Blog 8: Research and Working EQ

Content:

1. What is your working EQ?
 My working EQ is : What is the most effective strategy to conducting a group therapy session?

2. What is a possible answer to your working EQ? Please write the answer in thesis format.
   EQ is : What is the most effective strategy to conducting a group therapy session?

• Making packets with reading material and exercises that the group patients each receive, read and perform on their own time; afterwards they share and discuss their results during a group therapy session.
• During the group therapy session the therapist would listen and answer any questions or clarify any of the reading material to the group patients. Also the therapist would go around the circle and allow everyone to share out their experience over the weekend and allow them to say whether or not the tips that were given by the therapist worked or not.
• Over time the group will become more comfortable after a couple of therapy sessions, and ultimately the group will flow steadily and the therapist should be able to control and monitor the group's progress. 

3. What is the most important source you have used that has helped you come up with an answer to your working EQ?

   My most important source has been my mentor, Karla Rodriguez Vallejo. She helped me come up with my current answer (subject to change) by allowing me to contribute to her actual group therapy sessions. We usually do those steps that I listed and they seem to be effective. As of now, it seems like my best answer and I have personal experience with my mentor to support my claim. I have seen her group share out their weekends and discuss how my mentor's tips have helped. There is clear progression, therefore I believe the strategy that I listed is a strong candidate for the solution to my working EQ.

4. Who is your mentor, or where are you volunteering, and how does what you are doing relate to your EQ?

  My mentor is Karla Rodriguez Vallejo. She is a marriage and family therapist who works for a company named Pacific Clinics. She is currently working on 3 different therapy groups. I assist her on each 3 therapy sessions by helping her prepare for her sessions, sitting with her during sessions, and reviewing the sessions with her afterwards when the group leaves. This allows me to get a hands on experience of Marriage and Family therapy and witness real people talk about their lives and analyze how my mentor assists the group and spreads her knowledge in order to help everybody out. I'm very grateful, and I'm learning so much through my mentor and experiences with her.