Group Leadership Skills provides a road map and a practical toolkit for users to lead all types of groups effectively. Drawing on extensive teaching and clinical experience, authors Mei-whei Chen and Christopher Rybak give readers numerous skills, techniques, insights, and case illustrations demonstrating how to tap into the heart of group therapy: the interpersonal processes. The text covers group processes from beginning to end, including setting up a group, running the first session, facilitating the opening and closing of each session, working with tension and conflict, and using advanced skills and intervention techniques to facilitate member change. The Second Edition expands on group leadership skills to include methods of running mandate groups, semi-structured groups, basic level unstructured groups, and advanced level here-and-now focused groups, as well as using psychodrama techniques to heal unresolved grief and loss.

About the Author
Dr. Chen is a professor at Northeastern Illinois University. She teaches group counseling, individual counseling, theories in counseling and psychotherapy, mental health counseling, grief counseling, and stress management. In addition, she maintains her own private practice, on the side, in Illinois. She has received three Faculty Excellence Awards from Northeastern Illinois University. As well, she received the Beverly Brown Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Group Counseling from the Illinois Association for Specialists in Group Work (IASGW). Besides the text of Group Leadership Skills, Dr. Chen also publishes Individual Counseling and Therapy: Skills and Techniques (3rd edition coming out in 2018) and has published many journal articles in related areas. Dr. Rybak was a professor and chair of the Department of Educational Leadership & Human Development at Bradley University and a specialist in group work. He taught group counseling, counseling diverse populations, practicum and internship in counseling, theories and techniques of counseling, and pre-practicum in counseling. Dr. Rybak served as the director of the ELH Counseling Clinic and several times as president of the Illinois Association for Specialists in Group Work. He received awards for innovative teaching and integrated learning, a research award, two Fulbright scholarship awards, and the Beverly Brown Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Group Counseling from the Illinois Association for Specialists in Group Work (IASGW).

Reviews

"Chen and Rybak's updated edition provides a valuable resource for students struggling to master the complexities of group work. The text's examples, scenarios, and prompts for reflection will provide much-needed opportunities for applying group work concepts to practice, and encourage readers to engage in life-long professional development as group practitioners."

-- Tracy A. Marschall

"The first edition of Chen and Rybak was invaluable for my master's level counseling students, and given the great attention that the authors have paid to suggestions for revisions, I am confident that students and faculty of group counseling will find the second edition even more valuable in moving students comfortably into working with groups."

-- Charles Timothy Dickey

"The authors of this textbook provide both a comprehensive and practical understanding of the group counseling process for both entry level group leaders and seasoned group leaders. Special attention is used to describe the various types of challenges one face with working with individuals in a group setting. Most impressively, the authors provide an opportunity for entry level counselors to consider their role as the group leader and assessment of personal and professional growth."

-- Tracey M. Dunca * New Jersey City University *

"This text revision expands on previous available materials, is accessible to undergraduate and graduate students, and has practical examples to illuminate the concepts."

-- Jack Flight

"In Group Leadership Skills, Chen and Rybak provide a thoughtful, nuanced, and honest look into the interpersonal relationship world of group counseling and therapy. They weave the skills new group leaders need in order to be successful throughout very real situations that occur in group work. Group work teachers who create, or want to create, inter- and intrapersonal learning within their classrooms and in their students will find this book a delight. The writing style and the content foster the responsibility of the group leader to be the healthy professional there to guide members to healthy change. This book will challenge students not only to work on their skills as leaders and their understanding of group work, but also on their personal growth and 'self as instrument.'"

-- Karin Lindstrom Bremer

"A deep dive into facilitating group process that helps guide leaders into how to create meaningful change through group interaction."

-- Susan Larimer

"Excellent information and application for upper-level group courses."

-- Susan Claxton



Book Information
ISBN 9781506349305
Author Mei-whei Chen
Format Paperback
Page Count 608
Imprint SAGE Publications Inc
Publisher SAGE Publications Inc
Weight(grams) 1080g