Phase 2: Working Phase Process illumination and activation

It is envisaged, in the interest of a brief approach to the group intervention to progress immediately after the initial session to the middle sessions. This implies a well-structured approach to the first session, but shifting rapidly to a less structured approach in the second session, as well as the subsequent middle sessions, by encouraging the participants to become more responsible for movement within the group (Johnson, 2009:523).

Yalom and Leszcz’s (2005, in Johnson, 2009:522) delineation of tasks necessary in process illumination and activation, as typified by the acronym RADE, will be pursued by the facilitator:

• Recognise: Participants recognise what they have experienced and acknowledge the cause of their current miseries.

• Appreciate: Participants appreciate the impact of their manner of relating to the feelings, thoughts, and behaviours, regarding their lived experience of being excluded, on others, as well as on their own self-concept.

157 • Decide: The participants decide if they are content with their behaviour and

exclusions, or would like to take the responsibility to change or address it.

• Exercise: The participants exercise the will to change this maladaptive pattern through experimenting with new behaviours (and seeking new solutions), both within and outside the group.

The aim of the middle sessions will be to initially create an environment of safety and stabilisation, with the opportunity for the participants to share their stories, and to expose their traumas; of course, without any duress or pressure to disclose.

Once a sense of safety and containment has been endorsed, subsequent middle sessions will focus on narratives and the facilitation of movement in the group, by allowing reflections on the common reason that brought them to the treatment, and focussing on what they, as participants, want to accomplish (Johnson, 2009:523). Ultimately, the group environment should allow the participants to share and foster meaningful interpersonal change. Facilitation will include strategies for assisting with the activation of resilience, fostering post-traumatic growth opportunities, and reflection.

Yalom and Leszcz (2005, in Johnson, 2009:523) describe several strategies for assisting with process illumination, activation, and interpersonal change. The second session opens with a brief summary of the initial meeting. If homework was assigned, the results should be shared. Just as in individual counselling, the facilitator establishes a counselling atmosphere by demonstrating the facilitative skills of emphatic understanding, genuineness, and respect for group participants. The facilitator needs to be adept at identifying, labelling, clarifying, and reflecting group participant’s feelings and thoughts (Thompson, et al. 2004:497). A typical group counselling process closely follows the format for individual counselling (Thompson, et al. 2004:496):

158 1. Establishing a relationship.

2. Defining the problem(s) of the participants.

3. Exploring what has been tried and whether it has helped or hurt.

4. Deciding what could be done and looking at alternatives.

5. Making a plan (setting a goal).

6. Trying new behaviours by implementing the plan.

7. Assigning homework.

8. Reporting and evaluating the results.

The facilitator must also possess information about group dynamics and counselling skills to intervene and facilitate progress through the various steps of the group facilitation process.

5.3.2.1 Session 2: Personal and / or group vision

The facilitator may introduce the session by briefly discussing the results of his research with the group. The aim of this session will fall on creating an atmosphere of safety and containment within the group, and allowing members to talk freely about their experiences and negative emotions of being excluded from further studies. It will further focus on the here and now, allowing the participants to express their emotions in an environment where they experience empathy and understanding; an environment where there is maximum cohesion and engagement within the group.

159 A less structured approach is evident, pursued by encouraging the participants to become more responsible for movement in the group, in part by suggesting that they reflect on what brought them to the group and the outcomes they want to accomplish (Johnson, 2009:523). In this session, the participants may be encouraged to recognise their situations, and they may also be encouraged to disclose what they would want to share in greater depth about their academic exclusions. Johnson (2009:524) states that by encouraging participants to reflect on and communicate their feelings and thoughts towards others in the group, the level of intimacy and the opportunity for learning may be greatly enhanced.

Towards the end of the second session the participants may be encouraged to write a short paragraph regarding their personal vision of what they aim the outcomes of their participation in the psycho-educational guidance group to be.

They will be left at the end of the session with the request to reflect on their own stories regarding the impact that their academic exclusions have had on them with regards to:

• the challenges of being unable to continue their studies; • addressing the challenges regarding their exclusions;

• the impact thereof on their lives, and those of their families and friends; and • how they are currently addressing the impact of their exclusions.

5.3.2.2 Session 3: Resilient me

This crucial session will aim to guide the participants to explore their inner selves through a process of introspection in order to gain insights into their circumstances. They will be encouraged to focus on their strengths and resourceful inner selves, strengthening their self-esteem. They will also be

160 encouraged to focus on what a problem-free environment, where they are able to maximise their potential, might start to look like.

The resilient self, and what it means to be resilient as an individual, will be the focus of this session. By providing the participants with the opportunity to explore and share their inner selves, their strengths, their insights, and their experiences gained through the process of exclusion, they will be allowed to process the emotions and thoughts of their exclusion, to change native thoughts and beliefs about themselves, and to embark on a process of a resilient self, in a solution- focused manner.

5.3.2.3 Session 4: Resilient surroundings

Many of the participants in the research study experienced great distress about the perceived disappointment they brought over their families with their academic exclusions. They also experienced inabilities to share these emotional responses and the news of their exclusions with close family members and friends. In some instances, they went to great lengths to hide or postpone sharing the news of their academic exclusions with their family members and friends. Yet, the support of friends and family, in essence their ecologies, remains of great importance to them, and being able to share their disappointments with their families and friends, meant much to many participants as the support and understanding they gained overcame the initial feelings of despair in announcing their exclusions.

Being resilient also implies optimisation of available support structures and surrounding resources. The participants are now afforded the opportunity to share their feelings of disclosing to family and friends, and their immediate feelings of being able to do so, at the very least within this group environment. At the end of this session the participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the effects of having confronted their circumstances both internally and within their ecologies. They will have been briefly introduced to measures of resolving conflict in a solution-focused manner, and they will be afforded the opportunity to express themselves, their progress, and their immediate awareness of their future

161 resolutions, in an appropriate manner through drawings, collages, and narrative writings. They will discuss with the group in the forthcoming final session what they deem to be future actions. Their stories of hope as a substantiation of their newfound resilience will be the focus of the final session.