Conceptual Models Underlying our Group Work Programmes

JLS Consultancy’s groupwork programmes are based primarily on a cognitive behavioural model of groupwork, and are supplemented by essential contributions from the field of social learning.

One of the key aims of the programmes as a whole is to assist participants to increase their internal resilience, in order to decrease the likelihood of them being vulnerable in the future and thereby enhance their ability to protect their children.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, often shortened as CBT, is a very practical treatment in which facilitators and participants work together collaboratively. Cognitive behavioural therapy is based on the scientific fact that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviours, not external things, like people, situations, and events. The benefit of this fact is that we can change the way we think to feel/act better even if the situation does not change.

CBT is based on the knowledge that many of our problems are caused and maintained by our unhelpful beliefs and deeply held assumptions about ourselves and others in our life. These underlying assumptions and beliefs are usually learned through our past experiences and interactions with significant people around us. At the time when we learned these, they may have helped us to cope with our experiences. Some of these beliefs may even now be helpful still, but there may be others that are no longer helpful and that really hinder our effective functioning.

The aim of CBT is for the facilitators and participants to work together to try and understand those underlying beliefs and assumptions that are no longer helpful and affect a person’s current feelings, behaviours and functioning. Depending on the circumstances they then work together to identify the way forward.

In CBT the focus of this therapy is to find solutions to the problems individuals are experiencing that will help enhance effective functioning and wellbeing in daily life. The focus of CBT is mainly in the ‘here and now’. Sometimes it can also be very helpful for a person to focus and work through some of the negative experiences they have experienced in the past and then explore how they want to start living their life differently now. This often involves using the time between sessions for individuals to try things out differently.

Cognitive behavioural therapy is considered among the "fastest" in terms of results obtained. The average number of sessions clients receive (across all types of problems) is only 16. What enables CBT to be briefer is its highly instructional nature and the fact that it makes use of homework assignments.
Within our groupwork programmes, the role of the facilitators is to listen, teach, and encourage, while the individual participant’s role is to express concerns, learn, and implement that learning.

The groupwork facilitators have a identified plan for each session. Specific techniques/concepts are taught during each session. CBT focuses on helping the individual participant achieve the goals they have set. CBT is directive in that respect. However, facilitators do not tell individuals what to do - rather, they teach them how to do. When people understand how and why they are doing things, their skills can be positively enhanced.

Social Learning Theory

The social learning theory of Bandura emphasises the importance of observing and modeling the behaviours, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others. Bandura (1977) states: "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do.
Fortunately, most human behaviour is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action."

Social learning theory explains human behaviour in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioural, and environmental influences. Because it encompasses attention, memory and motivation, social learning theory spans both cognitive and behavioural frameworks.

The educational implications of social learning theory are as follows:

1. Individuals often learn a great deal simply by observing other people.
2. Describing the consequences of behaviour can effectively increase the appropriate behaviours and decrease inappropriate ones. This can involve discussing with group members the rewards and consequences of various behaviours.
3. Modelling provides an alternative to shaping for teaching new behaviours. Instead of using shaping, which is operant conditioning, modelling can provide a faster, more efficient means for teaching new behaviour.
4. Facilitators must model appropriate behaviours and take care that they do not model inappropriate behaviours.
   
5. Facilitators should expose group members to a variety of other models. This technique is especially important to break down traditional stereotypes.
6. Individuals must believe that they are capable of accomplishing tasks. Thus it is very important to develop a sense of self-efficacy for participants. Facilitators can promote such self-efficacy by having group members receive confidence-building messages, watch others be successful, and experience success on their own.