Raul Martinez
REHS 6325
4/25/2018
Group Sessions in the Community
Throughout the semester I was able to attend several groups in Brownsville, TX that
allowed me to see how a group session is conducted outside of class. The groups I attended
varied from teenagers to adults. I was able to see and learn different dynamics that are done by
different groups. I was also able to see how the groups conducted in class and outside of class
have many things in common. I was able to go to four different groups but went to some of these
groups twice or three times in order to have attended nine different sessions. I was able to learn
that In Brownsville, TX there are many different counseling/support groups available. I was not
aware of how many groups were available in Brownsville I was surprised to see the different
groups that are available. The four groups I went to were Seeds of hope which offers youth
support groups for teenagers. I went Palmer drug abuse which provides a group for family
support. I went to Anger management for adults at International Christian Center which is a
church. I was also able to go to ProBar’s Adult project which offers a support group for adults
who are facing immigration issues and stress. I was able to be part of those four different groups
in Brownsville, TX and learn how they all have their process of conducting the group.
The first group I was able to attend was the Youth Support group for Seed of Hopes at
Brownsville, TX. The meetings for this group took place every Thursday on a weekly basis. I
was able to go February 13, 20, and 27 of this year and the session took place at the Brownsville
Public library in a classroom. Agustina Olvera is the counselor who is in charge of conducting
the session, and she also offers another group for marriage counseling. Agustina Olvera Is a
licensed professional counselor (LPC), and her contact information is 956-545-6780. The group
session had ten members and lasted one hour, and I was able to go to the second and third,
fourth, and fifth sessions out of ten. The purpose of the group was to build trust and positive
interactions between children ages 11-14. The children that went to the group were children who
have ADHD. Once the session began, I was able to see the warm-up activity used in the initial
phase. The activity used was Name tossing where each youth wrote their name and a fact that
they find fascinating about themselves in a paper and they crumple it into a ball. Then the
children proceeded to toss the papers around each other until the group leader said stop. The
group leader then asked for each member to read the name and fact they had on the paper when
she asked them to stop. During the warm-up activity, I was able to see how happy the children
looked, they kept laughing and seem to be creating a good bond. The group leader then asked the
group of children what they liked about the activity, and I found that interesting because I didn’t
think that in the group for children she would ask processing questions. Throughout the middle
phase, many of the questions had to do with how the kids were feeling in school, the answers
