Protocols of groups sponsored by Churches indicate they are often remarkably similar to secular support groups. Members in both types of groups seek and obtain similar types of help. The activities and goals of many of the 1.7 million church-sponsored groups overlap significantly with those of self-help groups. Another survey using an entirely different sampling base arrives at similar figures for self-help groups “an estimated seven and a half million adults participated in a self help group in 1992.” (3) But still there are a half million self-help groups - groups explicitly designed to offer support for psychological discomfort - with approximately eight to ten million members. What kind of small groups are these? And what do they have to do with either the encounter group movement or the field of mental health? The great majority of these three million groups (approximately 1.7 million) are church sponsored groups (primarily adult Sunday school groups or bible study groups) and approximately 750 thousand of the groups are special interest groups (book discussion, hobbies, current events, sports). (1)Ī 1991 large survey of small group membership sponsored by the Gallup Institute accompanied by three years of in-depth case studies and interviews reveals some astounding results: Forty percent of all Americans eighteen years of age and over are involved in “a small group that meets regularly and provides caring and support for those who participate in it.” (2) Forty percent of adults - that means seventy-five million Americans at the time of the survey were currently involved in a small group! And that breaks down to approximately three million small groups! Furthermore the majority of the participants attended a group meeting at least once weekly and had been participating for at least three years!
Let us examine some remnants of the encounter group movement. First, though the encounter group movement is dead and buried, the sophisticated technology of the encounter group persists and is widely employed by groups that are very much alive.
Yet, there are several reasons the well-educated group therapist should be familiar with the history, the mechanics, and the ethos of the encounter group. Today intense debates still rage, but about environmental, multicultural, gender and sexual harassment issues - not about encounter groups! I have spoken to many younger mental health professionals who ask, “What is an encounter group?” There was a time when university dormitories churned with debates about whether to permit growth institutes to conduct marathon groups for the students in the dormitory common room. Growth centers, university bulletin boards, underground newspapers post no encounter group offerings. Yet, today, preparing this fourth edition, and poking around in the cold ashes of the encounter group movement, I can't help but wonder, whether I should even discuss encounter groups at all! After all, the encounter group movement has vaporized there are few remaining signs of encounter groups. Earlier editions of this book contained a lengthy and heady chapter on encounter groups studded with extravagant predictions, my own and others, about the perdurable destiny of the entire encounter group movement. And it is difficult to overestimate the rapidity of that change. Group Therapy and the Encounter Group Reprinted from 4th edition (1995) of The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapyįads and fashions change in the fields of psychotherapy and personal growth.
0 kommentar(er)
