Quick Guide for Clinicians - SAMHSA Store - Substance Abuse and ...

Group Development and Phase-Specific Tasks 31for a certain number of weeks or months. Examples of time-limited groups include psychoed­ucational groups, skills building groups, and psy­chodrama groups. Several possible varieties of ongoing groups have revolving membership. Such groups may be • Open-ended, with clients staying for as manysessions as they wish• A repeating set of topics, with clients stayingonly until they have completed all of the topics• A format that is not topic-specific, which clientsattend for a set number of weeks (either consecutivelyor nonconsecutively)Figure 4-1 in TIP 41 provides the characteristics offixed and revolving membership groups.Preparing for Client Participation in GroupsThe process of preparing the client for participationin group therapy begins as early as the initialcontact between the client and the program.Clients' preconceptions about the group, theirexpectation of how the group will benefit them,their understanding of how they are expected toparticipate, and whether they have experienced amotivational session prior to the group will allinfluence members' participation.