Group 1. Seven business owners plus one social worker/Leader.
This was a group that was put together by the Leader after several years of seeing various entrepreneurs individually who have many issues relating to their business operations. The Leader has a background in legal writing and investment sales and obtained an MSW degree eight years ago.
After realizing that many similar issues arise with business owners, especially when partners have gone into business, the Leader thought that the group context might be a useful way to air issues in a setting where there was a generally shared knowledge base. The group "formed itself" (personal communication, September 2, 2003) out of suggestions to various individual members that they might want to try the group process. Not every partner to whom she suggested forming the group had receptive, but this group comprised four partners in two different businesses, one partner in a business, and two individual owners.
The group had been meeting on alternate Thursday evenings for 90-minute sessions for two months when I attended. They met at an office that the Leader (who divides day-job counseling time between clients at UCLA and Kaiser) borrowed from a longtime private practitioner. This evening session was part of the counselor's modest private practice.
The atmosphere before the session began was professional, resembling the "networking" environment of professional meetings and conventions. The participants were very capable and for the most part seemed to be running successful businesses that were not just "bedroom" businesses but that had employees on the payroll. The Leader had gotten agreement from these members at a previous session to agree to allow a student to observe and was efficient in suggesting (i.e., not insisting) that everyone be seated. That demonstrated that the group appeared to be purposeful and serious.
After introductions and a statement by the Leader that ...