Toolkit for Group Leaders
UPDATED VERSION AVAILABLE!
Starting and Sustaining Groups that Thrive: 
Workbook and Planning Guide
“Too often practitioners decide to start a therapy group, or are assigned the task of running a therapy group, without sufficient training. Different skills are required to run groups – whether they are work groups or therapy groups. Dr. Steiner has put together a remarkably thorough and practical workbook for anyone considering starting a group…any group. The workbook covers everything from therapist style, to the needs of different groups, to screening and group contracts, etc.
There is no more difficult task in the world of therapy than beginning a therapy group. Dr. Steiner’s workbook is a rich resource to be consulted prior to beginning your first group.”
J. Scott Rutan, Ph.D.
Author: Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy
This workbook includes guidelines that can enrich and protect writer’s critique groups, book groups, work group leaders, etc.
Whenever I teach "How to Start and Sustain Groups that Thrive", participants ask for copies of the forms and worksheets I have developed. I created this workbook to provide a hands-on approach to the challenges of forming and maintaining cohesive, durable and effective groups. This easy-to-use manual includes a screening and preparation system, complete with modifiable forms.
My screening and preparation system for establishing therapy groups is collaborative in nature. Over the years clients have found that the screeing and life history forms I have developed help them think through what they want out of being in a therapy group. By using the forms and focusing on important areas when screening potential group members, clients and I decide whether they are likely to both benefit from and contribute to the group. Now that I use the forms and worksheets I developed, new group members feel more connected to the group process and the groups have significantly less turnover.
This handy guidebook includes templates that can be modified based on the needs of your particular group. Practical tools include:
- Screening Protocols
- Sample Group Agreements
- Group/Life History Forms
- Designing Group Agreements that can be tailored to your group
- Agreements for Healthy Termination in Groups
- Different Groups for Different Folks: From Self-Help to Psychodynamic Groups
- Tools for Self-Help Group Leaders
“Too often practitioners decide to start a therapy group, or are assigned the task of running a therapy group, without sufficient training. Different skills are required to run groups – whether they are work groups or therapy groups. Dr. Steiner has put together a remarkably thorough and practical workbook for anyone considering starting a group…any group. The workbook covers everything from therapist style, to the needs of different groups, to screening and group contracts, etc.
There is no more difficult task in the world of therapy than beginning a therapy group. Dr. Steiner’s workbook is a rich resource to be consulted prior to beginning your first group.”
J. Scott Rutan, Ph.D.
Author: Psychodynamic Group Psychotherapy
SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE OF $19.95
Regular Price: $29.95
(Plus Priority Mail Shipping and Handling of $5.15 and sales tax of 9.25% for California residents.) Allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. For orders outside of the U.S., please email us for shipping costs. Call for quotes on quantity discounts.
ORDER BOOK HERE
RELATED MATERIALS FOR PSYCHOTHERAPISTS
The Therapist's Professional Will: The Complete Guide™
Group therapists, like all professionals, should ensure their group members experience a smooth transition should the therapist be unexpectedly absent due to illness or death.
Dr. Steiner has created the downloadable Therapist's Professional Will,™ a document that spells out your wishes for the continuing care of your clients in your absence.
Please see the following page to learn more or order your Therapist’s Professional Will,™ here
The Rollercoaster of Chronic Illness: How to Add Joy to the Ride™ Audio CD
In this audio CD, Dr. Steiner offers an upbeat, practical guide for people living with arthritis, diabetes, chronic illnesses or pain. While sharing her story of discovering ways to coexist peacefully with arthritis, she shares how she has been able to make her limitations just one part of who she is as a person.
She helps listeners find new ways to make the most of life with limitations, deal with the challenges that illness brings to relationship issues, trust, and intimacy. The CD also benefits family members, health care workers, and those whose lives are affected by ill relatives and friends.
This recording includes materials that have been road-tested over a long career of offering one-on-one counsel, lecturing, and giving presentations to professionals, patients, caregivers and family members nationally.
HEAR WAYS TO:
* Increase understanding of your reactions to the limitations illness brings.
* Meet your needs through suggestions and practical tips.
* Discover the gift of compassion for yourself.
The Rollercoaster of Chronic Illness:
How to Add Joy to the Ride™ Book (in process)
Group therapists who work with the medically ill are likely to be interested in this upcoming book. This easy-to-read, self-help work benefits providers, patients and all whose lives are affected by ill relatives or friends.
This upbeat, practical guide for people living with chronic illnesses helps readers find new ways to make the most of life with limitations, deal with the challenges that illness brings to trust, intimacy, and other relationship issues.
Included are worksheets and materials that have been road-tested over a long career of offering one-on-one counsel, lecturing, and presentations to professionals, patients, caregivers, family members, and laypeople.
Dr. Steiner is a psychotherapist specializing in work with the medically ill. She has lived with arthritis since she was fourteen. As an author, professional speaker and former wheelchair user, she has a natural compassion and wisdom about the challenges of bringing joy, comfort and meaning to those with limitations. Many insightful discoveries from her personal challenges are distilled into the book and its worksheets.
Until the book is published you may want to learn more about Dr. Steiner's work on this topic by ordering her CD: The Rollercoaster of Chronic Illness: How to Add Joy to the Ride.