ABSTRACT
Social workers, psychologists, community workers, youth workers and other service providers in the human services field spend much of their time working with groups—as staff members, as colleagues—using groups as intervention strategies. Working with groups, whether as group leader or organiser, or as group participant, provides opportunities to achieve outcomes that are frequently impossible or inappropriate to reach in any other way. This introduction provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is intended to complement and build on what we already know from everyday life about groups, and in so doing to provide some assistance to beginning group workers who want to set up and lead or facilitate groups, as well as those who want to extend their knowledge and understanding of group work practice. It is intended as a guide to thinking about groups, about what we do in and with them.
