Children-of-Divorce Group Therapy

Essay by mosheratsonUniversity, Master'sA-, April 2004

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Children-of-Divorce

Group Therapy

Bounce-Back Program

CONTENTS

1BACKGROUND2

2THE PROBLEM2

3THE RATIONAL OF GROUP THERAPY3

4THE BAOUNCE-BACK PROGRAM3

4.1GOALS OF THE BOUNCE-BACK PROGRAM4

4.2BENEFITS OF THE BOUNCE-BACK PROGRAM4

5SCREENING AND SELECTING GROUP MEMBERS (FRONT)4

5.1INCLUSION CRITERIA4

5.2EXCLUSION CRITERIA5

6GROUP PROCEDURES AND GUIDELINES (FRONT)5

7CLINICAL METHODOLOGY AND APPLICATION (CORE)6

8THERAPY SESSIONS (CORE)7

8.1SESSION ONE7

8.2SESSION TWO8

8.3SESSION THREE8

8.4SESSION FOUR9

8.5SESSION FIVE9

8.6SESSION SIX9

8.7SESSION SEVEN10

8.8SESSION EIGHT10

9EVALUATION AND FOLLOW UP10

10CONCLUSION11

11REFERENCES12

1BACKGROUND

Divorce in the United States has escalated at an alarming rate over the past 30 years. It is estimated that one out of every two marriages will end up in divorce (Christensen & Brooks, 2001). The decision to separate or divorce is the beginning of a difficult transition involving negative emotions and disruptions of family routines and even disruption of the structure itself (Becker & Whiteside, 2000).

Yauman (1991) states that more than one million children experience the divorce of their parents every year.

These children may continue to experience adjustment problems related to the divorce for as many as 10 years after the divorce. Wallerstein and Blakeslee (1989) put emphasis on the fact that the divorce experience is different for children because they are still developing. Booth and Amato (2001) reveal evidence suggesting that parents' marital conflict and divorce have adverse effects on children that often persist into young adulthood. The children may face a number of personal and social problems including being lonely, feeling responsible for the divorce, experiencing divided loyalties, not knowing how to deal with parental conflicts, and facing the loss of family stability (Corey & Corey, 2002).

In this paper I will focus on group therapy for children ages nine to twelve. As Wallerstein and Kelly (1980) state, children from the ages of nine to twelve have the capacity to understand a...