«Men hvordan klarer du å stå i det?»: Gruppeveiledning og mestring i psykososialt arbeid

This is a master’s thesis in counseling. The topic of this master thesis is group supervision for social and health workers. By using a research method called Q-methodology, I seek to answer the research problem: How do social and health workers experience group supervision to be a help in coping with psychosocial work? The study is concerned with the research participants’ subjective experience of group supervision and coping. The participants consisted of child protection workers, a drug abuse and mental health team, hospital health workers and students in a master of family therapy program. All the research participants had experience with group supervision through psychosocial work. The study resulted in four different views (called factors) on how group supervision is perceived to aid the workers in their jobs. Factor 1 is titled "Coping and mental health in direct, honest communication". These participants find that working with process combined with a challenging communication style constitutes a coping resource in supervision. The supervision is also perceived to be a social support that fosters good mental health for the workers. Factor 2 is called "Group supervision promoting effective cooperation". Facilitation of the work group and a focusing on process helps strengthening the cooperation among the workers. Factor 3 is named "Professional knowledge with an emphasis on the case". The mutual sharing of professional knowledge between colleagues and supervisor is found to be an important coping resource among these participants. Process is of less concern in this factor. Factor 4 is titled "The case and process are two sides of the same matter". In this factor the integration of case and process work helps increase coping ability. The supervisor functions as a facilitator. Prominent findings in this thesis are that an honest, direct communication style is preferred in group supervision. To speak ones opinion directly and freely facilitates the coping experience. Generally speaking, working with both case material and process in group supervision is necessary in order to cope well with psychosocial work. A last important finding is that group supervision fosters a closer and more effective working relationship between helper and client, which is an important prerequisite for successful coping