TIMELINE OF THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATION OF GROUP WORK

YEAR
Late
1800
s

SIGNIFICANT PERSON(S)
Joseph Pratt
(a Boston internist)
(sometimes called the "father of
group psychotherapy)

1907

Jesse Davis

Frank Parsons
(founder of the vocational
guidance or school counselling
profession)
World
War 1

1918

Edward Lazell
(used a psychoeducational group

CONTRIBUTION
He established the first group
experience. He used groups to
save time in educating and
supporting
students
and
discovered therapeutic value in
the format.
He held one of the first formal
therapeutic groups, when he
brought together 15 of his
tuberculosis patients in order
to educate them about the
disease and allow them to
discuss
their
common
problems. According to Rutan
and Stone, "Pratt reported very
positive results from this new
type of treatment."
Introduced group work in a
school setting.
Davis groups were intended to
provide students with effective
tools for making educational,
vocational and moral decisions.
He emphasized the use of the
group
as
an
effective
environment for teaching life
skills and values.
He used groups to facilitate
career
and
vocational
development.
Group work was emphasized
as it was used as tests for
soldiers and were instructed in
groups and teamwork.
Groups were used to combat
fatigue,
known
today
as
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD)
He presented lectures on
Freudian psychology to groups

model)

1928

Trigant Burrow

Alfred Adler

Jacob Levy Moreno

(a JewishRomanian-born AustrianAmerican leading psychiatrist and
psychosociologist, thinker and
educator, the founder
of psychodrama, and the
foremost pioneer of group
psychotherapy)

Lewis Wender

of
schizophrenic
patients,
which
exhibited
positive
behavioural changes and a
reduction in the use of
sedatives.
He treated neurotic patients in
groups.
And was the first to use the
phrase group analysis and
later
changed
it
to
phyloanalysis.
He emphasized the innate
social nature of human beings
to support a group treatment
model.
Investigated the relationship
between childrens relationship
and family experiences.
Developed
group
family
meetings and improve family
relations and became known
as collective counselling.
Psychodrama. The father of
therapeutic group work and
active interventions in group
work
Group
psychotherapy,
psychodrama, sociodrama and
other
intervention
were
developed to provide people
with opportunities to explore
social
relationships
in
laboratory
settings.
They
provided an opportunity for
healing produced by forces of
the group itself.
Morenos
system
was
designed to treat not only the
disturbed individual nor the
even the poorly functioning
group but actually all of
mankind
Articulated the first guidelines
for group therapeutic factors

1930
s

Developmental Period

S. R. Slavson
(founder and president-emeritus
of the American Group
Psychotherapy Association)

1940
s

Kurt Lewin
(known as the founder of the
modern group dynamics; his
approach was known as the Field
Theory))

Late
1940
s

Wilfred Bion

Group work in the schools

underwent a transition from
predominantly
a
psychoeducational usage to a
more
balanced
use
of
classroom
guidance
(psychoeducational
group
work) and group counselling, in
both
elementary
and
secondary settings.
whose
knowledge
of
psychology was largely selfacquired, was prominent in the
development
of
group
psychotherapy
He was prominent for the
development of group therapy
in the New York area, where he
conducted childrens groups in
the pre-war years.
He emphasized the importance
of understanding emotional
dimensions in the relationships
of each member to the
therapist and to other group
members.
He began the study of
intergroup relations.
He viewed groups as agents of
change and has been credited
with the invention of training
groups (T-groups).
Field Theory emphasized the
interaction between individuals
and their environment, and he
was heavily influenced by the
Gestalt Psychology.
Bions theory is based in large
part on his work managing a
rehabilitation
unit
for
psychiatric patients in the
British Army during World War
II and later with small groups
at the Tavistock Clinic. The

central concept in
theory is that in every
two groups exist: the
group
and
the
assumption group
1952
1960
s

American School Counselor

Association (ASCA)

Bions
group,
work
basic