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Important Issues Outlined in McBride (2006) 

Psychoeducational Groups:

Strategies and Tips for Session Planning

Encourage Coping

Psychoeducational groups allow members the opportunity for to foster changes through examination, exploration, and modification of their current beliefs, opinions, emotions, and actions. Group process encourages learning of healthy coping strategies to assist individuals to confront and manage their past, present, and future life challenges (McBride, 2006).

Leaders must maintain a balance between delivering content and facilitating learning and process skills. When necessary, leaders must provide content through teaching, delivering important information for members to absorb and learn through lectures or structured activities. During these times, material should be delivered by engaging members in the process, rather than by lecture or 'hogging the flip chart'.

 

When leaders serve as facilitators of discussion, members are able to create links to their personal lives to deepen learning and broaden transferability of knowledge. It is important to allow for opportunities for members to explore and create meaning, and to reflect on personal experiences, relating to real life emotions, values, beliefs, and behaviour. Activities to expand the process of linking and connecting include discussion questions, reflections, and role plays. 

 

Information should be delivered in ways to meet the learning style of the majority, integrating a variety of modalities and creative approaches to meet auditory, visual, and tactile/kinetic learners (McBride, 2006). 

Engagement in Learning

Putting it Together

Attached is the lesson plan that I created for our group project, utilizing the concepts and theories for planning psychoeducational groups presented in McBride (2006). The plan demonstrates the importance of open discussion and processing through meaningful activities. It is important to note that this plan is meant to be a flexible guide that can be adapted to suit the needs of the group in the moment. 

 

Lesson 5: Confronting Health Related Stigma and Barriers

(Lesson Plan format was inspired by McBride, 2006)

References 

McBride, D. (2006, November). CAAP 637: Psychoeducational Groups: Session Planning [Course Materials]. Available from the Campus Alberta Applied Psychology: Counselling Initiative Web site, www.caap.ca

McBride, D. (2006). Session Planning Video Part 1 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://moodle.uleth.ca/201802/mod/resource/view.php?id=4597&forceview=1

McBride, D. (2006). Session Planning Video Part 2 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://moodle.uleth.ca/201802/mod/resource/view.php?id=4596&forceview=1

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