Literature Review #4

1. Literature Review
Shayla Carroll

-one of the authors, Patrice A. Keats

2. Keats, P., Sabharwal, V. “Time-Limited Service Alternatives: Using Therapeutic Enactment in Open Group Therapy.” The Journal For Specialists In Group Work, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2008, pp. 297-316.

3. It is evident at this point in my research that there has been a drastic increase in depression and anxiety among college students. This increase has led to implementations of potential ways to fix the long waitlists almost every university has been encountering. This article talks about the implementation of group therapy to provide effective treatment to students. By combining group counseling with therapeutic enactment, researchers plan to offer some relief to students with psychosocial issues. Group counseling is said to be more of a flexible and adaptive approach to therapy for college students. The students will feel more involved, included, influential, and committed. The session involves a welcome section, a warm-up section, the central activity, and a closing exercise. Through the open group therapy experience, students can learn to cope with eating disorders, stress management, and relaxation -- all of which are important coping mechanisms of anxiety.

4. Dr. Patrice Keats is an Associate Professor in the faculty of education at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests are in traumatic stress studies and counselor education. Her experience in counselor education gives her the background necessary for a research article about group therapy. The second researcher who worked on this study was V. Vanita Sabharwal, from the University of British Columbia. Sabharwal is a counselor in the University of British Columbia's Counseling Services. It was hard for me to find more information regarding more of her background.

5. Some key terms in this article are therapeutic enactment, open group, and experiential therapy. Therapeutic enactment is a structured way to conduct change using the open group therapy process. The students in the group re-enact conflicts or situations that they have encountered. By using therapeutic enactment, counselors hope that the clients will better understand their own struggles, and learn alternate ways to work through the issue. Experiential therapy is similar in that the clients use role playing to identify hidden or subconscious issues. An open group is a group therapy session that allows students to come in and out as they please. 

6. The first important quote sums up the structure of an open group therapy session. "As co-facilitators of the group, we adapted the group structure from the Friedman and Mayne Devine’s (2000) open group format. Each two hour session is divided into four sections: welcome, warm-up, central activity, and a closing exercise (see case composition below for further details)" (pg. 306). The structure and goals of group interviews are important, so the summation of how the group therapy session plays out is an important part of this article. 

A second important quotes states, "Although there is great value in longer term group work, therapeutic enactment in open group therapy in a university setting offers an alternative possibility for students to reflect on their issues in a safe contained space, and has good potential to meet the needs of students with less complex issues" (pg. 315). Group therapy is a great way for universities to face the problem of long wait lists, while also providing benefits for the members of therapy sessions. 

Lastly, the benefits posed by group therapy are extremely important because the therapy session has to be successful in order for students to keep coming back. Students who engage int eh group therapy sessions will be able to reap all of the benefits. A quote that sums this thought up states, " In our group, development is monitored within a structured format that provides members with the opportunity to feel a sense of inclusion (acceptance and belonging to the group), control (personal power and influence over what happens as a member), and affection=openness (closeness, cohesion, and attachment to others in the group)" (Pg. 300).

7. I will use this article to give background of group therapy, how it works, why it is important, and how it can help universities tackle the long waitlist problem they are encountering. This articles explains how the group session is ran, and gives a case near the end of the paper to illustrate group therapy in action. This article will be useful near the end of my paper when I list ways that universities can help their students who struggle with mental illness. By using group therapy, universities will be able to see a group of students in the time where they would only see one or two. Group therapy is an effective measure of therapy for both the students and the counseling centers.