Social skills Groups for Teens and Young Adults
Building skills for independence
Program Description
GroupWorks West offers social skills groups for teens and young adults with a variety of social-developmental challenges.
At GroupWorks West we see the development and maintenance of social relationships as the foundation for independent living. Social skills, also referred to within employment settings at “soft skills,” allow teens and young adults to successfully create relationships with friends, romantic partners, coworkers, and employers.
At GroupWorks West social skills are not limited to following established social rules and norms, but also include behavioral and cognitive flexibility, collaboration and teamwork skills, empathy training, perspective taking skills, reading nonverbal communication, reciprocal conversation skills, conflict resolution skills, asking for help in accepting feedback, optimism, and humor.
GroupWorks West provides each member with the knowledge and skills necessary to initiate and maintain long-term relationships. By increasing the ability of group members to form long-term relationships they will have an increased ability to separate from their family of origin and live on an independent basis (with a friend or dating partner).
Curriculum:
Therapeutic Methods:
Our group program utilizes a variety of activities and teaching methods to build skills. Each week group leaders select activities that best suite the specific needs of the group. Rather than select activities in advance of each session, group leaders assess the group and then select relevant activities. This program is designed to be flexible and dynamic, maintaining a clear focus on the course objectives while adapting to the particular demands of the individual members of the group.
Weekly Format:
1) Group “check in”
2) Group discussion/follow up in previous week’s homework assignment
3) Break: informal discussion and food
4) Group activity
5) Group feedback on activity
6) Closure: review of new homework assignment.
Group Activities and Methods:
1) Didactic instruction
2) Role play (peer-to-peer)
3) Role play (group facilitators)
4) Reading assignments and writing assignments
5) Group discussion (feedback)
6) Video taping and critique of video tape (in-session)
7) Community based outings
8) Emotion regulation training (using methods from dialectal behavior therapy)
9) Cognitive behavioral techniques (for anxiety and depression)
10) Social networking via use of the internet (establishing and maintaining)
What, When Where, Who?
What: a 24 week structured group for teens and adults that need support with building and maintaining social relationships.
When: groups are offered Monday through Friday (after school hours) as well as Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Where: 3272 Motor Avenue, LA, CA 90034 (Northeast corner of Motor and National in West Los Angeles)
Who: This group is appropriate for those with ASD, intellectual disability, social anxiety, non-verbal learning disorder, executive functioning deficits, and other neurodevelopmental challenges.
Goals: social coordination and teamwork, collaboration and behavioral flexibility, understanding and managing emotions, inference and perspective taking, cognitive flexibility, sharing experience and turn taking, social confidence and assertiveness, starting, maintaining, and ending conversations, understanding and using non-verbal communication, managing conflict, coping with bullying, understanding sarcasm/humor, social referencing, and joint attention.
Client Goals:
Collaboration
1) Student will learn to contribute as a partner and group- team member in the formulation and attainment of common goals.
2) Student will learn to collaboratively negotiate roles and organize role relations, time constraints, resource needs and project plans.
3) Student will learn to take responsibility to synchronize actions, intentions, interpretations and roles with his partners.
4) Student will learn to adapt communication contextually based on his partners understanding, expertise and interests.
5) Student will learn to find common ground for sharing and integrating perspectives, ideas, memories and feelings.
6) Student will learn to balance personal needs with larger group goals.
7) Student will learn to respect established lines of authority and responsibility.
8) Student learn to monitor emotional coordination with his partners while maintaining mutual respect and fairness.
Deliberation
1) Student will learn to operate thoughtfully and carefully in unfamiliar and novel environments.
2) Student will learn to anticipate possible consequences of his actions.
3) Student will learn to postpone actions that are inappropriate in current settings.
4) Student will learn to think carefully and critically about the impact of his words before speaking.
5) Student will learn to prepare for future problems and challenges.
6) Student will learn to plan for contingencies and develop realistic expectations.
7) Student will learn to consider possible scenarios and options, including less than optimal outcomes.
Flexibility
1) Student will learn to monitor evaluate and adjust his actions, attention and thinking on an ongoing basis to reflect feedback from his prior actions as well as new information and changing circumstances.
2) Student will learn to manage real-world or grey-area problems (i.e., where there is no right or wrong solutions).
3) Student will learn to “make do” and improvise with the resources that are available at any given point in time.
4) Student will learn to work effectively with limited resources and time and determine “good enough” performance criteria.
5) Student will learn to solve problems in imaginative and novel manner.
6) Student will learn to create and perceive new, unusual combinations, connections and relationships.
Friendship
1) Student will learn to maintain relationships based on shared positive experiences, common attributes, interests, and emotional coordination and mutual concern.
2) Student will learn to demonstrate loyalty as an ally, placing close friends’ needs above his own.
3) Student will learn to develop a shared memory bank of bonding experiences that include overcoming challenges with a partner, mutual enjoyment, empathy, and mutual care giving and trust.
4) Student will learn to successfully repair inevitable conflicts and misunderstandings.
Initiative
1) Student will learn to act autonomously to begin projects and tasks.
2) Student will learn to express curiosity and a desire to explore new ideas, skills, places, and people.
3) Student will learn to seek out unfamiliar but potentially rewarding experiences.
4) Student learn to perceive challenges as opportunities for learning and growth while maintaining a lifelong desire for competency and mastery.
Responsibility
1) Student will learn to consider and respect others' feelings and needs.
2) Student will learn to respect commitments and promises.
3) Student will learn to take appropriate role actions to care for and contribute to the well-being of family members, neighbors, classmates, teammates, workmates and pets.
Self-management
1) Student will learn to manage internal states to maintain productive functioning and well-being (e.g., fatigue, focus, frustration).
2) Student will learn to manage emotions in a productive manner to maintain personal equilibrium.
3) Student will learn to cope with stress through self-soothing and appropriate support from caregivers.
4) Student will learn to manage frustration, anxiety, disappointment, rejection, loneliness and loss.
5) Student will develop emotional resilience in order to bounce back from obstacles and setbacks.
6) Student will learn to use emotions as tools to understand himself and his relationship to others.
Get in touch.
Social skills enrollment for 2020-2021 is now open (teens and young adults)