| Course | PAC 420 Group Therapy |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 5 |
| Paper type | Leadership skills paper |
| Length | About 1,137 words, 7 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Psychology and Addiction Studies |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PAC 420 Module 5
Caring, Meaning and Not Too Much Heat: A Trainee's First Month Co-Leading an Early Recovery Group
Student Name
Psychology and Addiction Studies Program, Aspen University
PAC 420: Group Therapy
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Caring, Meaning and Not Too Much Heat: A Trainee's First Month Co-Leading an Early Recovery Group
Priya is a counselor in training in her first month co-leading an early recovery process group at Lake Erie Recovery Center, the invented Erie program in these papers, alongside Tom, an experienced counselor. After each session, she writes supervision notes. Her notes from the first month show a pattern familiar to new leaders: she answers members' questions herself, fills silences and, in her second week, lectured a member who had relapsed about the risks of drinking. Tom noticed that the group grew quiet whenever she did these things. This paper analyzes her leadership using research and sets goals for her next month. Priya, Tom and the group are composites; the cited works are real.
Leader Functions
Lieberman et al. (1973) studied encounter groups led by leaders of different orientations and identified four basic leader functions. Emotional stimulation includes challenging, confronting and revealing feelings. Caring includes offering support, warmth and acceptance. Meaning attribution includes explaining, interpreting and helping members understand their experiences. Executive function includes setting limits, managing time and directing the group. The most effective leaders were high in caring and meaning attribution, with moderate levels of emotional stimulation and executive function. Leaders who were highly stimulating and aggressive, confronting and pushing members, had the most casualties, members who were harmed by the group. Leaders low in all functions produced little change.
Priya's lecture to the relapsed member was high stimulation and low caring, the pattern most associated with harm.
Leading Through Climate
Kivlighan and Tarrant (2001) tested a hypothesis drawn from Yalom: that a leader's most important task is to create a group climate in which members can do the work of change, rather than to deliver specific techniques. They measured leaders' behaviors, the group's climate and members' outcomes. The relationship between leader behavior and member outcome ran through group climate, particularly members' engagement. Leaders who built an engaged, working climate helped members more than leaders who relied on technical interventions alone.
Motivational Interviewing in Groups
Wagner and Ingersoll (2013) adapted motivational interviewing for groups. They emphasized that group leaders should evoke members' own reasons for change rather than arguing for change, link members' experiences and change talk so that members hear their own motivations reflected in others, avoid confrontation that provokes defensiveness and build a supportive climate in which members can explore ambivalence. Leaders, in this approach, often redirect questions to the group, inviting members who have faced a similar challenge to respond.
Priya's Moves, Annotated
| Session | Move | Function | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| First week | Answered a member's question about cravings with a five-minute explanation | Meaning attribution, but leader-centered | Members stopped asking questions |
| First week | Welcomed a new member warmly | Caring | New member spoke later |
| Second week | Told a member who relapsed that drinking could kill her | High stimulation, low caring | Group silent; member did not return the next week |
| Second week | After supervision, called the member and apologized for the tone | Caring | Member returned in week three |
| Third week | Asked, "Has anyone else had cravings like that?" | Linking, per Wagner and Ingersoll | Three members responded |
| Third week | Reflected, "Several of you are saying your kids are the reason" | Meaning attribution; linking change talk | Members expanded on their reasons |
| Fourth week | Filled a silence after a hard disclosure | Executive, premature | Disclosure not explored |
| Fourth week | Named the group's support: "People are leaning in" | Caring; climate building | Member continued |
What Supervision Showed
Tom pointed out that the group became more engaged in week three, when Priya asked the group to respond rather than answering herself. This matches Kivlighan and Tarrant's finding: her shift from delivering information to engaging members improved the climate. The relapse lecture, by contrast, reflected an urge to protect the member that came out as confrontation. Priya recognized that she had been afraid for the member and that her fear had shaped her tone.
Goals for the Next Month
Priya set four goals with her supervisor. First, when a member asks a question, she will redirect it to the group before offering information. Second, she will link members' change talk at least twice per session, reflecting shared reasons for recovery. Third, when a member reports a relapse, she will respond with curiosity and caring, asking what happened and inviting the group's support, rather than warning. Fourth, after a member discloses something painful, she will count slowly to ten before anyone, including herself, speaks. She will review a recording of one session per week with Tom, counting her redirections and linkings.
Why New Leaders Talk Too Much
Priya's pattern is common among new group leaders, and it has understandable roots. New leaders often feel responsible for every moment of the session, worry that silence means failure and want to prove their competence by providing answers. In an addiction group, there is the added fear that a member will relapse or die, which can push a leader toward warnings and lectures. Recognizing these pressures helps a trainee resist them. The research offers reassurance: members help each other more than any leader can, and a leader who trusts the group to respond often finds that it does. Priya's week three, when she simply asked whether anyone else had felt cravings, showed her that the group could carry more than she had allowed it to.
Responding to Relapse in the Group
Relapse is the moment that most tests an addiction group leader. A member who returns after using is often ashamed and expects judgment, and other members may feel frightened, angry or tempted. Priya's lecture in her second week confirmed the member's fear of judgment, and the member stayed away. An approach consistent with motivational interviewing would welcome the member back, express gladness that she returned, ask what happened in a curious rather than accusing way and ask whether others in the circle have come back from a slip of their own. That approach turns a relapse into learning for the whole group and keeps the member connected, which is the outcome that matters most.
Co-Leadership
Co-leading with Tom provides a model and a safety net. They agreed that Tom would intervene if Priya's comments seemed to shut down a member, and that they would debrief for fifteen minutes after each session. Co-leaders can model respectful disagreement and divide functions, with one attending to content and the other to process.
Conclusion
Priya's first month showed the common pull of new leaders toward answering, filling silences and confronting. Lieberman, Yalom and Miles show that caring and meaning attribution help while aggressive stimulation harms, Kivlighan and Tarrant show that leaders help most by building climate and Wagner and Ingersoll show how motivational interviewing turns leaders toward evoking and linking members' own reasons for change. Priya's goals put those findings into practice, one redirection at a time.
References
Kivlighan, D. M., Jr., & Tarrant, J. M. (2001). Does group climate mediate the group leadership-group member outcome relationship? A test of Yalom's hypotheses about leadership priorities. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 5(3), 220-234. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2699.5.3.220
Lieberman, M. A., Yalom, I. D., & Miles, M. B. (1973). Encounter groups: First facts. Basic Books.
Wagner, C. C., & Ingersoll, K. S. (2013). Motivational interviewing in groups. Guilford Press.
Reading the PAC 420 Module 5 assignment instructions
Leadership skills are the fifth module of PAC 420, and assignments typically ask you to analyze leader behavior, your own or an observed leader's, using research on effective group leadership. The Module 5 page in your Aspen course sets the task; Priya and the group exist only in this paper. Present research on leader functions and their effects. Explain how leaders influence outcomes through group climate. Describe a leadership approach suited to addiction groups. Analyze specific leader moves with their effects. Set concrete goals for improvement. Cite every source in APA 7, and describe both helpful and unhelpful moves honestly. Use recordings or supervision notes as evidence. Name what you were feeling when an unhelpful move happened.
How this PAC 420 Module 5 example is built
Priya, in her first month, tends to answer every question herself and once lectured a member about relapse. Lieberman, Yalom and Miles's book Encounter Groups describes four leader functions and their effects. Kivlighan and Tarrant's Group Dynamics study shows outcomes running through group climate. Wagner and Ingersoll's book on motivational interviewing in groups describes linking members and evoking change talk across the group. An eight-row table annotates moves from three sessions, including a lecture that silenced the group and a later reflection that opened it. Goals for the next month include redirecting questions to the group, linking members' change talk, responding to relapse with curiosity, allowing silence and reviewing one recording a week with her co-leader.
Reading the PAC 420 Module 5 grading rubric
Leadership papers earn credit for accurate research, specific analysis of leader moves and honest self-assessment. This example uses Lieberman, Yalom and Miles's leader functions to classify Priya's moves, showing which helped and which did not. Kivlighan and Tarrant's finding explains why climate matters more than any single technique. Wagner and Ingersoll's approach suits addiction groups and gives concrete alternatives to lecturing. The table makes the analysis specific, and the goals follow from it, one per weakness. The honest account of the lecture that silenced the group shows the reflective practice that supervision is meant to develop. Each goal can be counted on a recording.
PAC 420 Module 5 help: mistakes that cost marks
Leadership papers often describe leadership in general terms. Analyze specific moves and their effects on the group. Use research on leader functions to classify moves. Explain the role of group climate. Describe an approach suited to addiction groups, such as motivational interviewing in groups, rather than confrontation. Be honest about unhelpful moves; they teach the most. Set goals that are specific and observable, such as redirecting questions to members. Use supervision and recordings as evidence. Avoid centering yourself; effective group leaders help members help each other, and the measure of a session is how much members did. Debrief with your co-leader after every session.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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PAC 420 Module 5 questions, answered
What does PAC 420 Module 5 usually ask for?
Aspen's PAC 420 covers leadership skills in this module, so analyzing leader behavior with research on effective group leadership is typical. Check your Module 5 prompt.
What makes a group leader effective?
Lieberman, Yalom and Miles found the most helpful leaders were high in caring and in helping members make meaning of experiences, with moderate stimulation and structure.
Can group leaders harm members?
Yes. Lieberman, Yalom and Miles found casualties concentrated in groups led by aggressive, confrontational leaders who pushed members hard.
Where can I find a free PAC 420 Module 5 sample paper?
Read it free on this page: a trainee's first month co-leading an early recovery group, with an annotated table of leader moves and goals.
How is motivational interviewing used in groups?
Wagner and Ingersoll describe leaders linking members' experiences, evoking change talk across the group and building a supportive climate rather than confronting.