to be off of that as another

service to your client is certainly very beneficial in terms of being out of the current clients and

new clients into groups, so I hope that the therapists watching it will consider that as part of

they kind of practice as something beneficial for your own practice and for your clients.

June: Look, I can’t underscore what you’re saying strongly enough. It’s not just a matter

of keeping the ball rolling because it’s what everyone needs to do, if they’re in private practice

they need to generate business and it’s one way to do that. But more importantly, so often the

therapy that occurs in the post therapy room between the therapist and the client goes so far

and then to be able to put them in a group of seven or eight or nine people and have them look

at how they come across to other people, how they’re received. It is just added growth for

them and to me it’s like completing the therapy.

Clinton: Yes, it’s something that always surprises me. It shouldn’t surprise me but just

to work with the client individually and then have them come into group and just see them


have such a different experience because of the multiple perceptions and feedback coming

towards and it absolutely is a huge growth experience.

So, June, thank you so much for giving up your time today to speak to the Australia

Counselling community. It’s been a pleasure as always to speak with you, and I hope we can

connect again sometime.

June:I’d love that, Clinton, thank you.

Clinton:Thanks, June, and all the best!

June:Bye bye now.

Clinton:Bye bye!

[END OF VIDEO]

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therapists and counsellors.


yalom group psychotherapy: essential skills for effective group facilitation

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