Primarily, some situations or problems call for a form of psychotherapy that fundamentally treats, and boosts happiness by mainly working on and modifying behaviors, thoughts and dysfunctional emotions to human beings. This psychotherapy is what is referred to as cognitive behavioral therapy. In the same breath, it is understandable that this cognitive behavioral therapy concentrates on finding solutions (Westerman et al. 2017). Mostly this form of treatment focuses on encouraging patients/victims to embrace positive attitudes away from destructive behaviors. Considerably, cognitive behavioral therapy is noted as one of the best and reliable types of psychotherapy. This form of psychotherapy has several benefits. These benefits include lowering symptoms of depression, helps reduce anxiety and treat eating disorders (Mannarino et al. 2014). In the same lane, this therapy improves a person's confidence and self-esteem and reduces addictive vices such as drug abuse.
This form of therapy may be delivered in groups, which may either be in small groups or large groups as it is in a typical school set up. A small group achieves successful intervention as compared to a larger group (Smith, 2017). This because in smaller groups there is that one on one interaction, this is a core key to the intervention. This is unachievable in a larger group format. Secondly, therapy in a small group may be tailored or ‘customized' to suit the specific needs of that particular group. In the same lane, individual treatment can always be achieved. However, in this case; individual cognitive behavioral therapy would not be appropriate. This is because of the resources and time needed to conduct the exercise. Similarly, with a particular patient, there is little motivation to change, and a patient may not complete homework tasks after the therapy session. Group therapy was preferred because of its advantages. First, it is possible to treat many people at ago, groups are less stigmatizing, and there is an opportunity to learn (Paulus et al. 2015). Groups allow group members to interrelate and interact efficiently and in one way they would act fellow therapist to each other.
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Fundamentally, focus here is on a school-based treatment the American school going children who have lost their loved ones and practically are traumatized, and primarily depict trauma and stress disorder symptoms. This is preferable because, typically, a school provides that set up needed for identifying children and adolescents have traumatically lost their loved ones (Chafouleas et al. 2018). This is also an ideal scenario to felicitate the cognitive behavioral therapy.
Group leaders in such a set up fundamentally need a more extensive range of skills to achieve successful cognitive behavioral therapy. Firstly, the leader needs to facilitate the formation of a group. In this circumstance, one has to have skills such as; have courage and willingness, this willingness revolves around that desire to model a group to specific behaviors by having a purposive goal and accepting diversity (Sommer et al. 2016). Secondly, a leader has to be available and present. This presence brews confidence in the patients. Similarly, there should be good will, genuineness, and that caring attitude towards the group members and Care (Gesell et al. 2016). To achieve any constructive outcome, a leader should also be open, have a belief, cope with criticism, and be able to relate to the member's agony and pain among other leadership characteristics. However, group facilitation is solely dependent on the leader's skills and attributes. Importantly, it varies from one group to other and these calls for the application of interpersonal skills. In group cognitive behavioral therapy, therapy needs and requirements vary from one group to another that create group psychotherapy contrasting aspects
Cultural backgrounds fundamentally affect group formation and facilitation. A good effective strategy will involve breaking group into sub-groups. Such approach creates confidence and a sense of belonging despite the cultural diversity. Basically, as a leader, the first step towards achieving a well-formed cognitive behavioral therapy group is to aware of the subtle cultural issues of the members. Typically, society is diverse and mostly full of cultural discrimination and prejudice. This vice negatively impacts group therapy and hampers the ability of a leader to facilitate a group. To address this vice, a leader should be conscious and able to tolerate cultural diversities to achieve such group therapy facilitation (Gesell et al. 2016). The address begins by drawing a boundary and understanding of members’ cultural diversity and formation background and equally understanding own culture about the existing socio-political system.
In conclusion, the research indicates that in delivering cognitive behavioral therapy, it is primarily advantageous to deliver it a smaller group format as compared to individual level or a huge group. However, it is also notable that some members would prefer individual therapy than group psychotherapy while others would prefer group therapy because in group therapy there are opportunities for self-referral and fewer stigmatization vices. However, research shows that individual cognitive therapy would be ineffective in working for this population. In the same breath, it is also worth noting therapy needs vary, and cultural diversity and different backgrounds may hamper group therapy, this is always the case when a school is the focus group. Having said this, it is notable that designing and facilitating such groups may be an uphill task that requires more skilled leadership characteristics. Considering the research, it is notable that in such as school set up group cognitive behavioral therapy format was the most effective intervention despite the challenges.
References
Chafouleas, S. M., Koriakin, T. A., Roundfield, K. D., & Overstreet, S. (2018). Addressing childhood trauma in school settings: a framework for evidence-based practice. School Mental Health, 1-14.
Gesell, S. B., Barkin, S. L., Sommer, E. C., Thompson, J. R., & Valente, T. W. (2016). Increases in network ties are associated with increased cohesion among intervention participants. Health Education & Behavior, 43 (2), 208-216.
Mannarino, A. P., Cohen, J. A., & Deblinger, E. (2014). Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy. In Evidence-based approaches for the treatment of maltreated children (pp. 165-185). Dordrecht: Springer.
Paulus, D. J., Hayes-Skelton, S. A., & Norton, P. J. (2015). There's no ‘I'm GCBT: Identifying predictors of group-level outcome in transdiagnostic group cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 19 (2), 63.
Smith, A. J. (2017). Acceptance and commitment therapy for depression and anxiety: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of clients? Experiences in a Group Context (Doctoral dissertation). London: London Metropolitan University.
Sommer, I. E., Bearden, C. E., Van Dellen, E., Breetvelt, E. J., Duijff, S. N., Maijer, K., ... & Díaz-Caneja, C. M. (2016). Early interventions in risk groups for schizophrenia: What are we waiting for? NPJ Schizophrenia, 2 , 16003.
Westerman, N. K. et al. (2017) Trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy. Qualitative Health Research 27( 2), 226-235.
