Group Therapy Facilitators Training Course

An Overview of the Type of Learning Community that will Develop

This is a training course that will count toward your weekly development hours. It is designed to certify you to lead one of our 10-week Group Therapy offerings. It has a unique design to it that will create more of a community of learning with the others taking this course instead of you just doing it by yourself. There will be a group of 4 to 8 MCO counselors that will go through this course together.

The majority of this course is focused on how growth and healing take place and then applying it to a Group Therapy setting. It builds on what you have learned from the newly developed NICC course.

You will learn very practical steps for creating the deepest kind of growth and healing – changing the playbook of the deficit Domains of Character Structure (Josh just changed Primary Arenas to Domains of Character Structure) which drives the symptoms that clients come to the group with. In particular, you will learn over 25 different ways you can create Corrective Emotional & Relational Experiences (i.e., mismatching experiences) a term that Diana Fosha and AEDP use. This is the number one experience they want to see happen for each session as do we in a Group Therapy context (See Undoing Aloneness & the Transformation of Suffering into Flourishing: AEDP 2.0 by Diana Fosha, 2021, p. 28).

Here is the basic structure of the course. It is designed to average 2 hours and 30 minutes each week of your development time. There is an Overview of the General Lesson for the week and then Two Learning Activities.  Each week is designed to begin on Monday with the virtual class on Thursday.

   Overview and Preparation Materials:

1. This will give you the learning objectives for the week, preparation materials you need to review for the Learning Activities, and a breakdown of the Time Investment for each part (so you know the amount of time to schedule for the different activities).
2. The preparation materials will be a combination of the following:
   • Reading 10 to 30 pages from a Word document.
   • A video example of a concept or skill or a Master Therapist.
   • A PowerPoint.
   • Watching a 20-to-40-minute recording of a Therapy Group led by Scott Makin who demonstrates the concepts and skills you are learning for this week.
3. In the files, you read there will be linking to further material that takes you on a deeper dive. These are not required. They are Optional. You choose how much additional time you want to invest. They also can be used for future resources when needed.
4. You will also see Optional Learning Objectives and Preparation Materials. Again, these are Optional and are there if you want to do a deeper dive or use them as resources later.

   Learning Activity 1:

1. This learning activity will focus on practicing and demonstrating the skills you are learning.
   • Each week you will be asked to submit a tape that demonstrates a skill you learned the previous week.  This gives you time to practice it with one of your clients so you can send us the tape of that session. We believe as you practice it with one of your clients it will improve your effectiveness with that skill which easily will translate into using it in the Group Therapy context.
   • All you need to do is “Share” it with me in Acuity or Rae Notes. Make sure you tell me the time frame in the session you want me to watch.
2. Your instructor will then give you feedback in an email, in a 30-minute supervision session, or put your recording in iMovie and comment on your tape in real-time.
3. This learning activity is due on Friday. Whenever an assignment day is given it is assumed you have until the end of the day.

Learning Activity 2:

1. Each week there will be a 55-minute Virtual Class on Thursdays at 11 am EST unless another time works better.
   • The class will be primarily experientially-based learning. This will include modeling a skill, showing video clips that demonstrate a concept or skill, case studies, interactive presentations, and opportunities to practice the new skills. You receive pre-training materials that give you the foundational concepts so advanced levels can be covered during the training.
2. You will read or watch the preparation materials beforehand. This is crucial because this will do the following.
   • Increase your engagement in the Virtual Class.
   • Allow the Instructor to jump in at a higher level since reading the preparation materials will give you the basic level needed.
   • Allow you to ask questions in the Group Chat Space beforehand so you have a clearer understanding going in.
3. Each week you will post in the designated Chat Group Space your response to several questions about the preparation materials or your experience in Virtual Class.
   • Each question will only require you to write 2 to 5 sentences and shouldn’t take you more than 2 to 3 minutes.
   • Others in this course will respond to your answers and so will your Instructor. Hopefully, this leads to some good dialogue. You choose how long you stay in the dialogue.
   • We hope this will make the course more than just reading and doing it by yourself in a dark room in your basement:) It is important that you feel a sense of community and connection with others taking the course in between the Virtual Classes. This will increase not only your learning but make it more fun and give you more support.
   • You can also post questions you have about the preparation materials or the video of a live therapy group that Scott Makin led.
4. This learning activity is due before the Virtual Class.

Learning Objectives for the Course: You will

1. Review and apply NICC’s Core Competencies and Skills Markers as they apply to Group Therapy.
2. Identify the 5 Domains of Character Structure (connection, independence, reality, feelings, and spirituality) that make up the structural components of a Thriving/Core Self. These are the primary focus of what needs to grow and heal for the person to experience a flourishing life.
3. Identify the developmental & relational capacities that make up each Domain of Character Structure. This will help you gain a more specific and practical understanding of what needs growth and healing.
4. Understand the 20 plus types of Corrective Emotional & Relational Experiences that can be used in the context of  Group Therapy for growth and healing.
5. Understand other change strategies that can be used in Group Therapy.
6. Comprehend a how to facilitate the first session, the goodbye session, the affirmation and challenges session, and the general structure for a typical Group Therapy session.
7. Identify defensive relational styles that some group members may have and how to address them in a way that doesn’t disrupt the safety and growth of the Group.
8. Learn how to facilitate the various stages of a group’s development.
9. Understand how to use conflict for group development and to resolve it.
10. Understand how the symptoms are not the problem to address but they flow out of the deficits in the 5 Domains of Character Structure.
11. Be competent in diagnosing from a person’s personality and relational behaviors which Domain of Character Structure (and more specifically which relational capacity) is in deficit.
12. OPTIONAL: Understand Theodore Millon’s diagnostic structure for organizing all the disorders from the DSM V in a more simple way. In particular, to understand the intra-pyschic structure and interpersonal coping styles of the Personality Disorders and how they will determine the type of treatment focus you will take.