Group Work in Challenging Times

As we write this editorial, we are amid the COVID-19 pandemic and witnessing a greater attention to, and advocacy alongside, the Black Lives Matter movement while experiencing what others have described as another pandemic related to the institutionalized racism, systemic discrimination, and Anti-Black bias that have been embedded in the country since its founding. In addition, many are struggling disproportionately from economic crisis following stay at home and shelter in place orders due to the health crisis as well as natural disasters affecting both coasts of the United States. Amidst this all, we have been continuously reminded that we are needing to learn to live in the “new normal,” which for many involves living and working remotely using technology, while many of our employers (colleges and universities, PK-12 schools, community agencies, and clinical practices) are facing the financial realities of paring back services to accommodate lower revenue streams, whether that be from local or state governments, fee for service clients, grants and other contracts, or additional sources. All of this is taking place contemporaneous to not only of the greatest health crisis of this century but also with the concurrent mental health crisis caused by the increase in anxiety, fear, and potential substance abuse due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As group workers, we know that for some, these effects may be preceded by preexisting conditions caused by genetics, adverse childhood experiences (ACES), other forms of lifetime trauma or abuse, previous addiction history, and ineffective use of coping strategies. For many communities, particularly those directly affected by police violence, risks for continued and a re-traumatization arise from watching the local and national news. We also recognize the disproportionate burdens that have been put upon our Black colleagues in particular as governmental, educational, and community systems have been challenged to appropriately respond to these events. As such, it appears that now is one of the most important times in our lifetime to have a relationship with a mental health provider, and group workers have become even more essential now compared to any previous time in our country’s (and global) history.

Though as group workers we are being presented with continued challenges, we also have great resources at our disposal, much to the work of previous leadership of the Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW), among others. Within ASGW (and across the pages of the Journal of Specialists in Group Work [JSGW]), we have resources available for our use, such as the ASGW Multicultural and Social Justice Competence Principles for Group Workers, the Ten Strategies to Intentionally Use Group Work to Transform Hate, Facilitate Courageous Conversations, and Enhance Community Building, the recent Special Issue on Group Work with African American Children and Adolescents, among others. As such, we have great foundations to build this work upon, and use in constructing our interventions across the individuals, small groups, and communities with whom we work.

Additionally, now more than ever we need strong empirical research that explores the utility of this work. The field is also propelled forward by increasing the breadth and depth of our data-driven resources to ground interventions and through which we can demonstrate efficacy for future practitioners and scholars. This work has and will continue to respond to the call by the American Counseling Association (ACA), and its Code of Ethics (2014) that demand all counselors, including group workers to use techniques, procedures, and modalities that have a scientific basis (ACA, 2014, C.7.a). In particular, due to our training and expertise in group work, and with the resources provided by our professional association (ASGW), we have great opportunities to engage with our local, state, national, and international communities that can provide group work to attend to not only the behavioral health crisis that we all know is occurring but to also provide supportive resources and support that facilitates antiracist group pedagogy and counseling practice, as well as social responsibility and social awareness, and the use of technology in clinical practice and teaching of group work.

As group leaders, we are trained to engage others in the difficult dialogs related to the difference in groups, and as part of the national racial reckoning, we have a responsibility to ensure that we are preparing and enacting skillful group leaders to support us in engaging in this discourse to further and more deeply engage groups of people in diversity, equity, and inclusion work. Related, group workers hold unique capabilities in helping individuals and communities understand the impact of racism, marginalization, discrimination, and oppression on others, as well as to provide psychoeducation around advocacy, social justice, and antiracist systemic change that are needed for long-term structural shifts in our society. As we engage in this work, we need to systematically observe, record, and measure our progress so as to provide this knowledge to other group leaders, and to ensure that when this is done effectively it can be replicated by others to better respond to the needs of our communities. Doing so holds potential to bring greater healing across cultural, ideological, and political differences we see highlighted in news stories each day (e.g., Singh, 2019). Additionally, when we engage antiracism and group work, we need to consider the emergence of intersectionality research, and how this is exponentially connected to group work. Although some scholars have begun this conversation, it is still very much emerging and in need of additional focus to ensure that we can respectfully and comprehensively address this to better understand the individuals and groups with whom we work.

Relatedly, most higher education institutions have expanded their professional development for faculty, staff, and students in response to the recent events and the myriad calls for anti-oppressive systemic reform. Such professional development serves essential functions in higher education by building the capacity of individuals and academic units alike. Historically, faculty and staff professional development programming was organized around the tripartite model of academic responsibilities and designed to directly improve research, teaching, and servant leadership. As awareness grew regarding the limitations of fragmented and discontinuous programming and the importance of the interpersonal group experiences within this work; however, these professional development initiatives have become increasingly integrated, scaffolded, and systematized to include progressive efforts focused on not only the intrapersonal experiences of individuals but also intentionally addressing intrapersonal, whole group, and supra group experiences as well. Concurrently, there has been growing recognition that when diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) foci are synthesized into all forms of professional development, it can serve larger systemic purposes that support a wide range of institutional structures and goals including improved campus culture and climate. It is therefore not surprising that many group workers are leading these efforts in their universities and workplaces and transferring their small group counseling and teaching skills into a larger scale professional development programming where the same group leadership skills set reaches a broader platform.

As experts in group dynamics and member roles, we know how to intervene to facilitate individual and group change, and how the installation of therapeutic group factors can promote positive outcomes across those whom we serve, in small groups or on a larger scale DEI platform. This group work leadership skills set can also be valuable in responding to the medical crises resulting from the COVID-19 virus as well as the environmental crises that result from a natural disaster. Here, group workers employ not only traditional group leadership skills, but they also infuse harm reduction techniques to keep others safe (and to a certain degree, ourselves). For example, wearing masks and other personal protective equipment can decrease the transmission rates of the COVID-19 virus, but in the current political climate has become a political symbol beyond public health and safety. As group leaders, we can use our knowledge and skills to invite, encourage, support, and challenge our group members (defined broadly) to better understand their social responsibility and impact on others, by providing psychoeducation and group counseling that brings awareness to factors including but not limited to altruism, group cohesiveness, and existential factors. Group workers can also sensitively explore the ways in which there is universality (we are all in this together), while also recognizing that despite this, we do not all experience the impacts on the same ways.

We have all heard the current time described as unprecedented. Amid adjusting to this new normal with social distance and remote school/work, we have also seen the reports of the subtle and sometimes dramatic changes on animals and the environment from having less human involvement. In addition, we acknowledge reductions in air and other forms of pollution without as much human movement through our world. As group workers, there may be opportunities for us to continue to also raise awareness and promote positive change around the issues of climate change. As climate change was described as one of the most important issues facing our world before these pandemics, it likely will persist as the pandemic of the future if not adequately addressed (and some would say we are beyond that tipping point). Relatedly, Ryan Reese and Majorie Gosling (this issue) begin the discussion of eco-wellness in groups. While their work focuses on mindfulness and environmental connection, perhaps future scholarship might wish to extend this work to include groups focused around eco-wellness not only as a means of mindfulness and connection to the world, but a connection to social responsibility and awareness to address the climate pandemic that is on our horizon. However, like with group work focusing on DIE or antiracism, the field needs more empirical research to ensure we better understand effective means to practice this to produce outcomes that have impact and meaning for positive future change, both individually and for the collective.

Finally, as we have all been forced online to both practice and teach at a distance, now is the time to assess the impact of these different forms of interventions, whether descriptively or to examine the differential usefulness of varied platforms, the impact of different forms of therapeutic or teaching interventions online, and the outcome differences of this work across different demographic groups (e.g., age, race, gender identity, ability status, English Language Learner, etc.). In group work, this might include research on the impact of the group worker/teacher, group member/student, or paired leaders/group member or instructor/student groups, to understand how the remote environment may impact persons in different ways. Like in individual counseling, group work, or teaching in face to face environments, we know that different groups have different outcomes based on differing goals, development, and other processes. While the group work literature has identified a host of different variables of import, these have not been comprehensively examined in the remote environment. As we will all be practicing online for the foreseeable future, this presents an opportunity to better examine the impact on those whom we serve. The time has come to purposefully explore these variables and understand the impact of technology on our group work practice and teaching, so we can be more knowledgeable and responsive in the future. Such examinations can and should infuse DEI-related variables and reflect many of the same questions about facilitative and obstructive factors for antiracist pedagogy and practice, and how these efforts to dismantle systemic racism and oppression proceed and impact individual and groups. In doing so, we can improve practice conditions and/or instruction based on these empirical outcomes.

In conclusion, this is a call for empirical research in all forms; moving forward, we seek articles that aim to better understand how these pandemics have influenced our world broadly, but group workers and members specifically, as well as how the varied pandemics might continue to influence our practice as they are resolved. We recognize that there are additional forms of group work, leadership practices, and specializations in a group practice that are connected to these pandemics. Additional attention can be given to the impact of different forms of group work (online and face to face) to address crisis/trauma, employment/unemployment, adjustment/transition, social isolation/belonging, as well as chemical and process addictions that have each been implicated as interconnected to these pandemics. We underscore the importance of amplifying and centering voices, and in doing so we recognize the inextricable value asking the questions, doing the work, and disseminating your findings/results in JSGW. This way, we can ensure that we are prepared in future practice through thoughtful, intentional, and empirically based strategies to most effectively serve groups, long into the future. We hope that each of you will accept this call to action, so that we as group workers can collectively and wholeheartedly begin to explore these outcomes for intentional and responsive practice for the future.