Criterias Of Facilitator To Avoid Conflictual Relationships In A Church

The facilitator’s affiliation with the church can become an issue, especially when relating with members in the same church where dual and multiple relationships can occur. In order to preserve clear boundaries between the facilitator and the group members, it would be ideal if the facilitator is from another church. If this is not possible, or if this support group is one of the ministry in the church, then the facilitator and the group members need to discuss and agree on the actions to be observed so that conflictual relationships can be avoided.

Gender Differences and Gender Roles

Gender differences and roles are topics that the facilitator should be sensitive toward, especially in group therapy with young couples. It should be noted that gender roles are very much tied to the cultures that group members originate from. Therefore, the facilitator should be aware of how cultural differences affect gender roles. This includes national culture, social class, and religion (ie church cultures) that group members have originated from.

Screening Process

The selection process is to facilitate (a) the provision of information to prospective members in order to facilitate true informed consent; (b) gathering information to decide whether they would benefit from participation in the group.

Pre-group Disclosure

Through the process of informed consent, the potential group members will learn about group therapy and decide on their participation. Thus, it is the facilitator’s responsibility to ensure that the potential group members are fully briefed regarding the following, and to address any questions or concerns that they may have: (a) the nature of the group experience; (b) the goals of the group; (c) the general guidelines and ground rules of the group; (d) procedural information; (e) what is expected from the member.

Selection Criteria

The criteria is designed to encourage diversity in order to achieve a good number and mix of couples. Smead (1995) calls this “role balance”. She emphasises that a goal of member selection should be to achieve diversity. In this way, individuals who are facing similar issues in early marriage are able to find a variety “coping models” in other group members simply by being exposed to each member’s uniqueness. As such, the following selection criteria are suggested:

• There should be a mixture of family situations or problems among the couples with variation in living situations, communication skills, or strengths and weaknesses. These differences will serve to provide alternate viewpoints and solutions to problems.
• To minimise scapegoating and increase cohesiveness, similarities in gender, race, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity of group members should be taken into consideration.

Group members should share enough similarities that they do not feel isolated, and are able to connect with each other around the topic of the session.