86 Preparation divorce is affecting her parenting, which in turn contributes to the prob- lems that Billy is having in school. The social workers decide that several joint sessions with Mom and Billy would help both of them better manage their stress and assist Mom in resuming her parenting responsibilities and supporting her son. Again, ask students to engage in the anticipatory process: a. Anticipate what Billy and Mom may be thinking and feeling. b. Experience Billy’s and Mom’s situation as if it were your own. c. Call up your own experiences that may help you understand Billy’s and Mom’s feelings. d. Detach yourself and separate your reactions from those of Billy and his mom. 5. Ask students to prepare to offer a group work service using the following scenario: You have been assigned to lead an educational group for persons arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI). Participants range in age from 16–62 and are mixed in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic demographics. The group experience consists of 12 weekly meetings of approximately two hours each. Members participate in order to decrease the likelihood of receiv- ing a jail sentence. Your agency has been asked by the county court to provide this mandated educational group. Break the class into small groups and ask students to consider the avail- able data regarding potential members’ age, race/ethnicity, gender, and socio- economic status, as well as the impact of members’ degree of choice about participating. Have students use the four-step anticipatory empathy process to prepare to offer a service, considering the members’ different social identities: a. What might group members be thinking and feeling about their current situation (third person)? b. To identify with group members’ experiences and their potential reactions more fully, imagine that you were forced to attend this group (first person). c. To identify with the group members even more fully, call up and reflect on your own personal experience so you can better anticipate what group members are going through (first person). d. Detach yourself and explore how your reactions might be similar to and different from group members.
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