Rounds and dyads are excellent techniques for support and counseling groups, and they may also be effectively used in other types of groups. Describe one specific example of a round and one specific example of a dyad exercise that you could implement in a meeting with a task group, project group, or team to enhance the motivation, decision making process, performance, and/or productivity of the group. Offer helpful recommendations on how to refine or adapt these exercises and feel free to share relevant experiences from group/team meetings in your personal or professional context.

 

HSCO511 WK 5 Group Exercises

The group I am involved in focuses on counseling of people who lost loved ones. As a result, the group is a Grief Counseling Group. A round in group counseling method promotes group members' participation by sharing experiences (Schimmel et al., 2016). The sharing process may involve sharing a number, a comment, a word, or phrases that may describe anything one feels in the group activity. The importance of a round is allowing everyone to speak during the group session. A group member may states a number indicating how the session is going on a scale of one to ten. 

One specific round example I would implement in Grief Counseling Group is drawing of the coat of arms. By drawing a coat of arms, each group member would draw a coat of arms representing the drawer.  Each group member's design for the specific coat of arms would represent the owner's characteristics, pain, achievements, values, and so on. The activity would direct the focus of the group to the specific coat of arms one draws. The activity would enhance the productivity of group members to draw something that represents the individual self. Also, the activity would promote each group member's decision-making process on what to share various issues that align with the individual drawers. Group members indicating aspects of character based on individual strengths on their coat of arms would mean finding motivation. The motivation would allow each member to focus on what makes them stronger to continue with life. Based on each person's strength, the members would find more meaning in life despite losing a loved one. The activity would enhance the decision-making process to find more purpose for life. After the activity, each member would present the drawings to the group. The presentation to the group would set the stage for interactions between group members. Also, the presentation would promote productivity.

A dyad in group counseling means pairing group members (Schimmel et al., 2016). The use of a dyad process would assist in dealing with traumas that come with the loss of a loved one. Moreover, the use of a dyad would promote the interaction of different individuals in engaging in group activities. In a dyad, people are paired and focus on doing an activity together. The interaction is promoted based on the activity, allowing both parties to express the pain and struggles of losing a loved one.  The dyad method assists with people overcoming grief, especially for people with attachment issues for lost loved ones.

A group activity I would apply for the dyad session is talking and listening sessions. The activity would have two people from the group paired. Each pair should face each other as one person talks about the best memories one had with a lost loved one. The other person would listen to the talker. The interaction would create a connection based on shared similarities that portray struggles of dealing with grief. The activity would facilitate the two people in each dyad to know each other. The activity would enhance bonding in the group. Later, each member tells the group what one learns about the partner one was paired with in the dyad activity.  This would allow the members to learn about another person's pain, struggle, experiences, and memories when dealing with losing a loved one. The activity would allow the members to place themselves in another person's shoes and learn from another person's grief process. The activity in promoting performance and productivity in the group allows each member to speak about another. Moreover, each member would participate in finding the motivation to engage with others who share grief. Such an activity would motivate each person to slightly forget individual grief and learn from another person's grief.