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Set the Room, Set the Mood: Mastering Group Facilitation · Professor Peterson’s Psychology Classroom

0:05
Welcome to Professor Peterson's Psychology Classroom,
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connecting the science of human behavior to everyday life.
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Here's Dr. Curtis Peterson.
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So, uh, let's get through this part and then we'll
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take a break and come back and finish, uh, through this process.
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But the, the first place that we
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should start with when going through facilitation groups
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is planning a good group process. Okay,
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this is where we are establishing
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4 main areas: climate,
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environment, logistics, and room
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arrangement. Now, you may go up to
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this first 2 and, and look at climate and environment.
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And what is the difference between the climate that
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you're setting and the environment that you're setting?
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The climate is, if you want to think about
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it, the temperature in the room,
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not on an emotional level and
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on a motivational level. Okay,
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and I would say even on the literal
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temperature of the room. All right,
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so let's go through these, the, these parts of climate.
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First one is the motivational aspect.
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Okay, um,
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a group facilitator may recognize that
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they're facilitating a group where people are being forced
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to go to that group. All right, and we'll talk
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about that later, about forced groups and open groups,
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a little bit more. But sometimes it's tempting for
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the facilitator to feel the temperature of the room about
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group members going, oh, All right,
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I'm here again. I don't know what
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I'm doing here, but let's do it.
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And facilitators feeling that sense of,
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uh, we have to be here feeling,
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and it's tempting to start a group with something
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that states, okay guys, I know we
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don't want to be here. But let's get
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started and let's get through it. Maybe we'll end early
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and get on with our day. All right,
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I want you to think about that from a psychological
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perspective. Okay, one, is that very motivating
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to actually then engage and learn
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about what your group members are there to do,
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or are, are you just feeding into this idea
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that we just need to get through it? Um,
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the second aspect of that is that
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it just does not provide the climate for
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which growth and change can occur. So on the
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motivational level, It's about us showing up
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and being there and being present as if
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you're an active participant that is there and excited
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to learn and get through the group and
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learn something from that group and move forward.
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All right, so sometimes we're going counter to the
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climate in the room. All right,
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another aspect of climate
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is, uh, and, and we're gonna talk about this, uh, in much
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more detail a little bit later, is the emotional
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regulation in the room. All right, we have
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a common human tendency to
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think that people perform their best
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when they are in the, yes, we're gonna
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do this, we're gonna move forward, this is the greatest place.
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And, and, uh, we're,
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we're almost in that sports setting where,
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you know, it's high energy, it's high place, it's that
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kind of place. And sometimes in the therapeutic
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thing area, we think that people
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will best learn when they're understanding
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the disorder and disease they're going through and the impact
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it's having on them. So we want to push their mood lower because
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that's going to motivate them to really understand their disorder.
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But climate states and research states
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that we perform our best when we're in the middle.
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So we're not like super cheerleader high,
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but we're not really depressively low.
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We perform our best when we're in between those 2
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zones. Okay. Uh, and we'll have much more to
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say about that later. The second one again is environment,
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is the physical environment. And again,
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going back to the last 8 weeks, we talked about
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that some and we'll talk about it more.
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So we wanna make sure the environment isn't visually and
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physically overtaxing
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the person or it's overwhelming. So we talked about, you know,
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in the office where there's 100 bobbleheads and all
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these motivational posters everywhere and the environment is very colorful
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and exciting, but that can
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be very overstimulating for the client,
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which again is going to lead to that climate part.
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Okay? The room temperature, I mentioned
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this in climate, is when a
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room is very hot,
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we all know this. It's just exhausting to be there when
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the room is too cold. People are just focusing
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on how do I keep warm? If there was
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a temperature that would be perfect, it would be right around
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69 degrees to 73 degrees is
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kind of the ultimate range on average.
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So, making sure that room temperature is regulated and consistent.
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Making sure you have enough chairs, all of those kinds
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of things. Okay? And those are all environmental,
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right? And I do have to say, with the environmental part,
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you can take control of things you have
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control over. But sometimes
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with the spaces that are afforded to us in this field,
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we have to sometimes make the best of it.
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I know in one situation, the facility
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did not have a group room, and so
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they did groups in the staff
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kitchen area, the break room.
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And so sometimes I realize this, That we
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can't always make the perfect environment. And so just
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know that what I'm asking for us to do is at least
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try and control those things we have control over.
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Okay, the 3rd one is logistics.
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And so this is the timing planning process.
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This is making sure, you know,
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we have a room reserved and that everybody in
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the facility knows that every Monday
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and Wednesday, this group is happening in this location.
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It is those kinds of logistics. It is the logistics of making
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sure we have a roster of group members before
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we begin. It is the logistics of how, if we
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have an open group, how we allow other group members into
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the group. And those are just the setup
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logistics. And then the logistics of the room is what
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time should we make sure chairs are set up, all of those kinds of
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things. So the logistics is that
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kind of, you know, checklist,
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those hard things. And when I say hard things,
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those things that just have to be done.
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In order for a successful group to be ran. Okay.
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And then room arrangement. How are we going to arrange the room?
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All right. And this may take different,
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different, differing forms.
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So, you know, we know that the kind
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of ultimate setup that we would probably love is to
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have us all in a circle, right? Because then we can see each
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other, interact with each other, and those
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kinds of things. But room arrangement also
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deals with what if your group members— the
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group requires them to do a lot of writing.
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So then we need to think about, well, how would we set up the tables?
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Would we set them up in a horseshoe or the
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standard classroom setting? We have to think about the
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type of group we're facilitating. Okay,
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so for example, I did a few groups
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that involved survivors of domestic violence
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and relationship violence, but also survivors
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of, um, uh,
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sexual assault. Okay, and this group,
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the survivors of domestic violence experience
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sexual assault within their relationship. So, you know, everyone,
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it was a common topic group.
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But feeling safe in that space,
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it would not probably be a good idea to
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initially set up the chairs in an open circle.
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That is not really going to establish
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a initial safe environment. So in those
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groups, usually the group would start with
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the tables and chairs because those tables provided
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a physical safety barrier for
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those group members to feel safe in that environment.
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Because all of them in that group—
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I should just emphasize this point— had diagnosable
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post-traumatic stress disorder. Okay.
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So, in the beginning of that group, it was important
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to have physical safety barriers for
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the individuals to feel safe in that group.
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But the group didn't stay static that way.
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Eventually, by the end of the group, we had that favorite
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group setting that a lot of social workers and facilitators
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love is the open circle. And that
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is how the group ended. Both logistically
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and in room arrangement, this was done purposely
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because having the survivors
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in an open circle was a
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behavior behavioral proof of success
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of the group. Okay, so it was an
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indicator of success for the group in and of itself,
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but too for the survivors themselves. Being able to have the internal
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skills and abilities to interact
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openly with others because of the trust
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that had been taken away is a huge step.
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Okay, so again, room arrangement doesn't
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always stay the same. You need to think about your
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population you're serving, what would be the most appropriate
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to begin a group with and then end a group with. But these are all
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part of the good planning process, okay?
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And then along with the logistics and the planning,
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and we often start with some good common
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rules. And this list is some of the, the ones
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that are probably most common that you'll
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see: that one person talks at a time,
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raise your hand, listen to others, no mocking
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or attacking, being on time, and respecting
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each other. Okay, the one thing
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that you probably won't notice on here is
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confidentiality. Okay,
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because your confidentiality statement needs
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to be specific to what
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kind of group you are facilitating.
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Okay, because this is an important thing to state,
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that does— do the group members have confidentiality
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about what they tell you?
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Yes, group members can't, can't be
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guaranteed confidentiality between
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them and other individuals in the group.
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Each group member has the complete right
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to go home and tell their emotional
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support human whoever that may be, their experience,
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what they went through, the things that they talked about,
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because that's a continuation of the group into
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someone's real world where they're going to actually apply
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the skills that they learned in that group. So the
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reason why confidentiality has purposely been left
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off this list is that you need to think through it
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based upon the type of group that you are in.
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So, for example, in a survivor group,
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you will sometimes, you will have the group members
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initially sign an agreement
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between all of them that what is said in that
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room is stayed in that room. For a lot of substance abuse
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groups, they'll say something to the effect,
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if you discuss this outside of the group, please don't mention
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group members' names, those kinds of things.
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But again, that's a setting that that cannot be guaranteed.
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Okay? All right. So we've
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talked about planning
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and good process. And now we're starting on looking
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at some of these common ground rules. And so
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what in the chat, the question that I want to ask, and let
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me stop