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.
Children of Divorce
A Happy Divorce
is this a self help group, or a legal practices or...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...