Providing Care for the Aging Parent- Reflection
Reflection
Using worksheet 1-3 as a guide I critically assessed and broke down each part of my group facilitation to examine what I believe I did well on and what I could improve on in the future. For the introduction I had each member introduce themselves and identify one fear they had about getting older to show that their fears may be becoming their parent's reality. I pointed out the similarities in members answers to build connections between group members. I then discussed the importance of having patience, showing empathy, and keeping humor alive during this trying time.
During our sharing portion of our session one member began crying when sharing her experiences of caring for family members. I felt that it altered the dynamic of our group a bit as one member approached me after the session and apologized for not sharing. They stated they were afraid they might start crying and didn't want to let the rest of the group see them cry. It is important to make sure that group members feel like they are in a safe enough environment that they don't have to fear being judged. I felt like I facilitated a safe and open environment to the best of my abilities.
For the application part of the group I provided a handout with resources about types of care and tips on collaborating with their loved one on communicating and making decisions together. I pretty much read from the handout to the members when I think it would have been better to have each member go around the table and take turns reading bullet points from the tip sheet.
I closed the group by allowing an opportunity for questions or comments and expressed my gratitude for everyone participating in my group session. It was a wonderful learning opportunity for me.
Maggie, thank you for sharing this reflective post. First let me say that you demonstrated a great deal of courage in selecting the topic that you did...Providing Care for the Aging Parent. I think this was a very broad topic that would have been very, very difficult to imagine the number of ways that it could have gone. You will see on my feedback in a little while that I believe that you did a wonderful job of maneuvering through a difficult terrain, especially when things got very emotional for several of the members. There are many thoughts I'd like to share with you, but I will stick to the ones that you have brought forth in your reflection and response. I agree with you that when one group member became tearful as she shared, it did influence the group dynamic, but from an outsider's perspective, I also noticed that the members, connected immediately with the feelings and the subject matter when you, as their leader expressed emotion about caring for your family members. This, (the leader's self-disclosure) I think can be a wonderful opportunity to build connection and trust with some group members, or for some people it can cause an immediate withdrawal because they do not want (or may not be prepared to) share their emotions with others. Any time you facilitate a group like this, it is a double edge sword because the topic should be (hopefully) something that you have knowledge or experience with, but it cannot be a topic that is "too close" to the leader either. Furthermore, I agree that it is important for member's to feel safe from judgment within a group with topics like this, but I'm not sure that the group member who approached you afterward, necessarily felt that they would be judged for crying...rather, I would have a tendency to believe that they didn't feel that there would be enough time or possibly, they were fearful that if they shared and unleashed emotions that they wouldn't be able to reign their feelings back in at all, so they didn't want to risk opening the floodgates. This brings me to the thing that I most want to share with you. I think that you definitely facilitated a safe and open environment, but I think that the topic could have been narrowed down, and in a realistic situation each part of the group that you facilitated today would be separate parts of a full protocol. Narrowing this very important and very difficult and heavy subject matter into smaller pieces would have allowed for each part to be more thoroughly covered, meaning more time for sharing and processing the heaviest parts.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I think you handled this facilitation well, and you have grown by leaps and bounds with your skills. Thank you for making such a wonderful and heartfelt effort.