The Meaning of a Group Facilitation Training to Creative Arts Therapists Working in the Public Education System.

Many creative arts therapists who provide group therapy to children and adolescents in the Israeli education system do not feel they were sufficiently trained as group facilitators. Group facilitation training was provided over the course of two consecutive years by a regional support center to over 40 creative arts therapists and their clinical supervisors working in the Israel Ministry of Education. A two-stage qualitative research project examined the participants' experiences during this training. Interviews were conducted regarding the therapists' first-year experiences. A questionnaire was administered at the end of the second year. Both were analyzed according to the Consensual Qualitative Research method. The research findings pertain to the participants' perceptions of group arts therapy in the Israeli education system and included the development of unique group models, the advantages and power of group therapy at school, and the intimidating and disruptive experiences of school settings. The participants also provided their impressions of the training course: their growing confidence and skills, and the many changes required in group arts therapy at public schools to provide more professional and efficient service. The discussion centers on the value of group arts therapy in the education system and the steps needed to enhance therapists' confidence and efficiency in this field.

Working Across Differences While Online: Examining the Experience of Facilitating a Virtual Group.

A growing body of literature illustrates the benefits of online groups for clients, but few studies have examined counselors' experience facilitating such groups, particularly in regard to counselor work with clients of differing sociodemographic traits. In this study, graduate-level counseling students facilitated two psychoeducational college counseling groups via an online platform. Groups were tailored for Black and/or African American first-generation college students (FGCS) enrolled in urban high schools. Facilitator experiences using an online platform and counseling across sociodemographic variables were explored. Themes included barriers to cohesion building, difficulty of power/oppression discussions via a virtual setting, and adjusting tactics and expectations.

Digitalization of the Logistics Process in Short Food Supply Chains. An online Viable System Model application during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper reports an ongoing exercise concerning the design of a logistics App to support operations within Farmers' Markets in Mexico. This exercise is part of a wider research agenda focused on 'Supporting Alternative Food Networks' (SAFeNET). This is a research agenda to conceive, build, implement, and develop better-informing decision-making processes that support effective and efficient AFNs (also known as Short Food Supply Chains) logistics operations in a digital environment, through smooth flows of goods and information among producers, AFNs coordinators, and consumers. This view calls for taking a systemic approach to help collectives of people to improve their autonomy and viability. Initial plans were to conduct this collaborative design exercise, using the Viable System Model (VSM) as a conversational tool. Accordingly, a series of face-to-face interviews and a focus group were planned. However, the lockdown due to COVID-19 forced researchers to abandon the face-to-face option and conduct the primary data collection online. The VSM intervention had to be adapted for its use on an online platform, in such a way that the platform would support knowledge building interactively, with a series of participants. This paper describes the format and visual appearance of the online VSM framework, its application, and the lessons learned through this exercise. Two points deserve to be highlighted: First, although the exercise outcome was very valuable for the next stage of the design, the participants' capacity for collective and individual reflection during the workshop was limited. Second, participants continued adding comments via the adopted online visual collaboration platform after the workshop ended, showing an understanding of the process and commitment beyond the researchers' expectations. The outcomes from this experiment are promissory, suggesting that online Systems Thinking interventions deserve further development.

PluriVox Program in Brazil's Unified Health System: five-step group work to promote patient health behaviors / Programa PluriVox no Sistema Único de Saúde do Brasil (SUS): cinco passos na facilitação de grupos para promover nos usuários comportamentos de saúde

ABSTRACT This paper describes PluriVox, a user-friendly program aimed to improve group process and dynamics and to promote the health of undeserved population. PluriVox is grounded in psychoeducation, and it can be used in public health efforts to encourage service consumers ("patients") to become more active in realizing their own health-related needs through participation in health promotion groups. We suggest PluriVox as a strategy to help service providers (e.g., physicians, nurses, community health workers) and consumers to work as co-producers of health. PluriVox contains five competencies to help group facilitators: (1) observation protocol; (2) strategies to support group facilitation; and (3) group facilitator training. Training uses participatory methods that take only 15 hours. Herein we provide a description of how PluriVox was developed using group work theories. A preliminary evaluation suggests that PluriVox has potential to improve health professionals' capacity to facilitate health promotion groups in a Unified Health System

RESUMO Este artigo tem por objetivo apresentar o Programa PluriVox, que é uma estratégia de trabalho em grupos, de fácil aprendizagem e execução. O programa se destina aos grupos psicoeducativos realizados na saúde pública, e como finalidade a promoção, nos usuários, de protagonismo e corresponsabilidade na produção de saúde. O PluriVox é composto por cinco competências para facilitadores de grupos, baseadas em um protocolo de observação, estratégias de apoio para facilitação de grupos e um exemplo do processo de capacitação das competências por meio de metodologia participativa que pode ser executada em 15 horas. Descreve-se o processo de construção do PluriVox e discutem-se as teorias de facilitação de grupos. A avaliação da capacitação possibilita afirmar que os profissionais de saúde capacitados tornam os grupos um método de produção de saúde e que o PluriVox pode atender às necessidades do Sistema Único de Saúde, no que se refere aos grupos

Adaptation of a Hearing Voices Group Facilitation Training for VA Stakeholders.

The Hearing Voices (HV) Movement promotes diverse understandings of voice-hearing and seeing visions, which mental health professionals commonly refer to as 'auditory hallucinations,' 'schizophrenia,' or 'psychosis.' Central to this movement are peer support groups through which attendees connect with others who have similar experiences. This paper describes an adaptation of a Hearing Voices group facilitation training at VA Greater Los Angeles (VAGLA) and discusses training modifications, along with trainee perceptions and implementation and intervention outcomes. This is a first step towards adapting HV-inspired groups to VA systems of care. Data collection involved surveys of trainees (n = 18) and field notes throughout the 24 h online training. Findings indicate high acceptability and appropriateness of the training and high feasibility in implementation, suggesting the training was well-adapted to VAGLA. This research contributes to global efforts to integrate the Hearing Voices approach in diverse settings and increase awareness about its benefits among providers.

Innovating Novel Online Social Spaces with Diverse Middle School Girls: Ideation and Collaboration in a Synchronous Virtual Design Workshop.

Leveraging social media as a domain of high relevance in the lives of most young adolescents, we led a synchronous virtual design workshop with 17 ethnically diverse, and geographically-dispersed middle school girls (aged 11-14) to co-create novel ICT experiences. Our participatory workshop centered on social media innovation, collaboration, and computational design. We present the culminating design ideas of novel online social spaces, focused on positive experiences for adolescent girls, produced in small-groups, and a thematic analysis of the idea generation and collaboration processes. We reflect on the strengths of utilizing social media as a domain for computing exploration with diverse adolescent girls, the role of facilitators in a synchronous virtual design workshop, and the technical infrastructure that can enable age-appropriate scaffolding for active participation and use of participatory design principles embedded within educational workshops with this population.

Lost in the matrix: Dialectical tensions in facilitating virtual video groups during COVID-19 pandemic.

The research phenomenologically explored the experience of facilitating virtual video groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research questions addressed relational processes in virtual video groups, including emotional presence, interpersonal communication, and intimacy. Specifically, we asked how facilitators can intervene effectively to promote these processes in the virtual space, within the context of social distancing. Semi-structured group interviews were held with 26 female group facilitators from various professional backgrounds during the first wave of COVID-19 in Israel in May 2020. Phenomenological analysis yielded five main themes addressing dialectical tensions that operate simultaneously in the virtual space, both enabling and hindering relational processes in virtual video groups: intimacy and intrusion in the domestic space; sharp transitions from presence to absence; fragmented processing despite abundant information; sterility and clarity in group communication; and the hyper-aware self - being a participant and an observer at the same time. Moving groups into a virtual sphere challenged the traditional role of facilitators, who struggled to create a safe space in an unstable virtual setting where the boundaries between personal and professional lives were reduced. Findings also point to the potential of the domestic space to promote closeness and intimacy and suggest the virtual space requires facilitators to embrace multiplicity as a state of mind when intervening. Facilitators must work with permeable boundaries between inner and outer group spaces, accept discontinuity as a basic property of the virtual, and acknowledge the limitations caused by multiple stimuli.

Measuring clinical competencies in facilitating group-based rehabilitation interventions: development of a new competency checklist.

OBJECTIVE: Group-based intervention formats are common in rehabilitation, but no tool for objectively measuring clinical competencies in group facilitation currently exists. We aimed to develop a psychometrically sound group facilitation competency checklist for use in clinical, training, and research settings. METHOD: The Delphi method of expert consensus was used to establish checklist items that clearly describe competencies considered important for effective group facilitation. Inter-rater reliability was determined with two experienced psychologists who used the checklist to rate the competencies of psychology trainees facilitating a memory skills group. RESULTS: After two Delphi rounds, consensus was reached on 17 items, defined as at least 80% agreement among the panel of 15 experts. The four checklist item categories were (a) Facilitating focused group discussion, (b) Communication skills, (c) Interpersonal style, and (d) Session structure. One item was removed after piloting. Inter-rater reliability was excellent (88% agreement) using a simple coding method (competent/incompetent). When using a detailed coding method that discriminated between 'done adequately' and 'done well', inter-rater reliability was weaker (κ = 0.481, 55% agreement); however, it improved to almost perfect after the raters calibrated their standards. CONCLUSION: The new group facilitation competency checklist is fit for purpose for measuring clinical competencies in delivering group-based rehabilitation interventions and can be used in the training of effective group facilitators.

Grupos gestálticos: uma proposta fenomenológica de facilitação da cooperação / Gestalt approaches to groups: a phenomenolical proposal of cooperations facilitation

A abordagem gestáltica utiliza o método fenomenológico para a compreensão dos fenômenos que investiga, adotando a descrição dos fenômenos grupais como seu recurso principal no trabalho com grupos vivenciais. Este texto se propõe a apresentar uma proposta fenomenológica de facilitação da cooperação como uma das qualidades principais da utilização da gestalt-terapia em grupos vivenciais. Neste sentido, o texto descreve a evolução das práticas grupais até o desenvolvimento do grupo gestáltico, enfatizando suas fases, características, temas comumente emergentes e as funções do facilitador de grupos vivenciais. Finalmente, o texto destaca as condições essenciais para a facilitação dos processos cooperativos nos grupos gestálticos...

Gestalt approach uses phenomenological method to understand the phenomena it investigates, adopting the description of the group occurrences as its main resource in its work with life experience groups. This text intends to present a phenomenological proposal of facilitating cooperation as one of the main qualities of the use of gestalt therapy in existential groups. In this sense, the text describes the evolution of group practices until the development of the gestalt approach to groups,emphasizing their phases, features, the commonly emerging themes and thefunctions of life experience group’s facilitator. Finally, the text highlights the essential conditions for the facilitation of cooperative processes in gestalt approach to groups...

Grupos gestálticos: uma proposta fenomenológica de facilitação da cooperação / Gestalt approaches to groups: a phenomenolical proposal of cooperations facilitation

A abordagem gestáltica utiliza o método fenomenológico para a compreensão dos fenômenos que investiga, adotando a descrição dos fenômenos grupais como seu recurso principal no trabalho com grupos vivenciais. Este texto se propõe a apresentar uma proposta fenomenológica de facilitação da cooperação como uma das qualidades principais da utilização da gestalt-terapia em grupos vivenciais. Neste sentido, o texto descreve a evolução das práticas grupais até o desenvolvimento do grupo gestáltico, enfatizando suas fases, características, temas comumente emergentes e as funções do facilitador de grupos vivenciais. Finalmente, o texto destaca as condições essenciais para a facilitação dos processos cooperativos nos grupos gestálticos. (AU)

Gestalt approach uses phenomenological method to understand the phenomena it investigates, adopting the description of the group occurrences as its main resource in its work with life experience groups. This text intends to present a phenomenological proposal of facilitating cooperation as one of the main qualities of the use of gestalt therapy in existential groups. In this sense, the text describes the evolution of group practices until the development of the gestalt approach to groups, emphasizing their phases, features, the commonly emerging themes and the functions of life experience group’s facilitator. Finally, the text highlights the essential conditions for the facilitation of cooperative processes in gestalt approach to groups. (AU)