Structured Exercises for Promoting Family and Group Strengths: A Handbook for Group Leaders, Trainers, Educators, Counselors, and Therapists

by Terry S. Trepper, Glen H. Jennings, Ronnie McManus

This handbook for professionals presents an array of techniques for teaching and reinforcing social skills for successful relationships. It contains over 70 new structured exercises that can be used to help individuals, dyads, families, and groups become happier in their relationships. The exercises come complete with step-by-step instructions for easy use. Structured Exercises for Promoting Family and Group Strengths is a goldmine of resources for group leaders and counselors. You can use it in planning and conducting workshops and retreats or for working with individuals or families in counseling. The book saves you time and energy as each exercise is accompanied by suggestions for procedures, variations, and trainer's notes. The exercises, which have all been field tested with a variety of audiences, are grouped into six broad categories:

Icebreakers introduce people to the subject of group dynamics and to each other in a workshop setting.


Assessors help people assess relationships and gain insight for constructive change.


Dyad/couple discussion starters facilitate communication and open dialogue for dyads who find themselves in dysfunctional situations.


Group/family discussion starters strengthen communication within groups or families and increase understanding of how the group functions.


Enhancers aid in the development of positive regard of self and others.


Energizers perk up the group or family when fatigue occurs.
The exercises provide an experiential approach to learning in which each participant is actively and creatively involved. Readers will find that these relationship-enhancing exercises offer a catalyst for dramatic change in the lives of individuals, dyads, families, and groups. Structured Exercises for Promoting Family and Group Strengths is a valuable sourcebook of ideas for use by persons in the helping professions, including counselors, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, social workers, chaplains, corrections officers, and educators.

326 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 17, 1997

About the author

Terry S. Trepper, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized scholar, educator, and researcher, winning numerous awards and honors in each of these domains. He has been a professor at Purdue University Northwest since 1981 and prior to that worked in community mental health as a family psychologist. Terry’s scholarly and training interests include the evidence-basis of solution-focused therapy, systemic and solution-focused approaches to treating substance abuse, and positive psychology.

Trepper is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Purdue University Northwest and for the past 26 years has been the Editor of the Journal of Family Psychotherapy. Terry is the co-editor of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: A Handbook of Evidence-Based Practice (with Cynthia Franklin, Wallace Gingerich, and Eric McCollum) Oxford University Press; co-author of More than Miracles: The State of the Art in Solution-Focused Therapy (with Steve de Shazer, Yvonne Dolan, Harry Korman, Eric McCollum, and Insoo Berg); co-author (with Mary Jo Barrett) of Systemic Treatment of Incest: A Therapeutic Handbook, published by Brunner/Routledge; Treating Incest: A Multiple Systems Perspective, published by Haworth Press; 101 Interventions in Family Therapy (with Thorana Nelson), published by Haworth Press, 1993, 101 MoreInterventions in Family Therapy (1995); and Family Solutions for Substance Abuse (with Eric McCollum) published by Haworth Press, 2001.