I read an article called “Group Cognitive Behavior Therapy Program with Troubled Adolescents” written by Sarah Edelman. In this article, counselors in Sydney, Australia designed a cognitive behavior therapy program. This program was designed to assist troubled teens in school since they have not responded well to the regular classroom. The teens in this group have suffered from psychological issues such as anxiety and depression while others lacked motivation and had learning disabilities. These issues have caused them to perform poorly in school and the therapy program had a goal which was to reduce the anxiety and depression of students, that way they would feel more relaxed and motivated to do well in school. During the process of developing this cognitive behavior therapy program, there were problems within the program that needed to be fixed in order to make it more relevant and effective for the students.
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Since some students had learning difficulties and attention deficits, the use of worksheets and reading material was not going to work for this group of students. Students were easily distracted which made it harder for counselors to stick to the lesson plan. The students’ attendance was poor because they were uninterested in the program, so counselors had to make it in a way students would want to engage in each session. The problems were persistent and effected the progress of the therapy program. After a while counselors noticed a lesson plan would not work so they came up with a more flexible approach.
The therapy program was held in eight sessions, each session was 90 minutes long for 8 weeks. The sessions were split into two halves, the first half was to help students become more familiar with understanding the cognitive behavior model. This would involve students to express their thoughts between feelings and behavior, but students had a problem with this. They each had their own interpersonal issues, such as being shy, lonely, and poor self-esteem. Because of this, expressing their feelings would make them feel vulnerable. Counselors also encouraged students to identify their challenges and figure out ways to overcome them, in which those ways were taught in prior sessions. The second half of the eight week session built on skills learned in the first session, students were taught to work on their behavioral strategies to help with communication in the classroom. Since many of the students felt vulnerable many of them still didn’t want to work on developing these behavioral strategies. The counselors had to work hard to get students to understand that they will benefit from the program, which is why the group format was so important. Once one person felt comfortable enough to express their feelings, the rest of the students started to open up. They were able to learn from one another and the program became much more productive from then on. Although some students would avoid expressing emotions that would portray weakness, each student …show more content…
This was considered to be unreliable because some students did not take the questionnaire seriously and some had reading difficulties. So they decided to conduct interviews for more qualitative data. The program still exists and has evolved over the years, with new strategies being developed and goals within the program being reached the therapy program will continue to get better, helping students to perform better in
Since some students had learning difficulties and attention deficits, the use of worksheets and reading material was not going to work for this group of students. Students were easily distracted which made it harder for counselors to stick to the lesson plan. The students’ attendance was poor because they were uninterested in the program, so counselors had to make it in a way students would want to engage in each session. The problems were persistent and effected the progress of the therapy program. After a while counselors noticed a lesson plan would not work so they came up with a more flexible approach.
The therapy program was held in eight sessions, each session was 90 minutes long for 8 weeks. The sessions were split into two halves, the first half was to help students become more familiar with understanding the cognitive behavior model. This would involve students to express their thoughts between feelings and behavior, but students had a problem with this. They each had their own interpersonal issues, such as being shy, lonely, and poor self-esteem. Because of this, expressing their feelings would make them feel vulnerable. Counselors also encouraged students to identify their challenges and figure out ways to overcome them, in which those ways were taught in prior sessions. The second half of the eight week session built on skills learned in the first session, students were taught to work on their behavioral strategies to help with communication in the classroom. Since many of the students felt vulnerable many of them still didn’t want to work on developing these behavioral strategies. The counselors had to work hard to get students to understand that they will benefit from the program, which is why the group format was so important. Once one person felt comfortable enough to express their feelings, the rest of the students started to open up. They were able to learn from one another and the program became much more productive from then on. Although some students would avoid expressing emotions that would portray weakness, each student …show more content…
This was considered to be unreliable because some students did not take the questionnaire seriously and some had reading difficulties. So they decided to conduct interviews for more qualitative data. The program still exists and has evolved over the years, with new strategies being developed and goals within the program being reached the therapy program will continue to get better, helping students to perform better in