Ka Tat Tsang started his training in group counseling and group psychotherapy in 1974. He ran numerous experience groups in Hong Kong designed to increase self-awareness and to improve interpersonal relationships. He subsequently participated in various groups including gestalt therapy groups, psychodrama, assertiveness training, and social skills training groups. This extensive exposure reinforced his interest in working with groups. In the last 30 years, Dr. Tsang has designed and run groups for clinical treatment, self-understanding, personal experience and development, interpersonal skills, spiritual growth, management training, and organizational development.
He teaches and coordinates the Social Work Practice with Groups course for MSW students at the University of Toronto.The following is a selective list of groups Dr. Tsang has designed and conducted in the last 30 years.
- Experience groups for youth, focusing on self-understanding and interpersonal relationships
- Social Skills Training group for children with autism, with parallel training workshops for parents
- Social Skills Training group for adults with schizophrenic disorder, leading to a self-programming group run by the patients themselves which continued for 10 years
- Social Skills Training group for adults with social anxiety
- Experience group for self-understanding and personal growth for university students
- Experience group for self-understanding and personal growth for counselors and social workers
- Psychodrama workshop for professionals in theatre and TV drama, resulting in a stage performance Love Mexico in 1989
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy groups for adults with anxiety disorder and depression
- Social Skills Training group for outreaching social workers
- Social Skills Training group for young people with substance use problems
- Peer-counselor training for Gay Asians in Canada leading to the formation of a peer-counseling service
- ZenG Groups for self-understanding and personal development created in 2003
- Spirituality workshop for social workers and mental health professionals
- Strategies and Skills Learning and Development (SSLD) model created in 2005
- SSLD training program for social workers and mental health professionals
- SSLD training program for settlement workers serving immigrants
- SSLD group for insomnia and sleep-related issues
- SSLD therapy for social phobia
- SSLD training workshop on cross-cultural communication for senior executives
- SSLD training program for front-desk receptionists
- SSLD training program for community psychiatry (including Assertive Community Treatment Team)
- SSLD couple counseling workshop
- SSLD program for weight management
- Proactive Health Strategies workshop (based on SSLD model) for renal patients and professionals in nephrology care
- Group psychotherapy training program for mental health professionals in China