Core Principles of Group Psychotherapy

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Delivery: In-Person at Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research

Series Dates: 

1. Session 1: February 15, 2025
2. Session 2: February 22, 2025
3. Session 3: March 15, 2025
4. Session 4: March 22, 2025
5. Session 5: March 29, 2025
6. Session 6: April 5, 2025

Time: 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET

Partial enrollment is not available for this program.

Program:

As area graduate programs across disciplines have limited, or eliminated entirely, coursework in group psychotherapy, there have been few opportunities for clinicians to receive training in conducting therapy groups. The Core Principles of Group Psychotherapy Certificate program is co-sponsored with the Philadelphia Area Group Psychotherapy Society (PAGPS) and is being offered to address that need. Focusing primarily on small groups of clients, this series will explore the well-established core principles and best practices in group psychotherapy. Focus will be on significant relevant research and the applicability to a wide range of populations and settings.

This series is designed to meet the Group Psychotherapy Education requirement for certification by the National Registry of Certified Group Psychotherapists (NRCGP). Furthermore, it is the recommendation of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA), as well as common practice in teaching group process and group treatment, that part of the series is experiential.

There are six sessions in total, being team-taught by three very experienced group psychotherapists from different backgrounds; three of the sessions will have an experiential component. Training videos will also be used throughout the course.

It is the intention of this series to provide the participants with the most appropriate educational foundation for future group treatment in a range of practice settings, through this combination of didactic and experiential class work.

Learning Objectives:

After completion of this course, participants will be able to

1. Recognize 2 influential theories and historical figures and early contributions to the field.
2. Discuss the group level factors, process and mediators that lead to therapeutic change.
3. Identify three (3) issues in selection and composition of groups.
4. List the requisite tasks in successfully forming a psychotherapy group.
5. Describe the basic and universal therapeutic skills in conducting therapy groups.
6. Explain three (3) basic group development stages.
7. Assess the mechanisms of change, illustrated by Yalom (2020) in groups.
8. Demonstrate increased sensitivity and proficiency in cultural responsiveness in groups.
9. Identify at least two (2) interventions for addressing microaggressions in a group.
10. Analyze at least two (2) group leader interventions observed in the class experiential groups.
11. Explain at least two (2) group leadership functions.
12. Recognize two (2) problematic group processes.
13. Describe the function of countertransference and transference in groups.
14. Compare and contrast individual verses whole group interventions.
15. Explain the essential ethical principles in practicing group psychotherapy.
16. Review the key principles in trauma focused group treatment.
17. Critically discuss the different models of group psychotherapy presented.
18. Identify important differences in conducting in-person versus online group psychotherapy.
19. Identify strategies for self-care in practicing group psychotherapy.

Requirements:

Participants are asked to purchase the book, Core Principles of Group Psychotherapy (see citation below).

{Kaklauskas, F.J., & Greene, L.R. (Eds.). (2019). Core Principles of Group Psychotherapy: An Integrated Theory, Research, and Practice Training Manual (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429260803}

Instructors:

Thomas K. Hurster MSS, LCSW, CGP, AGPA-F has been working with children, adolescents, and their families, in different clinical capacities since the early 1970’s; he has worked in crisis intervention, inpatient psychiatric settings, community mental health, and in the private practice of psychotherapy. Tom has been with Benchmark School, a private school for learning-disabled students in Media, PA, since 1981, where he has had several roles, including Family Consultant, Director of Admissions, and Supervisor of Child and Family Support Services.

He presently also divides his time between private clinical practice, and as a full-time adjunct faculty member at the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research (since 2002), where he annually teaches Group Treatment, Clinical Social Work Practice with Children and Adolescents, and Clinical Social Work in Schools. Regularly conducting a number of therapy groups at both Benchmark School and in his psychotherapy practice, he currently is leading two mixed gender, mixed diagnosis open-ended relational psychotherapy groups for high school aged youth, and a SPACE (Supportive Parenting of Anxious Childhood Emotions) group for Benchmark parents. A Fellow in the AGPA, and regular faculty member at CONNECT, he is also a co-chair of the Child and Adolescent Special Interest Group. Additionally, he has been on the board of the Philadelphia Area Group Psychotherapy Society since 2008. Tom is the author of “Ethically Informed Group Practice” in the Handbook of Child and Adolescent Group Therapy. 

Donna J. Harris, MA, MSW, LCSW, CGP is an African American, licensed clinical social worker with over 30 years of practice experience. She is the Director of Intercultural Counselling, LLC, which provides culturally responsive individual and group psychotherapy to adults. She is certified in Relational Psychoanalysis, Mindful Facilitation and Group Psychotherapy. She facilitates trauma support groups as well as BIPOC & Intercultural training process groups for mental health practitioners. 

Ms. Harris founded Intercultural Network LLC, to address the needs of organizations in their efforts to become more equitable and inclusive by providing customized assessments and training. She frequently presents at local and national organizations interested in cultivating trauma informed, anti-racist practices.  She is a Qualified Administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI®) and has served as clinical faculty at Bryn Mawr College’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research for 20 years. Ms. Harris is also President of the Philadelphia Area Group Psychotherapy Society (PAGPS) and serves on the Board of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA).
 

Brian Ashin, LCSW, LMSW, CGP has been in private practice since 1990 working with individuals, couples and groups. He received his Social Work education in 1979 from Wayne  State University in Detroit, Michigan and subsequent training in Marriage and Family Therapy in Philadelphia at the Family Institute of Philadelphia. 

He developed his interest in group therapy while working with inpatients as well as running the Psychiatry Resident’s Group at Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center in Camden, New Jersey. In 2006, he began his training in Modern Group Analysis from the Center for Group Studies in New York City. He is a member of of the National Registry of Certified Group Therapists as well as a number of group therapy societies.  

He has presented locally and at national conferences with a particular interest in group therapy and the understanding and use of transference and counter transference. In 2013, Brian joined colleagues in St. Petersburg, Russia to co-lead a weekend long training on Dreams and Symbolic Communication in Groups as part of the Center for Group Studies Russian program. 

Cost/CEUs

Program cost includes a free one year membership to the PAGPS.

Program Cost: $510 ($85 per session)

• Payment plan option is available on the registration form.

Discount Rate: $420 ($70 per session) 

• Discount rate available when payment in full is provided at registration.

CEUs: 18 CE/CEU and/or Act 48 credits (includes 1 hour of ethics credit)

(CE credits are available to licensed psychologists, social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists, and professional counselors.)

In-Person Location:

Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research

300 Airdale Rd.

Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

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