foreign [Music] so next I want to talk about another model for group therapy and this comes from Irving yellow who is one of the most popular group therapists alive perhaps and he wrote the famous text co-authored the famous textbook on group Psychotherapy and yalum and his co-author Mullen lizik outline 11 therapeutic factors that emerge within group work so these therapeutic factors are according to to yalum and lezic these are the central organizing principles and The crucial aspects of the process of change in group therapy so these therapeutic factors are particularly important they're essential in group work so the 11 therapeutic factors are the installation of hope so this is pretty self-explanatory but when we're facilitating groups we need to we need to cultivate a sense of hope we need to help group members feel like participating in the group is going to be worthwhile that they might get what they signed up for that their goals their hopes might be fulfilled through the group process uh we need to help them feel like there's a reason for continuing to live perhaps and that there's meaning and purpose in their experience and in the group so we need to instill in them a sense of hope sometimes we do this through our our own sense of confidence in our approach or in our group many times this happens in the mutual Aid Dynamics in the interaction of group members that when a group member sees another group member start to change or find new ways of addressing their issues it instills a sense of hope for other group members that maybe I could do that too the second therapeutic factor is a sense of universality and so this has to do with uh that larger picture that larger perspective Universal perspective a sense of the group as a whole phenomenon that um my experience is not isolated I'm not the only one that's experienced something like this or that's struggling with this issue but that there's others and I'm not alone and so this is particularly important when we're talking about trauma because it can often feel like nobody could possibly understand or nobody's gone through what I've gone through so the second therapeutic Factor universality helps to normalize The Experience within the group and it gives group members a broader Collective perspective helps them realize that they're not alone the third therapeutic Factor has to do with the imparting of information and so this is just like it sounds the sharing of experience the sharing of knowledge the sharing of coping skills psycho-education provided by the group facilitator that there's a richness that happens in groups that doesn't happen in the same way in one-to-one settings in that there's so much information that everybody brings to the group including all the participants and that there's a richness in the imparting and sharing of that information with others the fourth therapeutic factor is articulated as a sense of altruism so this is that Goodwill towards others within the group similar to uh what we were describing earlier as Mutual Aid or peer support that when groups are cohesive and when groups are really tapped into their therapeutic potential there's a natural sense of altruism within the group that group members want to help their peers and want to help contribute to the effectiveness and the meaningfulness that the kind of fulfillment the success of the group there's a natural sense of altruism that emerges within the group a optimism perhaps the fifth of the therapeutic factors is called the corrective capitulation of the primary family group so this basically just highlights how we all come from families and in our early childhood we develop different attachment Styles based on our our relationships to our family members that her family is is the very first group that we're a part of even if we experience trauma abandonment rejection neglect from our primary family group it still has an a lasting impact on us as our first group experience a family is a group and so our experience early on in life with our family is our first our first long-term ongoing perhaps group experience and oftentimes the many of the sources or underlying fueling factors of our problems in adulthood can be traced back to problems we experienced in our early family so the group experience in the Here and Now offers group members the opportunity to renegotiate the impacts or the imprint of their early family group experiences so we call this corrective emotional experiences so uh for example if somebody experienced in their early family growing up they were never listened to or they didn't feel like their emotions were imported or validated by others in the group they were told to get over it or uh don't cry or don't talk about you know difficult things you know whether that was said explicitly or said implicitly through Behavior when they come to a Therapy Group There's an opportunity for this to be renegotiated through a corrective experience where the group leader and the other group members really give this group member permission to talk about it to be listened to while they're expressing emotions to validate their feelings and their experiences to let them know that it's okay to have feelings and that they're opinions their experiences their sharing is important and valid and of course there's lots of different ways that we can tap into this fifth therapeutic therapeutic Factor correct recapitulation of the primary family group it's going to be different for each person and it'll probably emerge differently depending on the nature of the group and the the primary focus of the group six therapeutic factor is the development of socializing techniques so this has to do with really helping group members learn new social skills essentially uh that a group is a social setting and that within the group there's going to be social interactions and So within the group process we get to develop and refine all of our social skills you know how well do we initiate conversation how well do we approach someone that we don't know how are we about asking questions and getting to know someone someone new uh we get to develop skills around offering support emotional validation to others taking healthy social risks with others learning how to set boundaries with others making eye contact and maybe even healthy physical contacts with others this is all part of development of socializing techniques the seventh therapeutic factor is about imitative Behavior or kind of using Role Models within the group to uh help us practice or demonstrate behaviors that we might want to imitate that we might want to replicate in our own roll repertoire in our own uh social skills repertoire so someone might come to a group and really struggle with setting boundaries so somebody might come to a group uh really struggling with setting boundaries have an opportunity to see the group facilitator set boundaries throughout each group session and they might get to see other group members set boundaries with a facilitator or set boundaries with other group members and in doing so they might get to uh to see and observe and then imitate some of these boundary setting behaviors and so uh this is what what we mean when we talk about imitative Behavior within the group the seventh therapeutic Factor the eighth factor is called interpersonal learning and so this is kind of similar to the sixth and seventh in that it's focused on the learning that emerges within a social context that as humans our brains are really wired for social learning for interpersonal learning and that we we learn best in groups and in relationships and so because the group is a interpersonal setting the interpersonal learning that can take place within groups is is really Dynamic and maybe one of the main reasons that groups are so effective of course we can cultivate a sense of interpersonal learning in one-to-one settings but that only can take place between the therapist and the client whereas in a group setting there's just far more potentials and opportunities for interpersonal learning that we get to learn from others in the group we get to learn from the entire group experience the ninth therapeutic factor is about group cohesion or group cohesiveness so there's a ton of new research coming out about group cohesion and really showing it to be one of the most if not the most important factor of successful therapy groups group cohesion describes the connectiveness the kind of glue that holds the group together that solidifies into a collective Bond an alliance between all the group members so in one-on-one therapy the therapeutic relationship the Therapeutic Alliance is often described as the most important aspect that contributes to the effectiveness of one-to-one therapy and so in group work group cohesiveness is is that it's the most important aspect the group cohesion has a determining influence on each individual within the group for positive or for negative the 11th therapeutic factor is about catharsis and so this has to do with the uh the release of emotions the sharing of feelings between group members and during the group process and later on in this video we'll talk about different types of catharsis from a psychodramatic and moranian perspective there's a ton of different types of catharsis usually when we're talking about catharsis we're talking about an abreactive catharsis and this is the expression of emotions oftentimes accompanied by crying or tears or anger and anger release of some sort or perhaps laughing or other physical Sensations so catharsis is often part of the healing process it's important that we don't over emphasis catharsis I think there's a distorted beliefs in the therapy world that catharsis by itself is healing when it's not often as part of the healing process but needs to be followed up with some sort of cognitive learning or integration so catharsis is the 10th therapeutic Factor and then the final therapeutic Factor outlined by yalem is about different existential components and so uh yawam being an existential therapist really emphasizes the various layers of of existentialism within the healing process and within groups and this might include discussions about life and death this might include um cultivating a sense of meaning purpose in life at the time and and uh dreams and goals that there's all different types of existential factors that show up in our work perhaps in in every Therapy Group in every therapy session and especially when we're working with trauma trauma can often lead us to a sense of existential crisis really turns our life and our world view upside down so when we're doing a group work the 11th therapeutic Factor has to do with addressing and even cultivating making sense of all these different existential factors so these are the 11 therapeutic factors the installation of Hope a sense of universality imparting of information essential sense of altruism the corrective recapitulation of the primary family group the development of socializing techniques imitation Behavior interpersonal learning group cohesiveness catharsis and existential factors so in uh some of the the other Publications about these therapeutic factors many people have highlighted how these therapeutic factors are specifically important and helpful for trauma survivors these 11 therapeutic factors help to combat the sense of Shame and isolation that often results after traumatic experiences these therapeutic factors really help us challenge the negative beliefs assorted beliefs about ourselves about others about relationships and about the world that often result after trauma these therapeutic factors promote a sense of support and trust between group members whereas trauma often disrupts one's ability to trust or to be an in supportive relationships the therapeutic factors can by themselves really help an individual and a group manage different PTSD symptoms a sense of avoidance symptoms related to hyperarousal symptoms related to intrusions or re-experiencing trauma and symptoms related to negative beliefs and negative feelings the development of these 11 therapeutic factors within a group setting really helps to just in an organic way validate the traumatic experiences that somebody may have gone through they help to develop a new trauma of recovery narrative for the group as a whole and also for each individual within the group in a really safe way these therapeutic factors help to facilitate the healthy expression of emotion and help to promote a new sense of identity in trauma recovery or in post-traumatic growth a new and reintegration of the traumatic experience into our sense itself these therapeutic factors help mobilize all the various strengths and resources within the group within the individual and in doing so help replenish the sense of depleted inner resources or inner strengths that one might feel after a traumatic experience and so these 11 therapeutic factors are really powerful meaningful for trauma survivors even though the therapeutic factors were not developed specifically focused on trauma-informed or trauma-focused group work they were developed more in a broader group therapy context and even though these 11 therapeutic factors were created for group therapy they're also really important for organizational work Community work and work within the larger framework of society that these 11 therapeutic factors can be cultivated within a or agency or an organization and help promote that organization towards the successful fulfillment of whatever their organization mission is the goals within the organization and that are work within organizations can also create healing for individuals within organizations an organization is essentially just a group the same thing same idea goes for communities and Societies in that communities and societies are essentially just larger groups than a Therapy Group or groups that we might engage with in group work so uh if you're part of an organization and most of us are I really encourage you to consider how these therapeutic factors show up within your organization when you think about the various communities and the society that we're all a part of I encourage you to consider how you might contribute to cultivating these 11 therapeutic factors within your communities and within society as a whole and when you reflect on these 11 therapeutic factors in terms of group work and group therapy it could be helpful to consider which of these therapeutic factors do I do a really good job of cultivating naturally in my group work which of these therapeutic factors might be important for me to more intentionally focus on in my group are there any therapeutic factors that seem to have been missing in the development of the group that I'm leading in my own experience of participating in groups which of these therapeutic factors were most important to me or which of these therapeutic factors might be most important to the clients the populations that I'm working with so I really encourage you to take a couple minutes and reflect on how these 11 therapeutic factors show up within your group work foreign