ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the processes which occur in groups and which affect both children and grown-ups. Children are generally reared in the context of a group, whether it is the family, or substitute family, or group living in residential care. The vast majority of children will experience close interaction with other human beings from the moment of birth and will be socialised through being exposed to groups of other people on a progression from family to friends and neighbours and on to playgroups and schools. The chapter looks at the kind of processes which are likely to be present in group situations where children are offered therapeutic programmes to help them with emotional and psychological disturbance. Attention has been paid to the operation of conscious and unconscious processes in groups and to the importance of workers being able to bring to awareness issues that will otherwise impede the satisfactory performance of the therapeutic task.
