9 Dynamics of Mutual Aid

Hi, everyone.

Welcome to this brief Prezi.

I'll be talking about the nine dynamics of mutual aid.

I'll be going through these kind of quickly, even though

there are.

You know, there's a lot more to these ideas than

just what I'll be sharing in here.

But I just wanted to include this in addition to

Chapter two of Steinberg.

So the 99 dynamics of mutual aid are, you know,

really grounding yourself and these is what's going to help

you to create a group that is mutual aid.

We want to make sure that we have these wound

throughout the group from beginning to end.

There's a number of ways to do that, so I'll

start with sharing data.

Um, for you as the group facilitator, there are a

few different things that you really need to keep in

mind. One of those is that group members have information.

Group members have knowledge, they have wisdom, and they have

experience. So when you as a facilitator are able to

stay connected to that and you don't slip into the

I'm an expert role or, you know, I'm here to

teach people, but you really are able to believe like

these folks have a lot to offer.

It's going to be easier for you to promote the

group members sharing data.

So one thing I love to do and you know

you'll hear me talk about it in class is turn

it back to the group when there's a question and

idea thrown out there.

It's really wonderful to say Group, What do we think?

Um, this really promotes the idea of member to member

interaction rather than member to group facilitator as the norm.

And we want member to member to be the norm.

We want to encourage group members to come up with

ideas together.

They have, you know, a wealth of knowledge specific to

their situation, you know, kind of like in the example

in the book with the meeting where Maria came and

she wasn't able to, she was having dilemma with child

care, you know, the facilitator through it to the group,

and then re sources were able to come up.

So what you're going to do for this one, you're

gonna model it, You know, you're gonna believe that group

members are able to do this and you're going to

use a lot of scanning for nonverbals.

That's gonna be people's faces, kind of lighting up where

people nodding in agreement where you can just kind of

tell like, Oh, I think they I think they could

go somewhere with this.

The next dynamic that will look at is the dialectic

process. This is a really cool gift that people can

experience in a mutual aid group.

The dialectic process is just recognizing there can be a

balance between two extremes.

Um, you know, Ah, lot of times we get stuck

in this die economist thinking, you know, either it's this

or it's that, and in a mutual aid group, you

want to one help group members express themselves, and help

group helped the group to adopt a structure for examination

and exploration.

So rather than things being contradictory either, like in the

example in the book will either mothers should stay home

or mothers should goto work, Being able to acknowledge both

of these situations or challenging and it doesn't have to

turn in tow, who's right?

Who's wrong?

So use a facilitator are able to model that and

promote that oftentimes, by restating or reframing.

If you hear things framed and kind of, Ah, dichotomous

or binary.

You know, being able to point out one doesn't have

to cancel out the other.

And this is really looking at, you know, balancing empathy

and demand so that we can see Hey, I can

feel for someone and multiple things could be true at

the same time, the next dynamic we wanna look at

is discussing taboos.

So this is when you know, a lot of times

people feel, you know, kind of nervous about this.

How is it going to feel when we talk about

something uncomfortable?

You is a facilitator.

You get to dive into that by modeling the process.

That means that you're gonna have to be aware of

your comfort level around different taboo topics.

You know, I, um, prior to facilitating groups for adolescents

that committed sexual offenses, I had to kind of pause

and do some supervision and consultation around.

How do I feel about discussing masturbation with some teenage

boys on dhe That was, you know, that was a

learning curve, and I really kind of had to work

through with some really great support for my colleagues.

Um, in supervision.

You know what?

How do I feel about this.

You know, what are my thoughts on what's appropriate?

What's not appropriate to discuss?

How could this happen?

In a way that, you know, it's gonna be awkward

for the kids, but I can demonstrate.

Hey, we can handle this.

Eso you got to know for yourself?

Like, you know, Are there any trigger areas or anything

that would, you know, maybe kind of make you shut

down? That may come up in the group.

Um, also, you just want to from the very beginning

normalized. Hey, this group is going to be different because

we're gonna we're gonna talk about things like we're going

to go there and it might feel uncomfortable at times,

and you might feel kind of squirmy, and we can

do it.

Um, that is really a way for the group members

to kind of settle into this idea that we can

handle taboo topics.

We can address things that air stigmatizing, and then we're

not bearing that alone.

But we get to share it amongst the group.

When we discuss taboo topics, it does a couple different

things. One, it can help people feel validated.

You know, they can see Oh, I've got that in

common with different people.

Um, it also lets people see some differences.

For example, if someone has a particular idea about how

they should be performing at work without making any mistakes

and then they hear from others, you say I don't

I don't really see it like that.

Then their opinion is kind of contrasted with others and

they might reevaluate.

You know what they think about that particular topic.

Next, we're gonna look at individual problem solving, So individual

problem solving is just because you're not doing individual work

in a group doesn't mean that individual problem solving doesn't

happen in a mutual aid group.

It absolutely does.

Your you is the facilitator.

You're always balancing the group progress and then individuals, you

know, making progress with the reason that they're coming to

the group.

The way that you can promote this is by encouraging

collective problem solving.

So what this means is really being able to kind

of break down with people.

Um, how can we support one another?

This is going thio, you're going to refrain, and you're

going to encourage other people's to other people to refrain

from advice giving and you're gonna model purposeful use of

self. What that means is you're going to reflect things

back to your own experience.

You know, I know for me when I've had a

situation like that, I responded this way one time, and

it it actually went pretty horrible.

Um, And then I tried this other thing and it

went a little bit better.

And here's why.

I think it went a little bit better.

So you being able to model that than group members,

they're going to be able to make that shift rather

than Well, I think you should, Um because at the

end of the day, you know we're only in control

of ourselves.

So for you being able to kind of model the

self reflection and the self reference, um, that's going to

be really helpful.

Also, you just kind of wanted from the beginning, you

know, discuss your understanding of the group purpose and individual

goals. So what does the group think about individuals making

progress and the group making progress?

Just naming that those two dynamics as explicit.

This is something that we want to simultaneously support the

group and the individuals in the group And a lot

of times this can look like asking for explanations, getting

clarification or asking people to elaborate when they're talking about

a particular issue and encouraging other group members to do

that as well.

That encourages the idea of self reflection and self reference.

Next, we're gonna look at mutual support so mutual support

and mutual demand or, you know, two sides of the

same coin, so I'm going to kind of compare and

contrast them with each other.

So mutual support is this idea that the group has

the capacity to support for each to support each other,

care for each other and have empathy for each other.

That means you have to believe that the group can

do that.

Um, the group is a space where acceptance can happen

where people won't be perfect.

You know, like in the brave space video.

It won't be a perfect space, but the group can

acknowledge we're all doing our best, and that's a norm

that we want to set.

Ah, lot of times, you know.

Steinberg talks about how it's easy for the group to

be supportive when things are good and it can be

tough for things to feel, you know, supportive when things

are not so good.

For example, if there's conflict or if people are triggered

by something you as a facilitator, you get to continue

to remind people Hey, you know, when we started out,

we committed to showing up for ourselves and for each

other. Even if it gets tricky, we committed thio staying

connected are share humanity.

And so this feels really tough right now.

And I want to ask all of you to remember

that commitment, cause I know you know, things feel kind

of tense or like, this is kind of hard for

our group to navigate.

And I want to remind all of us we we

said that we would be committed to ourselves and to

each other.

Um, and that kind of looks like, you know, this

idea in this group we will feel for one another,

you know, promoting a norm of caring, and that's something

that you can do as a facilitator.

Now people have different ways that they kind of expressed

that I, sometimes me personally, will be a little more

explicit. And I'll say, you know, I care about you

guys, Um, not everyone is comfortable with that, and that's

okay. Um, but modeling Hey, we were going to care

about each other in this group, Were not just going

to see each other as some kind of transaction, but

we're gonna actually connect and care about each other.

So that's the idea of mutual support, you know, the

group group showing up for each other three group also

will show up for each other with the idea of

mutual demand.

So mutual demand is again talking, you know, thinking about

the commitment that people make in the beginning of group.

What is it that the group members air hoping for

and what do they expect?

So that means, you know, again, people staying connected to

each other's humanity, also recognizing you could disagree about something

that doesn't mean that you're not still there for them,

So that helped.

The idea of mutual demand helps people to stay kind

of cohesive and connected.

When things do get kind of dicey.

It provides, um it mutual demand is where you're able

to facilitate examination of issues that would bring the group

together, and you also provide a structure for that process.

So you're looking at you know what is the thing?

Why are we all here?

What is the purpose?

And how are we going to talk about this?

How are we gonna problem?

Solve? You really want to model what that looks like?

Um, sometimes I can, you know, just be a simple

eyes. Hey, what?

You know, what do we think about attendance?

You know, do we is it doesn't matter if people

attend. Do we wanna ask each other?

Yeah, we want to commit, you know, we'll show it

to at least 90% of the groups.

You know, I won't miss any, Um, you know, what

will listening to each other look like?

What will responding to each other when we disagree?

How can that happen?

You know, and that's just kind of acknowledging, like, we're

here in this group together and we have things to

contribute. And we also have, you know, kind of shared

expectations of what we like from each other.

Told you were going fast.

So rehearsal, this is one of my favorite things about

group group is a place to practice things that maybe

you aren't comfortable practicing outside of group.

You is the facilitator.

You want to create an atmosphere that makes taking chances

and making mistakes desirable.

So this is not a place where we're gonna be

perfect, right?

I know I said that a couple times, but you

as a facilitator, you wanna praise risk, and you like

you can model acknowledging your own mistakes.

And you know, you all will probably see me do

that throughout this class.

Um, you know, the semester is being able to recognize

Hey, that seemed like that was kind of hard for

you to dio.

And I just really appreciate it.

And then when you is a facilitator, make a mistake

because you're a human and you will be able to

say, Oh, you know what?

I That was my bad there.

That was an oops.

Um, that could mean group members practicing different ways of

communicating, and sometimes it falls a little flat and you

can ask, Hey, how did that feel?

And people might say, Oh, I did not.

I did not like trying to be assertive in that

way. And I was like, Okay, all right.

So that was not the one, um, you know, rehearsal

is this idea that people get to be collaborative rather

than competitive.

So we're all trying to help lift each other up

rather than who could be the best at, you know,

doing this task or, you know, intervention in the group.

Who can completed the fastest?

Um, and it's this idea that you group is a

place where you can try out or experiment different ways

of being in an environment that's pretty low stakes but

highly supportive strengthen numbers is the idea that my courage

is strengthened by our courage.

So this is something that happens in processing and people

talking together and recognizing.

Oh gosh, other people feel like this, too, as well

as action people showing up for each other in different

ways. Steinberg talks about using collective power to help the

group experienced weakness.

So you, as a facilitator, could do that by celebrating

contributions, celebrating strengths and then supporting group members to articulate

the times that they were strengthened by the group.

And finally, we've got universality.

Universality is the opportunity where group members come together and

they see, you know, maybe the problem isn't me.

Maybe there are problems that are external to me because

there were other people experiencing similar things.

Universality allows people to mobilize rather than immobilize.

In order to promote that, you have to believe in

mutual aid.

You as a facilitator have to believe mutual aid can

happen. That includes being knowledgeable about what's conducive for mutual

aid, such as having a strong idea about the theories

of planning group development dynamics and decision making norms, and

remembering that the group can accomplish with the group sets

out to accomplish.

Thanks for watching this brief Prezi on the nine dynamics

of mutual aid.

9 Dynamics of Mutual Aid_AT

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