Reviewing 'The Skilled Leader: A Guide to Group Facilitation'
A fantastic, breezy book that would serve as a superb undergraduate introduction to group work in the helping professions
This is a short review originally written for another outlet. Ultimately, I decided to post it here instead.
James H. Cook, Jr. and Laura K. Harrawood.
Waveland Press, Inc. 94 pages.
The Skilled Leader: A Guide to Group Facilitation is a superb introduction to mental health groupwork. It is a thoughtfully presented primer which readily serves as a gateway to denser reading material in the area. The book, clocking in at a slim 84 pages before references, systematically walks readers through the fundamental concepts of working in a group. I appreciated the authors’ straightforward outline and clear writing; it foregoes meandering exposition and the noise of complex clinical vignettes to cut through to what is most essential in working with groups.
Chapter 1 introduces and distinguishes groupwork from individual counseling and therapy with an ethics-driven, multiculturalism-informed view on task, psychoeducation, counseling, and psychotherapy groups.
Chapter 2 addresses the theoretical underpinnings of groupwork: how theory serves to guide the facilitator; the distinction between content versus process; working in the present moment with different members of the group; the therapeutic factors in, and of, groupwork; and the stages of groupwork. Chapter 3 concerns the transfer of individual counseling and contact skills to the group context–basic functions of attending to people such as eye contact, use of voice and physical presence; minimal encouragers and verbal following; paraphrasing; reflection of feelings; and summarizing–as well as navigating the nuanced ins and outs of therapeutic silence; empathic attunement; asking open as opposed to closed questions; and recognizing the appropriateness and application of immediacy, confrontation, and self-disclosure of the group facilitator.
Chapter 4 deals with groupwork-specific skills such as scanning, linking, and the appropriate drawing-out and cutting-off of members, and discusses other groupwork methods such as the implementation of dyadic discussion, breakout groups, and fishbowl exercises. Chapter 5 is all about group leadership and challenges that arise in working with groups. This includes but is not limited to such topics as the identification of member roles, managing communication and ethical dilemmas, and overseeing conflict between members and members and the facilitator.
Chapter 6 orients readers to what first-time group leadership looks like, addressing the beginning, middle, and end stages in turn. Chapter 7, finally, examines what is involved in developing one’s personal style and approach to group facilitation, entailing discussion of leadership styles, a few basic counseling theories applied to group settings, and the importance of networking and staying connected professionally with what is going on in the ever-developing field of groupwork.
I genuinely do not have any critiques of the book. I appreciated that each chapter ends with a short summary for quick review which reinforces recent content, and that each summary is accompanied by a few questions or prompts for reflection and introspection. Concise but in no way lacking in helpful information, Cook Jr. and Harrawood have written a brief guide to group facilitation which would serve as an excellent introduction to the topic for undergraduate students in the mental health helping professions and even as a breezy refresher for graduate students familiar with or interested in working with groups.
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