MODULE 3 - The Individual and Group Helping Counseling

Individual Counseling
 Personal opportunity to receive support and experience growth during challenging times in life
 One-on-one discussion between a counselor and a client
 Help with personal topics such as anger, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, marriage and relationship
challenges, parenting problems, school difficulties, career changes, etc.
 Process through which clients work one-on-one with a trained mental health clinician in a safe, caring,
and confidential environment
 Allows individuals to explore their feelings, beliefs, and behaviors, work through challenging or influential
memories, identify aspects of their lives that they would like to change, better understand themselves
and others, set personal goals, and work toward desired change.
 Focused on the individual's immediate or near future concerns.
 May encompass career counseling and planning, grief after a loved one dies, or dealing with problems at
a job before they become big

Counseling Process
 Counselors must be intuitive, creative, culturally aware, and responsive to their clients if they are to be
effective
 A little bit of arts and science
 In counseling, there is no "one size fits all

Therapeutic Alliance
 Most important predictor of counseling outcomes is the quality of the therapeutic relationship
 “Without the foundation of a constructive relationship, anything else that we do isn't going to work very
well or last very long”
 Clients usually need more than just a positive therapeutic alliance
 Carl Rogers - pioneer in the counseling field
o "when the counselor is favorably perceived, it is as someone with warmth and interest for the
client, someone who is understanding"
o Congruence, genuineness, unconditional positive regard, empathy
 As the counselor, you have the skills and expertise to facilitate their process, but you need to remain
cognizant of the difference between being a helper and being a friend

Basic Counseling Skills

Attending Skills
 SOLER - squarely face the client, maintain an open body posture, lean forward, make eye contact, and
be relaxed
Basic Listening Skills
 Be an active listener - hearing the client accurately and trying to understand the problem from the client's
point of view
o Careful observer of clients' nonverbal behaviors, appearance, subtle body movements, eye
contact, and so forth
 Counselor uses encouragers, paraphrasing, reflection of feelings and meaning, and summarization skills
o Encouragers - nonverbal head nods, smiles, and facial expressions
o Paraphrasing - feeding back to the client the essence of what has been spoken
o Reflection of feelings and meaning - helps clients become more aware of their emotions, helps
clients develop greater self-awareness, and facilitates self-disclosure. Reflecting meaning helps
clients go deeper and work through their thoughts and feelings
o Summarizing - tie together clients' thoughts and feelings to promote client self-understanding
Group Counseling
 Six to eight students who meet face to face with one or two trained group therapists and talk about what
most concerns them
 Members listen to each other and openly express thoughts and feelings about what other members do or
say
 Members must commit to confidentiality
 The group becomes a safe place to experiment with alternative ways of treating oneself and others, ways
that can be more satisfying and successful
 It is very encouraging and humanizing to learn that others have some similar difficulties, thoughts, and
emotions

Modern-Day Groups
 Self-help groups - tend to espouse a particular philosophy or way of being in the world and generally
attract individuals who share a particular diagnosis, symptom, experiences or condition. Self-help group
are not in-depth psychotherapy groups and generally do not require a vast amount of member self-
disclosure
 Task groups - emphasize conscious behaviors and focus on how group dynamics affect the successful
completion of the product
 Psychoeducational groups - attempt to increase self-understanding, promote personal growth and
empowerment and prevent future problems through the dissemination of mental health education in a
group setting
 Counseling groups - focused on prevention and wellness, self enhancement, increased insight, self-
actualization, and conscious as opposed by the unconscious motivations; shorter in duration than group
therapy but longer than psychoeducational group
 Group therapy - typically focused upon deep-seated, long-term issues, remediation of severe pathology
and personality reconstruction

Group Leadership Style

 Leadership style will vary based on the leader's personality and theoretical orientation and prior to
running a group, a good leader should consider the impact that his /her leadership style will have on the
group.
 Good leadership also entails being emotionally present, having personal power and self-confidence,
being courageous and willing to take risk. being able to confront oneself, sincere and authentic, having
identity of strong sense of self, believing in the group process and being inventive and creative

Stages of Group Development

 Pre group stage (forming) - some group leaders will have a pre group meeting with all potential
members.
 Initial Stage (Forming) - group members are often self-conscious, worried about how others might view
the team and concerned what about whether they will be accepted. Group leaders might set limits,
assure that members abide by the ground rules and simultaneously show empathy and unconditional
positive regard.
 Transition Stage (storming and norming) - group members are beginning to feel comfortable with
technical issues and ground rules of the group, although anxiety still felt as trust and safety issues
continue.
 Work Stage (performing) - members will begin to identify and work on behavior as they would like to
change. Leaders can best facilitate movement during this stage using variety of advanced counseling
skills such as support and confrontation, higher level of empathy, questions and interpretations.
 Closure Stage (Adjourning) - highlighted the increased sense of accomplishment, high self-esteem and
beginning awareness that the group process is near completion. Saying goodbye can be difficult from
many
Why Have Groups

Advantages:
 More efficient - more clients can be seen in a shorter amount of time
 Economical - group work almost always costs less than individual counseling
 Sense of belonging - groups offer contract with other people on deeply personal level.
 General support - groups can offer foundational support for many clients
 Microcosm of society - groups mimic society and offer a lab of how others might react to the individual.
 Support for commitment - groups provide atmosphere where members will support one another.
 Vicarious learning - group members can learn from one another and from the leader.
 Feedback - groups offer an increased number of people to gain feedback.
 Practice - groups provide a place to practice newly learned behaviors within a trusting environment.
 Systemic understanding - groups provide information to members about how they react in systems,
information that can often be related to family of origin issues.

Disadvantages:
 Less focused time - each group member has less focused time with the counselor.
 Less intensity under leader - groups do not offer the same amount of intense one on one time with the
group leader as in individual counseling.
 More intimidation - some individuals are intimidated by the group setting.
 Fear of disclosure - some clients will not reveal deeply personal matters in group setting.
 Therapeutic effectiveness - some problem maybe more effectively dealt with in family or individual
setting.
 Increased time commitment - clients have to commit more time to group counseling than other form of
counseling-time they may not have.
 Lack of flexibility - one can generally change the meeting time of individual sessions more easily than
group sessions.
 Inability to assure confidentiality - leaders cannot assure group members that everyone will keep
information confidential.
 Diversion of focus - one member could sometimes take up much of group time.
 Psychological harm - if a leader cannot control one or more destructive members, a member could be
harmed psychologically.