Corey (2015) has the following advice for facilitators dealing with difficult group members:

• Express annoyance with a member without denigrating the character of the person.

•□Avoid responding to a sarcastic remark with sarcasm.

•□Educate the member about how the group works to demystify the process.

•□Encourage a member to explore his or her fears or any form of resistance rather than ignore them.

•□Avoid labeling and judging any member and instead describe the behavior of the member.

•□State observations and hunches in a tentative way rather than being dogmatic.

•□Demonstrate sensitivity to a member’s culture and avoid stereotyping the individual.

•□Let members who are difficult for you know how they are affecting you in anon-blaming way.

•□Avoid using the role and power of the leader to intimidate members.

•□Monitor your own countertransference reactions.

•□Challenge members in a caring and respectful way to do things that may be painful and difficult

•□Avoid retreating when conflict arises

•□Provide a balance between support and challenge.

•□Refrain from taking member reactions in an overly personal way.

•□Facilitate a more focused exploration of a problem rather than give simple solutions.

•□Meet the member’s needs, not your own.

•□Invite group members to state how they are personally affected by problematic behaviors of other members, but block judgments, evaluations, and criticisms. (p. 90).

Do you feel confident you would be able to deal with conflict using all or some of the suggestions above? Why or why not?

Corey, G. (2015). Theory & practice of group counseling (9th ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. ISBN-13: 9781305088016