The Use of Group Processes for Alleviating Teachers’ Stress Within a School Setting

For many years I worked as a school psychologist for the Board of Education in New York City. Our chief psychologist, the late Dr. Rachel Lauer, immediately began to teach new psychologists the positive effects of group work in almost any environment and encouraged us to form groups with teachers, students, and parents. This chapter describes one of many workshops I conducted. It was specifically created for elementary school teachers and ran for five years. The first step toward creating the workshop was the request made by the principal to form such a group. She also agreed to respect the group’s confidentiality.