The Room That Heals Itself — Group Counseling, Yalom's Curative Factors, and Group Stages Explained

What if the most powerful therapeutic tool in the room isn't the clinician — it's the group itself?

In 1943 a British psychiatrist named Tom Main looked at a hospital ward full of soldiers returning from World War II and ran out of clinicians. So he tried something different. He treated the ward as a therapeutic community — and the soldiers started healing each other. Thirty years later Irvin Yalom spent his career figuring out exactly why.

His answer — eleven curative factors — became one of the most influential frameworks in the history of group therapy. And one of the most tested frameworks on every major licensing exam.

In this episode of Licensure Lifeline we cover everything you need to know about group counseling for the NCE, NCMHCE, LCSW, and MFT exams — and for the first day you walk into a group session as a clinician.

What we cover:

🧠 The history of group therapy — from Tom Main's Northfield military experiment to Yalom's landmark research on what actually produces change in groups

📋 All eleven of Yalom's curative factors — instillation of hope, universality, imparting information, altruism, corrective recapitulation of the primary family group, development of socializing techniques, imitative behavior, interpersonal learning, group cohesiveness, catharsis, and existential factors — with clinical examples and exam application for each

📈 The four stages of group development — forming, storming, norming and performing, and adjourning — what each stage looks and feels like clinically and how to recognize each stage on a licensing exam vignette

👥 Group member roles — the monopolizer, the silent member, the scapegoat, the help-rejecting complainer, the assistant leader, and the gatekeeper — what each role is doing in the group system and what the clinically appropriate intervention looks like

🎯 The three-question pattern recognition shortcut — every group counseling exam question is asking about a curative factor, a group stage, or a member role. Identifying which category unlocks the right answer framework immediately

⚠️ What future counselors get wrong — confusing group therapy with group education, misidentifying universality versus cohesiveness, and mistaking catharsis for interpersonal learning

Five exam-style multiple choice questions at the end covering curative factor identification, group stage recognition, scapegoating intervention, the help-rejecting complainer, and multiple curative factors operating simultaneously in a single clinical moment.

Also in this episode:

Current news on HHS Secretary Kennedy's announcement of over $700 million in new behavioral health funding — including what it means for the community mental health settings where many pre-licensed therapists will run their first groups. And a developing story on AI note-taking tools in group therapy sessions — the informed consent and privacy implications that are already showing up in licensing exam ethics questions.

Want to go deeper? This week's Licensure Lifeline newsletter covers all eleven curative factors with full clinical examples, a comparison of group stage models across different theorists, the complete group roles reference guide, and a full group therapy vignette with leader interventions annotated. Always free — link in the show notes.

The cheat sheet, 12-question deep dive quiz, and live study session are inside Licensure Lifeline Circle — the structured learning community for pre-licensed therapists. Fourteen day free trial. Link in the show notes.

And — The Fifty-First Minute is in this week's newsletter. If you have a story to share — an exam win, a clinical moment, something from supervision that changed how you see the work — email us. We want to hear it. Link in the show notes.

SimplePractice:  Give SimplePractice a try! 7 Day free trial and 50% off for the first month.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

In 1943, a young army psychiatrist named Tom Maine was handed an impossible problem. The psychiatric wards at Northfield Military Hospital in Brigham were full. Soldiers returning from the Second World War, men who had seen things no human being should see, were arriving faster than anyone could treat them individually. There weren't enough psychiatrists, there weren't enough hours, and the individual therapy model, even if they'd had unlimited clinicians, couldn't reach everyone who needed help. So Maine tried something different. He stopped treating soldiers as individual patients. He started treating the ward itself as a therapeutic community. Meals together, shared responsibilities, group meetings where soldiers talk about what they were experiencing, not just to a clinician, but to each other. Something unexpected happened. The men started getting better, not because of any specific technique Maine was using, but because of what was happening between them and themselves. The veteran who had been completely isolated discovered that the man in the next bed had experienced the same dream. The soldier, who was certain nobody could understand what he had seen, found out that someone did. The man who had felt completely alone in his suffering found out that he wasn't. Maine called it therapeutic community. It was one of the earliest formal experiments in the using of group therapy itself. Not just clinical work, working with the group, but as a mechanism of healing. Thirty years later, an American psychiatrist named Irving Yallum would spend his career figuring out exactly what it was that made that healing happen. What were the active ingredients? What was actually doing the work? His answer, 11 curative factors, became one of the most influential frameworks in the history of group therapy. And it became one of the most testable concepts on every major licensed exam. Today we're going to teach you a lot of it. Welcome to Leicester Lifeline, the podcast that helps you build the clinical knowledge and confidence to pass your exam and grow as a clinician. I'm Matt Lawson, and today we're doing one of the most genuinely interesting topics in all of exam prep. I love group therapy. Group counseling is great. And they're so they're so dynamic. There's so many things you can do with them. So this is what most pre-licensed therapists just don't fully appreciate about group work until they're actually in the room doing it. Individual therapy is powerful, but it has one of the fun it has one fundamental limitation. It happens in a relationship between two people. And the problems people bring to the to therapy almost always live in relationships between many people. Group therapy puts that relational problem back into the into a relational context. And that's what makes it uniquely powerful and uniquely testable. Today we cover three frameworks um Yalam's 11 curative factors, the active ingredients of therapeutic change in groups, the stages of group development, which was a big piece piece of the test, I feel, and the roles that emerge in groups, um, predictability, repeatability across almost every group you'll ever run into. So before we get started, some announcements. Um things are going really great with the newsletter. I could not have asked for a better response. Thank you to everybody that has signed up. But this is a free companion to the podcast. Um I take a little bit deeper dives into everything that's discussed in the podcast in the newsletter and give you something that's you can go back and reference um over and over and over again, um, just like the podcast, for your studying. So take a look there. Um, I will have a link in the show notes, and you can always go to the website, licenseyourlifeline.com, um, to link to it there as well. Um, also, Circle Group is really hitting. Thank you so much for everybody that has already signed up for the circle group. You know, again, this is a project that I think really comes together with people becoming a part of it. Um, you know, I want this to be this ecosystem where we're all helping each other toward passing the test. We need more clinicians, um, we need more therapists in the world. And I'm hoping that this is going to be a vehicle to help people get there at minimum. You know, it gives you a really nice space just to say, like, you know, this is my this is my place to study. Um, also, check out the YouTube channel. That is up and going, and you're getting some really nice response for that as well. Finally, one more thing. I am taking stories, um, ideas, thoughts, um, experiences that I can put into the newsletter. Um, if you want to contribute, um, this is going to go into the 51st minutes in in the newsletter um section. Um, please email me at licengerlifelifeline at gmail.com. Um, you know, share your story. Um, if you want me to let people know your name, that's fine. Just let me know your name and let me know that you want me to do that. Um, but you know, uh again, like if you can share something with people that is going to help someone on the test, um, if you're just gonna share a win to let people know like this is something that you can pass and you can do, please do it. Um, again, we we're we're we're all in this together, and I'm hoping that you know we can get some stories and things like that going um that will inspire. Okay, let's get into the news. First off, a significant federal investment in behavioral health that will directly shape the field you are entering. HASF HHS, um, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced over $7 million in new funding for behavioral health programs on June 17th, including $96 million opportunity for the streets program focused on addiction and mental illness among the homeless populations and $612 million in additional behavioral health funding. This is great. Um, you know, finally some good news in the world of behavioral health. Um, we need it. We need it. We people need it. Um with it sucks that we have to depend so much on federal funding like this to really help people that need it. But this is absolutely amazing to hear. Um, you know, this level of federal investment means jobs. Community mental health centers, certified community behavioral health clinic clinics, um, street outreach programs, these are all settings where pre-licensed therapists work. And many of these settings rely heavily on group therapy as a primary modality. Um, so hopefully that is a boon for us. Second, um, a growing number of mental health therapists are using AI tools to record sessions, take notes, handle administrative tasks, but some patients are raising concerns about their privacy. This is really important. Um, it's important to let people know if you're using AI. Um, this is something I talk about in all of my first initial intake sessions with people that I work with. Um, you know, that we do use a system for transcribing notes that is kept in the same place, that is HIPAA compliant, um, letting people know that you know these systems are similar to the electronic systems that had already been in use. Um but you know, this is specifically about individual therapy. Um, they really don't have a group. I haven't seen too much group therapy using um transcribing stuff at this point. Um but if you use AI to take notes um, you know, and potentially capturing identifying information, I think that's one of the keys here. Um that's you know something that I noticed with a lot of the AI notes that come through in the system that we use. There's really not that much identifying, if any, identifying information. Every once in a while, somebody will say a name or something like that, um, and we're able to go back and edit stuff out. Um, so you know it's it is, it's it's just something that we have to be very, very careful about, especially at this stage. Um, it's not quite as uh widely used, and um people don't quite trust it just yet. So it is, it's a good conversation to have with people that we work with. All right, before we go into the main topic today, just a real quick note from Simple Practice. Um, you know, running groups adds a layer of administrative complexity to clinical practice with multiple client records, group progress notes, um, attendee, attendance tracking, billing, group sessions. I love groups, but they are complicated to do the administration work around. You have to do notes basically for everybody in that group, which, as you can imagine, can be pretty time consuming. If group work is going to be part of your practice, statistically, it's probably will, and statistically, you it probably will be. Having your administrative infrastructure ready before you start saves a significant amount of time. You can check out Simple Practice to help you with this process. Um, I will have a link in the show notes to um a trial that you can start with simple practice just to take a look, even if you aren't quite seeing people yet. Um, you know, it's not it's not a horrible thing just to take a look at what simple practice has to offer. All right, and on to the main topic today. So, group practice. We're gonna look at three of the main frameworks that you see with um this concept. And we're gonna start with Yalum. Um Yalum is one of my favorite people. I actually got to uh a chance to see him speak in person. Um, you know, it's just seeing him speak was just like watching a historical figure, you know. That's he's been so influential in the world of therapy and specifically in group. Um Yalum spent decades researching what actually produces change in group therapy. His answer was 11 curative factors, specific mechanisms through which the group experience creates therapeutic benefit. These are not techniques, they are not things the therapist does, they are things that happen in the group, facilitated by the group structure and group leaders' skills. Know all 11. I mean straight up, you gotta know all 11 of these. The exam pose um will test both recognition and application. Um, so first up, um, installation of hope. Group members see others who are further along in the recovery or growth. The visibility creates hope in someone who doesn't have it yet. Um, if they got better, maybe I can too. You know, that's that's how people look at this kind of stuff. Um, and one of the nice things about these curative factors, um, they make sense, right? Like, you know, just just kind of coming in and that just think about you coming into a group as a person that is seeking group therapy. Um, you know, just kind of looking around and seeing other people and hearing stories that are similar to your own is gonna instill some hope. You know, that's gonna be part one of the foundational pieces here. Number two, universal universality. The discovery that you are not alone, that other people have experienced the same thing, felt the same shame, carried the same secrets. You might say something like, I thought I was the only one. This is often identified as one of the most powerful early group experiences. The relief is universal. This is one of my this is one of my favorites. Um, you know, especially coming when I first came from individual therapy into group, um, be hearing this from people over and over and over again, like that's the thing with suffering so often. Um, be it grief, eating disorders, whatever, people feel isolated. They feel alone, they don't think anybody else can relate to them. I just had a conversation with somebody last week that I started individual therapy with, and you know, one of his biggest things is you know, he couldn't talk, couldn't didn't feel like he he could talk to his friends or family because they just didn't understand what he was going through. And that's one of the powers of groups. Number three, imparting information, education provided by the group leader or shared between group members, um, psychoeducation about mental health conditions, coping strategies, how therapy works. All right, pretty straightforward. Number four, altruism, group members helping each other, the experience of being genuinely useful to another person, which is in itself healing, particularly for uh for people who have felt like they're a burden. Um so giving help is therapeutic, not just receiving it. And this is something that is extremely helpful, but also something you gotta watch out for. You will see people that help to the point that they're kind of ignoring their own stuff, um, and kind of this like idea that if they're helping other people, then they, you know, don't need to take care of their own things, right? Number five, the corrective recapitulation of the primary family group. The group recreates family dynamics. Members bring the relational patterns from their families of origin into the group and then have the opportunity to experience those patterns differently. The group becomes a place to rewrite relational stories that started in childhood, another hugely beneficial thing that um you'll see with group work. Number six, development of socializing techniques, learning and practicing social skills in a safe, feedback-rich environment. The group provides real-time opportunities to develop interpersonal skills that can be generalized outside the group. One of the first groups I ever ran out of what I called a coaching business before I was able to actually practice privately. Um I used to do coaching for guys around dating. And it was fun. It was a it was so much fun. And, you know, I would do a lot of group work with these individuals along with some individual coaching. Um, but you know, just having a space where people could bounce things off of each other, feel safe about talking to other men. Um, you know, I would have women come and visit the group, um, which a couple of those sessions were some of the best sessions I've ever had, um, where these guys got to just talk to women in a way that, you know, and about dating um that really was able to just alleviate so much anxiety for them. But again, you know, this idea of developing socializing techniques, it doesn't just happen when you bring people from the outside in, but just being able to socialize, like it's something that we're seeing a lot of issues right now in our society. Um, you know, especially kids that were part of that COVID era in school are really struggling with socialization. And groups like this could be extremely helpful if you think about it. Number seven, um, imitative behavior. Members learn by observing and modeling each other, and the group leader, seeing someone handle a difficult emotion skillfully creates a template for doing the same. Number eight, interpersonal learning. The group has a social microcrocosm. How a member relates to others in the group reflects how they relate to others in real life. The group becomes a laboratory for understanding interpersonal patterns and changing them. Number nine, group cohesiveness, the sense of belonging, acceptance, and connection within the group, the therapeutic equivalent of therapeutic alliance in the individual therapy. Cohesion is the relationship variable and condition and the conditions that make everything else possible. Um, another super powerful thing. I'm sorry I keep saying this, but it's it just these are like that. That this is one of the really cool things with group therapy um is you have these these pieces that come out that just rebuild um community with people. Um, you know, we live in an era, you know, I'm sure you've heard some of this like crisis around loneliness, and this is curative. Like we're looking for a way to address loneliness in our in our society. Go out and create a group. Um grow up go out and create a group for people that you are interested in supporting. And you know, this we can just really help individuals um like kind of break through that that loneliness crisis. Number 10, catharsis. The emotional release of um of expressing and processing previously held feelings in the group context. Catharsis is more powerful in group than in individual therapy because the emotional expression happens in front of witnesses and the witnesses respond. Number 11, existential factors, the group's engagement with fundamental existential realities, death, freedom, isolation, meaninglessness, um, the recognition that life involves suffering that cannot be fully fixed, only lived within. Uh, learning to take responsibility for one's own life, you know, super powerful. Okay, now let's get into some group stages. Four phases, four phases of development here. Groups don't just happen, they develop. And this is again one of the neat things with group is they evolve along the way. Um, it's kind of neat to see them go from a very foundational place to this uh evolved to an evolved stage. And um, it's predictable, like you see pretty much the same evolution throughout groups. So in stage one, this is forming. You know, this is an initial foundational stage. The group is new, members are polite, cautious, dependent on the leader, and uncertain about what the group is for and whether it's safe. Um conflict is avoided, the group leader is the primary attachment figure. The clinical task is to establish safety, set norms, and help members begin to connect with each other. Then we get into stage two, storming. I love these stages, they're so great. Um, whoever came up with storming, it's uh I love it. Um so this is where conflict emerges. So people are getting comfortable with each other, right? Members test the leader, challenge the group norms, and begin expressing anxiety and resistance more directly. This is often more uncomfortable, a more uncomfortable stage for a new group leaders. Um, you know, people, if you're new to groups, people don't want to see this happening in groups, they don't want to see their their members arguing, but this is part of the process and one of the most important parts of the process. Handled well, conflict deepens, trust and cohesion. Um, but when you avoid it, it undermines both. Stage number three, norming and performing. The group develops cohesion. Members work productively on therapeutic goals, take interpersonal risk, and engage with each other at the deeper at a deeper level. The curative factors are most active here. This is a stage where real change tends to happen. And then the last stage, adjourning. This is the termination stage. This is when we are done with the group. Um, the group ends. Members process loss, consolidate learning, and say goodbye. Termination is a clinically significant process. It often reactivates earlier losses and provides a final opportunity for therapeutic work around endings and transition. You never want to create dependence in therapy. That's one of the things I've always battled with as a therapist because you want clients and you want to keep your books filled and be seeing people. But you also want to see people get better. You want to see them improve. My thought has always been with therapy is I want to get people to a place where they no longer need me, but they want to work with me. So, you know, I have worked with people for years sometimes. And the original reason that they came in for therapy has long been addressed. But, you know, I become kind of this confidant in their lives. I become somebody that as things come up in their lives, you know, we don't see each other as frequently, but you know, it's I've kind of become on call for their life. Um, I've had people who get done who work with me, finish up working with me, go away for a bit. I won't hear from them for like a year, and then they'll come back and we'll work together for a little bit more. Um, you know, they they kind of understand like this isn't a place where they need to work with me, but they see the benefit of having somebody in their life that they can have that outside opinion or whatever. So, you know, it is. It's a really interesting kind of piece. Um, but the adjourning piece here that we're talking about with group. Needs to happen. It is absolutely therapeutic. All right, now we're going to move into group roles. These are interesting. I've always thought this is kind of wild how people can fall into these different roles. But in almost every therapy group, regardless of the population setting or theoretical orientation, certain roles tend to emerge. Not because the leader assigns them, but because group systems just pull people into these roles. So first up, you have the monopolizer. This individual tends to talk excessively, dominates group time. Often they there's a lot of like this is driven by anxiety. Um, the intervention is not to silence them, it's to understand the function of talk that talking serves and to gently redirect the group. This can be tough. Um, you don't you want to respect what people are saying, but being able to recognize that another story that takes 20 minutes to tell and uses up the entire group time is not gonna help anybody. But being able to understand why this individual needs to tell the story again or needs to tell a new story or just take up so much time, um, it becomes important. And learning how to redirect that individual becomes even more important. Next person, the silent member. They rarely speak, um often sit there observing. Silence is not the same as non-participation. A really important piece to note there. Um, silent members can be deeply engaged. The intervention is to create invitation, not demands. So it's, you know, not necessarily, you know, calling them out for not talking, but you know, making them feel like their opinion matters. What do you have to say about this? You know, I've noticed that you um haven't been talking all that much. Um, what do you think about this topic? Can be asked in a really gentle, gentle way that again respects them and doesn't necessarily call them out. Next up, we have the scapegoat. This is the individual that gets all the stuff. Everybody projects their anxieties, their anger, their unwanted feeling onto the scapegoat. Um, and they often, you know, they're they they carry some truth for the entire group. And the leader's job is to recognize and interpret the scapegoating go be goating process before it harms the identified member. Next, the help rejecting complainer. They present problems repeatedly, rejects every offered solution, and returns the following week with the same concerns. This role is very frustrating. Um, for both the members and the leaders, the clinical task is exploring the function of rejecting rather than offering more solutions. And that's kind of how they're gonna bait you. They're gonna bait you into well, what's your answer to this? Like, what solution are you gonna give? The assistant leader. Um and this is not a role like another therapist in the room. This is somebody within the group taking on this role of the assistant leader. Um, they align closely with the group leader, sometimes acting as the co-therapist can they can be useful, um, but they can also undermine group dynamics depending on how it is managed. Lastly, we have the gatekeeper. Um, they monitor and regulate the group's emotional temperature, often redirecting away from difficult feelings when they emerge. So if you think about that, you know, all the work that you've done to make it a safe place, to allow people to be uncomfortable when they need to be uncomfortable, to allow difficult conversations to happen. Gatekeepers can sometimes, like because because of their discomfort, um, redirect, take away from other individuals, um, you know, getting things out, having cathartic moments, things like that. So definitely something to watch out for. So let's take a look at pattern recognition here. Um, a lens that makes group counseling exam questions a little bit more manageable is every group therapy question is really asking one of three things. What's the active ingredient? That's a curative factor question identifying which of Yalam's 11 is operating in this scenario. Um, where is the group? That's a stage question, identifying which developmental stage the group's behavior reflects. And then what is the dynamics of the group? That's a role question, right? Identifying which role is described is describing the members and what they're what role they're playing. Um, those are basically the three categories you're going to see on the test for group questions. So let's say you're running a process group, eight members, six weeks in. The group has moved through the initial politeness of stage one and the early tension of stage two. You're in stage three, the working stage, and something is happening that you need to name. One of the members, let's call him Dave, has been the target of subtle criticism from two other group members for the past three sessions. Nothing overtly hostile, but a particular kind of dismissiveness that the group seems to be silently agreeing with. What's happening is scapegoating. Dave is carrying something for the group, probably the anxiety or vulnerability that nobody else is willing to own in front of each other. Um, the group is projecting it onto Dave and managing managing this is uncomfortable and distracting. So the clinical intervention becomes, you know, not to defend Dave. It isn't to confront the critical members, it's to name the process, to bring the group's attention to what's happening between the members rather than what's being said to Dave. So you might say something like, I'm noticing something in the group's just not right right now. There seems to be a pattern in how we're responding to Dave over the past few sessions. And I'm wondering if we could all just pause and look at that together. That intervention right there, naming the process without assigning blame. Um, you know, that's that is an essential skill for group leaders. And you heard how that went. You know, there was no blaming, there was no shaming. It was just, you just named it. You just named it and and pointed it out to the rest of the group. And it gives you a place to get some traction with the work that you're doing, or better yet, to get things back on track. All right, let's get into some multiple choice questions. Question number one A group member who has struggled with severe social anxiety states during session, I've never told anyone about this before. I always assumed I was only the only one who felt this way. But hearing everyone else talk tonight, I realize I'm not as different as I thought. According to Yalum's curative factors, this member is most directly experiencing a catharsis, emotional release through expression in the group, B, universality, the discovery of shared human experiences, C group cohesiveness, a sense of belonging in the group, or D, installation of hope, seeing that others have gotten better. The answer is gonna be B. Um universality. The defining feature of universality is the specific discovery that one is not alone in one's experience. That statement I thought I was the only one. Um cohesiveness is the broader sense of belonging that develops over time. Um it's a condition, not a moment. Catharsis involves emotional release, not the recognition of shared experience, an installation of hope involves seeing others recover and not discovering a shared experience. Question number two A therapy group is six weeks into an eight-week run. Two members have begun openly challenging the group leader's approach. One member has stopped participating, and the overall atmosphere feels tensed and guarded. According to a two stage model of group, um develop group development, this group is most likely in which stage? Is it in A forming, the group is still establishing safe a safety structure, B adjourning, the group is reacting to approaching termination, C storming. Conflict and resistance are characteristics of this transitional stage, and D norming or D norming. The group is developing a cohesion through productive disagreements. The answer is gonna be C storming. The storming stage, also called the transition stage, is characterized by conflict, challenges to the leader, resistance, and heightened anxiety. This developmentally normal and handled well deepens this is developmentally normal and if handled well deepens trust and cohesion. Uming involves politeness and leader dependence, not conflict. Adjourning is possible at six weeks or eight, but the absence of termination themes and the presence of a leader challenge points more strongly to storming. Question number three. A group member consistently presents the same problem each week, receives thoughtful suggestions from both the leader and other members, um, initially seems receptive, and then returns the following week reporting that none of the suggestions worked, and that the problem continues. This pattern has repeated for the last five consecutive sessions. This member is most likely um in what's playing what role in this group. Is it the scapegoat? A the silent member, B, the help rejecting complainer, C, or the monopolizer, D. Answer to this one's gonna be C. The defining features here are the the present presentation of problems combined with systemic rejection of solutions, followed by return returning each week with the same problem. The clinical significance is that the rejection of help is itself clinically meaningful. It often reflects ambivalence about change, a need for connection through the problem, or the secondary gains from the symptomatic role. All right, question number four. A group leader observes that several members have been subtly dismissive toward one member over the past three sessions, minimizing her contributions, redirecting um conversations away from her concerns, and expressing mild but consistent criticism. The leader recognizes this as a group dynamic rather than an interpersonal conflict. The most appropriate intervention is to a meet individually with the critic critical members of and address their behavior outside the group. B defend the targeted member by highlighting her contributions to the group, C. Name the process to the group, drawing attention to the pattern without assigning blame to any individual, or D. Suggest the targeted member take a break from the group until the dynamic resolves. The answer to this one's gonna be C. Scapegoating is a group level dynamic. The group is projecting something onto the identified member that belongs to the whole group. The intervention is always at the group level, not the individual level. Naming the process, I'm noticing a pattern in how we've been responding to this member. Whatever. Blank. Um bring the dynamic into awareness without blaming any of the individuals. See? All right, question number five. A group member who recently lost her job shares tearfully that she has been feeling worthless and ashamed. After she finishes, another group member says, I know exactly what you mean. When I lost my job two years ago, I felt the same way. I want you to know it does get better. The second member is most directly demonstrating which of Yalam's curative factors. Is it a imparting information, sharing knowledge about job loss and recovery? B altruism combined with installation of hope, offering genuine help with while demonstrating that recovery is possible, C catharsis, expressing previously held emotions in that group, or D imitative behavior, modeling coping behaviors learned from the group leader. Answer to this one's gonna be B altruism combined with installation of hope. This question is testing whether you can recognize multiple curative factors operating simultaneously, which is how they actually work in the group. Um, the second member is being genuinely helpful to someone in pain. That's altruism. They're also demonstrating through their own experience that recovery is possible. That's the installation of hope. All right, that is gonna do it for the show. Um, three things to carry with you. One, know all 11 of Yalam's curative factors by name, by clinical description. The exam will describe the factors without naming it. Um, you have to recognize it from the scenarios. This is a really cool place to come up with some mnemonic that you can use, maybe using the first initials of each each thing to come up with uh a little phrase that can help you keep them memorized on the test. Um, number two, the four group stages move from polite and leader dependent through conflict resistance, through cohesion, and productive work to termination and loss. Conflict in group is not a failure. Um, it's stage two, it's storming, right? Doing that stage two is during stage two, that's what's supposed to happen. Um, but these are four stages norming, storming, performing, and adjourning. They kind of have a nice little sing song to them, if you can keep that in mind. Number three, for group role questions, the intervention almost always targets the group process rather than the individual. Um, scapegoating, scapegoating, monopolizing, help rejecting, these are group dynamics. Um, first off, um, individual individual behavior second. You you know, you're you're gonna have situations where there is a person that is just disruptive. That is one thing, but you also need to be able to recognize when this is just a dynamic of within the group and handle it as a dynamic within the group. Group therapy is one of the most genuinely fascinating areas in clinical practice. Um, when it works and when you understand why it is working, there's nothing quite like it. Um, you're gonna be able to get more information from the newsletter this week. I go deeper into things there. Again, those notes are in, or the uh link to that's gonna be in the show notes. Um, and please do think of some stories that you want to tell or some wins that you've had. Um, I'd love to include those stories in the newsletter. Again, you can reach me at license your lifeline at gmail.com. Um, I also take questions there about the show show. I I love hearing from people. It's so cool to get notes from individuals. I try to answer them as quickly as possible when I'm not inundated by notes from my practice. But uh, you know, that's gonna be it for this episode, everyone. And you know, keep getting at it and never stop learning. Talk to you next week.