Using groups to help people / Dorothy Stock Whitaker.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

List of figures -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Pt. I. Thinking about groups before any plans are made or actions taken -- 1. A therapist's purposes in conducting a group -- 2. Who are groups for? -- 3. Defining 'benefit' -- 4. Small face-to-face groups -- 5. Theory -- Pt. II. Planning -- 6. Necessary decisions when planning a group -- 7. Examples: different groups for different populations -- Pt. III. Thinking and taking action during the life of a group -- 8. 'Think-work' : listening, observing, and attributing meanings to what one hears and sees -- 9. Getting started: opening a group and responding to what happens next -- 10. Subsequent events: developmental stages and goings and comings -- 11. Problems and opportunities -- 12. Personal gains -- 13. Little or no gain, or actual harm -- 14. Discerning, retrieving and avoiding making errors -- 15. Intervening in groups: why, how and when -- 16. The therapist in the group -- 17. Theory and its connections with practice -- Pt. IV. How therapists can continue to learn -- 18. Learning from one's own practice experience -- 19. Learning from the experiences of others -- 20. Conducting research on one's own groups and in one's own workplace -- Bibliography -- Index.