This proposal was submitted to a committee of students at Trenton State College and to board of trustees of Innisfree Corporation, and approved by both. The program described herein occurred on the weekend of October 19-21, 1984, and April 18-20, 1986, in Milanville, Penna.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROPOSAL

1. Background
2. Need
3. Nature Of The Program
A. Community Meetings
B. Encounter Groups
C. Facility
D. Schedule
E. Screening
F. Ethical Standards
4. Organization
A. Staff
B. Salaries
C. Advertising & Publicity
D. Projected Budget
E. Cost for Participants

REFERENCES

APPENDICES
A. Definitions of Terms
B. Sample Schedule
C. Guidelines for Psychologists Conducting Growth Groups" (A.P.A., 1973)
D. News Releases

PROPOSAL

Project Title: Innisfree Growth Laboratory

1. Background. For over 20 years, Trenton State College in Trenton, New Jersey has offered a twice-yearly weekend encounter experience called "Personal Growth Laboratory" (P.G.L.) with undergraduate Student Activities Fee funding. In October of 1985, the scheduled weekend was cancelled at the last minute. The college threatened to withdraw its financial support of the organization when it was learned that a large number of the registered participants were actually graduate students or alumni who did not contribute to the S.A.F. general fund with their tuition.

The Innisfree Growth Laboratory was formed in the fall of 1985 to meet the immediate need for a surrogate administrative structure, in order to provide the type of learning experience participants expected end desired when they registered for the college-sponsored weekend. Twenty-five participants stranded the lab, October 4-6, 1985, each paying $50, with both Innisfree Corporation end the individual facilitators taking a substantial financial loss on the weekend. Ninety-one percent of those responding to a post-lab questionnaire (92% response rate) indicated that they would like to attend a similar weekend workshop at Innisfree in the spring of 1986.

2. Need. Many college end university schools of counseling, psychology end social work place little emphasis on what Rogers (1961) termed the "basic encounter" stressing instead the theoretical end practical study of group dynamics in smaller end more long-term counseling groups. One purpose of the Innisfree Growth Lab will be to provide an opportunity for supervised encounter-group practicum experiences for interns from participating colleges and universities.

Other recipients of benefits from the proposed program will be the participants In the program. All of these people ere self-identified adults who are willIng to pay for the experience of takIng pert In the weekend.

3. Nature Of The Program.The Innisfree Growth Laboratory consists of biannual weekend sensitivity training/encounter groups (see Appendix A for definitions of terms), facilitated by trained professionals with varied humanistic theoretical orientations and backgrounds. Brief vitaes of each facilitator and intern will be made available prior to the start of the spring 1986 lab.

A. Community Meetings. Twice over the weekend all participants meet together in the recreation hall for a wide range of large-group learning and diversionary activities. Both of the "communities" will revolve around a central topic such as "reaching out" or "courage" which sets the theme for the weekend. In community meetings, the goal is to help participants feel mere alive, conscious, more spontaneous, be mere aware of their total experience, and overcome feelings of isolation. Through such varied activities, guided fantasy, encounter ("new") games, massage, sensory-awakening or trust-buildIng exercises and other verbal and nonverbal modalities designed to foster interaction.

The process of these meetings sometimes tends to be mere didactic in nature than the small group sessions. Examples of specific types of activities conducted at community meetings may be found in Shutz (1967), Pfeiffer & Jones (1976); Fluegeman (1976), and elsewhere. Frequently, feelIngs generated in community meetings become "grist for the mill" in the encounter group sessions.

B. Encounter Groups. One aim of this type of experience is to facilitate individual awareness end sensitivity to the manner in which one's behavior interacts with others' experiences in the vorld end to develop a sense of empathy. Strong positive values ere placed, in group, upon honesty, spontinaity, trust, risk-taking, confidentiality, end a comitment to "work things out." The intensity of such a group experience adds power, by way of social reinforcement, to the learning process. The emphasis is clearly placed upon emotions end experiencing end expressing those emotions fully; therefore, confrontations in the group are encouraged.

Through group interaction, structured activities, role-playing, end other facilitative teqniques, partipants gain more of an understending of their ovn ultimate responatbility for the events which shape their lives. By a commbination of introspection end group feedback, participants gain insight into themselves.
Encounter groups at the Innisfree Growth Laboratory, and formerly at Trenton State College's P.G.L., are composed of relatively healthy adults who participate in the weekend experience for the purpose of gaining new insights into themselves and improving their functioning and ability to communicate. (It has been said, however, that while insight makes excellent fertilizer for growth, if it can not be applied, it is so much manure.

A basic premise is that humans naturally aspire to self-actualization when given the opportunity (Maslow, 1968). When provided with a psychologically safe "laboratory" setting, such as is proposed, in which to experiment with new behaviors, the person, it is believed, will do so and therby learn by experience how to get what he or she genuinely wants in the process of inter-relating with others.

Group members share in their committment to abide by certain ground-rules and principles which are constructed end discussed in the opening session on Friday night.

Following is an example of a group contract:

1. Confidentiality. Each person cats to hold in confidence all that 9oes on in group. (Facilitators could be ethically bound, however, to take appropriate action if a participant were to (a) express current suicidal ideation. or (b) make threats to injure someone else.) Any exceptions must be unanimously agreed upon.

2. Commitment To Stay. Participants agree not to leave the group before the end of any one session, to attend all sessions, and to be prompt.

3. Honesty And Genuineness. In the context of the group, members agree to work on being as spontaneous and open as possible in relating to others their own internal experience, "here and now," as close to the moment as possible.

4. No physical Violence. This commitment extends outside of group, as well as in group.

5. Unaltered Consciousness. Participants promise not to come to group under the influence of any kind of mind-altering substance. Drug and alcohol use is strongly discouraged for the duration of the weekend.

6. No Sexual Contact. Because of the ocasionally highly-charged emotional nature of encounter groups, group members might feel themselves physically attracted to one another. Participants are advised that it could be unwise, or possibly even emotionally harmful (if the new relationship is transferential in nature) to engage in physical intimacy on the weekend which might later be regretted.

C. Facility. The weekend encounter workshop is held at the Innisfree Hostel and Conference Center in Milanville, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, located at the center of the upper Delaware River recreational corridor near the Skinners Falls rapids. Home-cooked meals (brunch and dinner on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday) ere prepared and served by Inntsfree staff in the main lodge. Participants and faciltators eat together "family-style", and work together on dining half cleanup, along with the camp staff. Participants who desire additional meals will be referred to area restaurants during unscheduled time.

D. Schedule. Detailed schedules are worked out at a pre-lab planning meeting held before the weekend. Said meeting is to be artended by Growth Lab participants who wish to attend, all facilitators, the Resident Consultant, Administrative Coordinator, and a representative of the Board of Trustees of Innisfree Corporation. A sample schedule is attached as Appendix B.

E. Screening. Individuals who have either artended Trenton State College's P.G.L. or the Innisfree Growth Laboratory in the past may attend, unless their facilitators believe that the type of experience as is offered would be detrimental to the person's emotional well-being, or detrimental to the group process.
Participants complete an application giving name, address, phone number(s), and an explanation of why they wish to attend. All new applicants will be contacted and interviewed by telephone by the Administrative Coordinator or other staff member. F. Ethical Standards. All staff members, including interns, will adhere to the American Psychological Association's policy statement, "Guidelines for Psychologists Conducting Growth Groups" (APA, 1973).

The purposes of the Innisfree Growth Laboratory ere primarily educational in nature, so according to APA's statement (Guideline-4), the staff "assumes the usual professional and ethical obligations of an educator."

A brochure or introductory packet will be developed and given to all prospective participants, containing the following information:

1. An explicit statement of the purpose of the group;

2. Types of techniques that may be employed;

3. The education, training, and experience of staff members;

4. The fee and any additional expenses that may be incurred;

5. A statement as to whether or not a follow-up service is included in the fee. (Follow-up counseling services, if appropriate, will be arranged on a case-by-case basis.);

6. goals of the group experience and techniques to be used;

7. Amounts and kinds of responsibility to be assumed by staff and by participants; for example, (i) that a participant maintains absolute freedom not to follow suggestions or prescriptions of the group facilitators or members, although they are encouraged to do so; (ii) that a participant retains the "freedom" to leave the encounter group at any point, but makes a committment not to do so unttl the session closes, or the group agrees; and

8. Issues of confidentiality (See APA, 1973, Guideline 4 in appendix).

4. Organization.

A. Staff. Paid personnel will include the following:

1. Three facilitators or as many more as may be required (one per group, each to work with a student intern), to allow for a group size of 12 to 15, inclusive;

2. One Resident Consultant (preferably a college-level professor of counseling or social work) to be available to participants outside of group, for special counseling needs for the duration of the weekend; and

3, One Administrative Coordinator to organize, promote, and otherwise administer the weekend,

Participant voluntears will be recruited before and on the weekend to assist and supervise with specific tasks.

B. Salaries. All five staff members will be paid by Innisfree Corporation the same amount per weekend (including the planning meeting). This uniform amount will be $200.00 per person. Out-of-pocket expenses, such as for publicity, printing, or materials incurred by staff or volunteers will be reimbursable from program revenue.

C. Advertising And Publicity. Innisfree Corporation will advartise and promote the weekend experience. The Administrative Coordinator will be responsible for ensuring appropriate publicity in such media as newspapers (e.g., TSC Signal and Accent (alumni paper), Association for Humanistic Psychology (AHP) newsletters, Princeton Packet, The River Reporter, Village Voice, etc.) and free radio time (news.)

D. Projected Budget. The following projected budget is based on 30 participants, divided into three groups. (If more than 30 attend, or if a contracted facilitator or intern is taken i11, the Administrative Coordinator will serve as an alternate, but will still receive only the basic $200 fee.

Dated: Milanville, Pennsylvania
November 30, 1985

Respectfully submitted, INNISFREE CORPORATION By: Thomas S. Rue, M.A., Corporate Secretary/ Administrative Coordinator

Corey, G. (1981). Theory and Practice of Group, Counseling, Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Fluegem&n. A. (1976). The New Games Book, Garden City: NY: Dolphin Books/Doubleday.

Mann, J. (1970). Encounter, New York: Grossman.

Maslow, A, (1968). Toward a Psychology of Being (2nd ed.), New York: Van Nostrand Beinhold.

Pfeiffer, W.J. & Jones, J.E. (1976). The 1976 Annual Handbook for Group Facilitators, 15th ed., San Diego: University Associates, Inc. (part of a continuing series).

Rogers, C. (1961). On Becoming a Person, Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Shutz, W.C. (1967). Joy, New York: Grove Press.

Besides verbal techniques, encounter groups use a wide range of nonverbal modalities designed to foster interaction; touching, the use of fantasy, encounter games, sensory-awakening exercises, massage, meditation, and centering are Just a few of them. These groups are usually time-limited; they often meet for a weekend or longer in a residential setting away from the distractions of daily living. During this time the participants are encouraged to become increasingly aware of their feelings and to engage in risk-taking behavior to discover different dimensions of themselves.

In sum, some of the goals of encounter groups are:

to become aware of hidden potentials, to tap unused strengths, and to develop creativity and spontineity;

to become more open and honest with selected others;

to decrease game playing, which prevents intimacy;

to become freer of "oughts," "shoulds," and "musts" and to develop internal values; to lessen feelings of alienation and fears of closeness;

to practice asking directly for what one wants;

to to learn the distinction between having feelings and acting on them;
to increase one's capacity to care for others;

to learn how to give to others;

to learn to tolerate ambiguity and to make choices in a world where nothing is guaranteed.

Corey (1988), pp. 13-14

See also What is a T-group?

American Psychological Association. (1973). Guidelines for psychologists conducting growth groups. American Psychologist, 28, 933.

Inner growth from sharing one's own perceptions, by Tom Rue and Bob Mehlman, in The Signal, Trenton State College, November 13, 1984.

Innisfree Growth Laboratory, by Tom Rue in The River Reporter, December 19, 1985, etc.

Comet party to aid encounter weekend, by Tom Rue The Wayne Independent, December 1, 1986

Innisfree -- 15 year reunion, by Tom Rue in The River Reporter, November 21, 1985.