A Group for Women That Have just Gone through a Divorce - Coursework Example

A group for women who have just gone through divorce April 20, A group for women who have just gonethrough divorce Divorce is a common problem in the contemporary society but this does not mean that people like. Its associated negative effects require interventions towards recovery of the involved parties and forums are necessary for the stakeholders. This proposal is for women who have just gone through divorce. Group description Type of group The proposed group will be a therapy group that will operate at two levels and will implement the Gestalt therapy approach. The approach identifies the role of the therapist in considering the macro environment to a problem and then helping the person to overcome the problem (Grose, 2011). The first stage of the therapy will involve focus group discussion that will aim at helping patients to develop a better understanding of their problem and the environment around a problem, and to open up. The Gestalt therapy will then be used with smaller groups of patient. Target group The group is closed to women who have just gone through divorce and the period is limited to three months from the culmination date of the divorce. Motivation into choosing the type of group Women’s vulnerability to adverse effects of divorce is one of the motivations into forming the group. Even though statistics shows that women are more likely to initiate divorce than men are, condition that the marriage relationship forces women into determines this. The conditions also induce pain and means that the women shall be suffering from before the divorce process is initiated, through the divorce process, and after the divorce is formalized. Women are for example victims of physical and psychological abuse as well as their husbands’ infidelity that may cause a lot of pain and therefore require therapy for management of the pain and for recovery from the experience. Effects of divorce on women are another motivation into formation of the group. It induces stress among the women and financial instability, especially if the woman has to assume responsibility over the children (Matlin, 2011). Empirical studies supports the psychological affects of divorce in women because they report a higher level of distress than married women do, during early periods after divorce. This further extends to physical illness and may worsen the financial strain that women suffer from after divorce (Lorenz, Wickrama, Conger and Elder, 2006). Consequently, it is necessary to help the women after divorce in order to minimize, or even mitigate, the adverse effects that they suffer from divorce. Secondary effects of divorce are another motivation into formation of the group. Women, in most cases, especially when children are still young, assume custody of the children. Consequently, the effects of divorce on the women are likely to transfer to the children. The group will therefore reduce the children’s vulnerability to the possible effects of divorce. Rationale Goals for the group The group has short-term and long-term goals. The following are the short-term goals. To reduce and mitigate psychological pain that the women may be going through To protect involved children from effects of the woman’s pain The following are the long-term objectives of the group To help the women recover from effects of divorce To help the women understand root causes of the divorce To help the women into better relationships in future to avoid reoccurrence of divorce To equip the women to be advocates for stability of the institution of marriage through discussion of their positive lessons from the divorce and therapy processes Accomplishment and evaluation of the goals The goals will be accomplished through therapy for the to the group members who shall be members of the group. Members will be organized into focus groups in which they will be encouraged to share their experiences with peer. This will aim at exposing the patients to a wider view of the problem that they faced through the divorce process, and helping the participants open up during therapy processes. Gestalt therapy will then be used to help the patients understand the root cause of their divorce and to overcome adverse effects of their divorce towards Interviews will be used to evaluate achievement of the goals based on set standards for monthly evaluation. After every month of therapy, the women will respond to a written interview with scales on indicators of effects of divorce on them and on their children. Standards will be established for expectations on the patients’ improvement and evaluations based on the standards. Two aspects of the evaluation will be conducted. Each of the patients will be evaluated for success in recovery from effects of divorce toward managed effects, based on the standards. Evaluations will also assume a longitudinal scope to note progress in each of the participants’ success in managing effects of divorce. The same strategy will be applied for evaluating long-term goals for the group and all evaluation results averaged on a longitudinal basis. Significance of the type of group There is need for the group approach to therapy instead of an individual approach to therapy because of advantages that induces effectiveness and efficiency of therapy. One of the advantages of group therapy is lower cost of service to clients. Therapy cost is shared among many patients and this leads to unit cost. This ensures financial feasibility of the proposed intervention. In addition to the cost advantage, group therapy informs the therapist of the client’s interpersonal relations potentials for a better understanding into therapy. The client’s interpersonal potentials could be factors to the experienced divorce and understanding this will be essentials to helping clients to understand manage the involved consequences. Another significant benefit of group therapy is its exposure of clients to other people with similar problems, a factor that helps to eliminate sense of isolation and shame, and may even develop psychological support for the clients. Group therapy also allows clients to learn coping skills from peer and offers hope and strength (Pastorino and Doyle-Portillo, 2008). These benefits establish need for the form of group, as opposed to individual therapy. Leadership Leaders and leadership skills A volunteer who shall have strong managerial and psychology background will be appointed to lead the group. A woman with experience in divorce, either as a victim, or as a counselor will be preferred for the leadership role because of the associated potentials for managing the group and its activities and for helping the group members. In addition to the managerial and psychology background, the leader will have multiple skills for operating the group and its resources. One of the leader’s important skills will be ability to understand and utilize the group’s resources, including self. This includes ability to organize resources based on an understanding of their purpose, and ability to understand stakeholders to the group and to utilize the stakeholders’ potentials for the group’s objectives. Communication and planning skills are also necessary for the leader who will depend on information that can be extracted from group members. Listening skills and facilitated active communication will for example help group members to open up in therapy session and will help the leaders to influence personnel and group members towards active focus group discussions. Planning skills will also be critical to the group’s objectives because of its significance towards sustainability and efficiency in therapy administration. In addition, the leader will have skills that will enable him or her to determine the group’s performance, to evaluate the performance and effect necessary changes, and to counsel people in the group’s environment. Allowances shall be offered to the leaders. Leadership theory The leaders will follow the servant leadership theory, a theory that establishes the leader as a servant to followers. Group members and personnel to the group will be the group’s followers and the nature of the group’s objectives qualifies the theory. Group members, being people with negative experience that is likely to have adverse effects on their self-esteem, require an individual who can boost the esteem by being an equal to the members or a servant to them. Being a servant leader will also influence other personnel to the same leadership style to create a good environment for therapy. The leadership theory, according to Parris and Peachey (2013), offers a strong basis for organizations’ leadership and ensures strong leader-follower relation. Co-leadership A formal organizational structure will exist in the group with a single top leadership position. The leaders may however delegate leadership roles to personnel and group members at different levels or needs. Group dynamics Expected factors to the group’s dynamics Cooperation among stakeholders is one of the factors that would affect the group’s dynamics and may be evident in unwillingness to play one’s roles. Members may be too reserved to share their experiences or may be negative towards the group and its activities. The leader may also lack interpersonal potentials for creating an active group in which all members and personnel can play an active role. Cohesion within the group is another significant factor to the group’s dynamics as a high level of cohesion develops trust, confidence to facilitate opening up, and sharing. Leadership approach is another factor that is significant to group dynamics because it will determine ability and willingness of members to engage in group activities and abilities and willingness of personnel to support the group’s objectives. The proposed servant leadership theory will however bring all stakeholders on board and ensure active participation. Learning tools Group members and therapist will be the learning tool in the two approaches, focus groups and therapies, which the group will implement. Stages of the group Expected benefits for members The group will pursue its objectives at two stages. The first stage will be focus group discussion in which members will be expected to learn from peer, to regain their self worth and confidence, and be able to open up and share with the therapist. The therapy stage will however benefit members by helping them to understand real factors to their divorce and developing their will to manage effects of their divorce. Activities for each stage Activities for the focus group stage will involve members’ narration of their experiences and group discussion on factors that could have caused the experiences and possible solutions that existed at different stages of the experiences. The narrations will however be presented in written forms with narrator’s identities withheld. The facilitator will then read out each member’s narration and facilitate discussion on each experience. Therapy sessions will also involve discussion of the experiences, but in confidence. Expected problems and projected solutions Inability to overcome associated pain from divorce and to open up to group’s activities is the most significant challenge. Measures will however be taken through development of a collaborative environment and through preliminary counseling, to mitigate this. Conclusion Divorce is a significant social problem because of its incidence and effects that it has on people. Women are the most vulnerable to effects of divorce because they are often victims to the factors to divorce. The proposed group seeks to help women who have just gone through divorce to manage associated effects. Focus group discussions and direct therapy will be used in a structured organizational set up that will be based on the servant leadership theory. References Grose, A. (2011). Are you considering therapy? London, UK: Karnac Books. Lorenz, F. et al. (2006). The short-term and decade-long effects of divorce on women’s midlife health. Journal of Health, Sociology & Behavior, 47(2);111-125. Matlin, M. (2011). The psychology of women. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Parris, D. and Peachey, J. (2013). A systematic literature review of servant leadership theory in organizational context. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(3), 377-393. Pastorino, E. and Doyle-Portillo, S. (2008). What is psychology? Essentials. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Read More