Introduction

The exemplar I selected was the group counseling curriculum I created to facilitate on
grief and loss. This project was also our main project to be completed for our Theory and Process
of Group Counseling course during our 2015 spring semester and had to include an introduction
on grief and loss, lesson plans for 8 weeks, sample forms that would get sent to home and
certificate samples that would be given upon completion of group counseling. I selected this
particular exemplar because one of the students I was working with lost her mom a few weeks
before school started due to a car accident. As soon as I heard about that, I wanted to make sure
she was okay with feeling a mix of emotions and be able to express them without being scared or
ashamed. I also found out her sister attended the school and decided to develop this curriculum
to put students that are experiencing this grief from not having their parents around to normalize
their feelings and thoughts about the situation. More importantly, I wanted to create a safe space
and a strong support system for these students.
This exemplar connects to a comprehensive school counseling program because it is an
example of how to provide direct services with students. In this particular case, it was a
responsive service because I wanted to meet the needs of my students who were grieving since
their parents were no longer with them. This exemplar fulfills:
Standard 21: Personal and Social Development
School counselors understand the importance of personal and social development and how the
lack or absence of it can impede the success they have at school. When a student is not
developing personally and socially, we need to implement interventions to address that before we
even worry about their academics. I made this curriculum to get my students to be able to have
that space where they can grow from their situations and learn how it can impact them personally
and socially. Being able to teach and show students how to grief is imperative to their
development and needed to have them express themselves, understand and process what they are
going through and to know how to seek for support when needed. Within the curriculum, I
included lessons and activities on how to develop personally and socially. Lastly, I made sure
students understood the development stage they are in to validate their confusions or lack of
understanding of certain aspects of life.
Standard 26 Group Counseling and Facilitation

Creating or adopting curriculums to facilitate group counseling sessions is imperative for school
counselors to have. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I was not able to implement this
curriculum with my students. However, I did co-facilitate a group that dealt with other personal
and social development skills that is needed to be academically successful. Within this group, I
was able to help students develop their social and personal skills. We had covered content such
as bullying, time management, organizational, studying and anger management skills. All of
these components can impact the success a student has in school, so it is imperative to address
them. After every group session we had, we also made sure to give them a post-test to assess
where they have grown and areas of need.
Standard 27 Collaboration, Coordination and Team Building
Running a group with two colleagues of mine made me collaborate, coordinate and build a team
since we are working on the same project and want the same outcome: to enhance our students
skills and performance. Every week, before our group sessions we got together and discussed
how the session will look like. We collaborated to see if we wanted to modify anything and
worked as a team to set everything up: materials, pre/posttest, incentives, and the students lunch
pass to leave class early. We had to coordinate with the social worker sometimes to have her
quickly go over our curriculum for the day since she was accustomed to running a
social/personal skills group. Nonetheless, our group would not have been as successful if we did
not work as a team and allowed everyone to contribute something.
Reflection
I learned creating and facilitating a group counseling session is not an easy task to do.
The dynamics of the group can vary and it is difficult to have a low participating group since a
lot of the tasks do require engagement and participation from the group. I believe the first
sessions it is important to establish those rules because talking should not be forced upon
students, but should definitely be a requirement during some of the talks and activities we have. I
would do a few more ice breakers during the first session where we can know facts about each
other. I would like to do this to have a sense of students who can be leaders in the group and
support their group members. Seeing the growth of students is a reward in itself, but highlighting
that should be done after every session, which is why I would want to add a component similar
to that after every session. Running groups is fun, supports student, efficient and effective being
able to target multiple students at once.