Analyzing Leadership in Group Therapy: A Child Abuse Session Review

This essay reflects on a group therapy session focused on child abuse awareness, where the author, acting as a group leader, shares information on risk factors and symptoms. The author discusses the challenges faced due to participant disengagement and explores strategies to improve leadership effectiveness, such as active listening, understanding participant sentiments, and adapting to the group's needs. The essay emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive environment where participants feel comfortable discussing sensitive topics and are motivated to engage with the material. The author concludes by highlighting the significance of demonstrating strong listening practices to enhance participant understanding and promote a more effective group therapy experience. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

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Group therapy often seems daunting to the new participants. One such instance was
encountered when I attempted to share pertinent information to a group of people on child
abuse. There were six members in the group and upon sharing the information regarding the
risk factors and symptoms of child abuse, I felt that there was lack of concentration among
the listeners.
While two members displayed a willingness to identify the different types of child
maltreatment and their immediate physical, psychological and emotional effects on the
victims, four participants did not play an emphasis on carefully listening to what I had to
convey. This might be accredited to the fact that they did not perceive me as an approachable
person, hence had less willingness to participate in the group session. It is a well-established
fact that group therapy is more mutative and powerful, in comparison to individual therapy
for most individuals (Yalom, 1995). However, I felt that the ideas that I intended to share
with the participants were not being heard in an appropriate manner. This prevented me from
increasing knowledge and awareness among them on this social problem (Best, 2017).
I see myself as a group leader who has a commitment, drive and vision for
accomplishing a predetermined goal. I take efforts in adorning the role of a leader who is
capable of motivating and inspiring confidence among the associates in a group. In future I
want to portray skills and abilities that allow me to become adaptable and flexible to all kinds
of environment, while facing different challenges, failures and setbacks in a calm and
composed manner. I always try to extract work from all the participants enrolled in a group,
after being assigned a certain task, based on my capacity. In the aforementioned incident, I
tried to involve all participants while delivering sessions on child abuse by asking for their
continuous feedback and holding brainstorming sessions that had the capability of generating
several philosophies within the group. I would attempt to monitor my environment by
confirming my goals and the key actions that I prioritize. Conducting an analysis of the

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compliance to leadership development plants and progress against the goals would help in
assessing the performance in the environment. This should be followed by recognising the
preferences and demands of the participants, by respecting their autonomy (Northouse, 2018).
I intend to ask the participants in future about their expectations during the group sessions.
While listening to the group members, I was surprised by their uneasiness in
discussing about child abuse. Therefore, I understood that while undertaking social group
work in future, my role as a leader requires me to conduct the sessions in a way that enhances
the social functioning of the contributors and also allows them to cope in an effective manner
with their individual thoughts and perceptions.
To conclude, a leader should demonstrate listening practices such as, paraphrasing
when needed, demonstrating correct body language, understanding participant sentiments,
and active listening. This will directly help the participants understand the importance of the
subject being discussed and will also inspire and motivate them.

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References
Best, J. (2017). Images of issues: Typifying contemporary social problems. Routledge.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Yalom, I. D. (1995). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy. Basic Books (AZ).