Chapter 2

The Group Counselor

 Video
• [Link]
 The person who leads the
group is the group
counselor
The The leader must have the
Group ability to establish a solid
relationship with others
Counselo The leader must bring
r as a qualities, values, and life
experiences to every group
Person Leaders must have a level
of self-awareness and
engage in an ongoing
process of self-reflection
 • Should I interrupt groups members who
talk too quickly or for too long?
Problems • What should I do if a group member is not
participating at all?
and • How much should I participate in or
involve myself in a personal way in the
Issues groups I lead?

Facing • Will I have the knowledge and skills to

work effectively with group members who

Beginning are culturally different from me?

• Will I be able to address cultural issued
Group and be sensitive to diversity in my group?
• What if a group member challenges me or
Leaders doesn’t like me?
• How do I know whether the group is
helping people change?
Problems How can I work
and with several people
Issues at one time?
As a group leader,
Facing
should I hide
Beginning
Group
feelings of anxiety
What do I
or sadness?do if I
Leaders become
emotionally
Personal
Characteristics of the
Effective Group Leader

• Who the counselor is as

a person is one of the
most significant
variables influencing the
group’s success or
failure.
 Be vulnerable
at times,
Courage
admitting Confront
mistakes and others but to
imperfections stay present Act on your
and taking the with them as beliefs and
same risks you you work out hunches
Be emotionally
expect group conflicts
affected by
members to Be direct and
others and to
take honest with
Examine your
draw on your members in a
life
experiences to caring and
identify with respectful way.
them;
 Willingness to Model
• The best ways to teach desired behaviors is by modeling
them in the group
• You can create group norms such as:
• openness
• seriousness of purpose
• acceptance of others
• respect for a diversity of values
• desirability of taking risks.
 Presence implies being
fully attentive to what is
going on in the moment
Being affected by others’
pain, struggles, and joys.
Presence
It involves not becoming
overwhelmed by a
member’s pain
Fully attentive to what is
going on in the moment.
How to be
Present?
• Spend some time alone
before leading a group
• Block out distractions as
much as possible
• Take a deep breath and
breathe!
Goodwill, Genuineness,
and Caring

• Show a sincere interest in the welfare

of others
• Show you care by respecting, trusting,
and valuing the people in the group
• Exhibit a caring attitude
• Giving warmth, concern, and support
when, and only when, you genuinely
feel it toward a person
Belief in Group
Process

•Believe in what you

are doing and trust
the therapeutic
process in a group!
 Openness

• You reveal enough of yourself to give the

participants a sense of who you are as a person
• Being open can enhance group process if you
appropriately reveal your reactions
• Members to become more open about their
feelings and beliefs
• However, DO NOT reveal every aspect of your
personal life
 Nondefensiveness in
Coping With Criticism
• Criticism is related to openness.
• Some of the criticism may be fair—and some of it
may be an unfair expression of jealousy, testing
authority, or projection onto you of feelings for other
people.
• Watch how you respond to criticism
• Do not respond in a defensive manner
• Maintain a therapeutic stance
• Model effective ways to express anger or
frustration
Becoming Aware of
Subtle Culture Issues
• Increase our awareness of our own prejudices and biases
• People who consider themselves open and culturally
aware, racial or culturally insensitive remarks are not
uncommon
• Racist remarks that go unnoticed or unaddressed by
leaders or the members do influence the group process.
• If a sexist, homophobic, or racially derogatory comment is
made and goes unattended, it can create a climate of
mistrust and anger on the part of many members
Being Able to Identify
With a Client’s Pain

• Empathizing with clients is being open to the

sources of pain in your own life without becoming
swept up by this pain
• Willingness to engage in self-reflection can inspire
our clients to explore their personal concerns
• The willingness to think critically about those
times that helps us use these experiences in
effective ways as group leaders
 Personal Power
• it is the dynamic and vital characteristic of leaders
who know who they are and what they want
• Being self-confident is not the same as being
arrogant
• People with a strong sense of self are congruent and
can be genuine in their interpersonal relationships
• Effective group leaders recognize the ways in which
they have been instrumental in bringing about
change, and at the same time they encourage clients
to accept their own share of credit for their change.
 Stamina
• Leaders who expect immediate change are
often disappointed
• Leaders may lose their enthusiasm
• Leading groups can be:
• taxing
• draining
• exciting
• Energizing
Commitment to
Self-Care
• Self-care is not a luxury but an ethical
mandate.
• Self-care is a basis for utilizing your
strengths
• You cannot provide nourishment to those
in our groups if you don’t nourish
yourself
 • A central characteristic for any therapeutic person is
an awareness of self, including one’s

Self- • identity,
• cultural perspective,

Awarenes • power and privilege,

• goals,

s • motivations,
• needs,
• limitations,
• strengths,
• values,
• feelings,
• problems
• Awareness of knowing what needs you are meeting
through your work why you choose to lead groups is
crucial, including
 Sense of
Humor
• Using humor usually evokes positive reactions,
it can elicit negative reactions from some clients
• When humor comes from a spontaneous place,
not forced or rehearsed, it can have a positive
impact.
• Maintain a sense of respect for group members
when using humor
• Avoid language that diminishes their suffering
or devalues them as people.
• Refrain from overusing humor in an attempt to
build rapport with the group.
 Inventiveness
• Discover new ways of approaching a
group by inventing experiments that
emerge from here-and-now
interactions.
• Discover opportunities to tap into
members creativity
• Create a space that will allow
members creativity can be valued and
explored.
 Develop a stance of curiosity
with group members and
encourage them to do so as well
Being a dedicated professional
Personal also involves humility, which
Dedication means being open to feedback
and and ideas andentails
Commitment being willing
stayingto
explore
abreast one’s self. in the field,
of changes
Commitment
reading journals and books, and
attending professional
The best teachers are always
workshops.
learning and never arrive at a
place of being all-knowing.
The Group
Counselor as a
Professional
Overview of Group
Leadership Skills
 Pay full attention to others as
they communicate, and this
process involves more than
merely listening to the words
Active Recognizing the barriers that
Listening interfere with paying attention
to others. to the congruence (or
Sensitive
lack of it) between what a
member is saying in words and
what he or she is
communicating through body
posture, gestures, mannerisms,
and voice inflections
 Reflecting
• Reflecting, a skill that is dependent on active listening, is the
ability to convey the essence of what a person has communicated
so the person can see it.
• Beginning on a reflective level may have value, but staying on
that level does not invite deeper exploration
• Member: I really didn’t want to come to the group today. I’m
bored, and I don’t think we’ve gotten anyplace for weeks.
• Leader: You sound discouraged about the possibility of not
getting much from this experience.
 Clarifying
• Clarifying is a skill that can be valuably applied during the initial
stages of a group. It involves focusing on key underlying issues
and sorting out confusing and conflicting feelings.
• Member: I’m angry with my father, and I wish I didn’t have to see
him anymore. He hurts me so often. I feel guilty when I feel this
way, because I also love him and wish he would appreciate me.
• Leader: You have feelings of love and anger, and somehow
having both of these feelings at once presents a problem for you.
 Summarizing
At the end of a
session the
Useful after an leader might
initial check-in make some
at the summary
beginning of a statements or
group session. ask each
member to
 • The group leader can facilitate the group process
by:
• assisting members to openly express their fears and
expectations,
• actively working to create a climate of safety and
acceptance in which people can trust one another and
therefore engage in productive interchanges,
• providing encouragement and support as members
explore highly personal material or as they try new
behavior,
Facilitating • involving as many members as possible in the group
interaction by inviting and sometimes even
challenging members to participate,
• working toward lessening the dependency on the
leader by encouraging members to speak directly to
one another,
• encouraging open expression of conflict and
controversy, and
• helping members overcome barriers to direct
communication.
 Empathizing
• Requires the leader to have the characteristics
of caring and openness already mentioned.
• The leader must be able to discern subtle
nonverbal messages as well as messages
transmitted more directly.
• Avoid blurring his or her identity by personally
identifying with group members.
Questionin
g
• Questioning is one way
of reducing the intensity
• Develop skills in raising
questions at the group
level as well as working
with individual
members.
Linking
• A group leader who has an
interactional focus—that is, one
who stresses member-to-member
rather than leader-to-member
communication—makes frequent
use of linking.
• This is an important skill that
can foster involvement by many
members
Confronting
• Specifically identify the behavior to be
examined and avoid labeling the person, and
• Share how he or she feels about the person’s
behavior.
• Beginning group leaders are often afraid to
challenge group members for fear of hurting
them, of being wrong, or of inviting
retaliation.
 Supporting
• Supportive behavior can be
therapeutic or
counterproductive.
• Too much support may send
the message that people are
unable to support themselves.
 • Group leaders have the responsibility to block

Blocking certain activities of group members, such as

questioning, probing, gossiping, invading
another’s privacy, breaking confidences, and so
forth.
• Blocking helps to establish group norms and is
an important intervention, particularly during
• This requires both sensitivity and directness.
• Examples of blocking:
• Bombarding others with questions
• Indirect communication
• Storytelling
• Breaking confidences
 Assessing

• Assessment includes the ability

to appraise certain behavior
problems and to choose the
appropriate intervention.
• Leaders must be able to assess
whether the member can be
helped or harmed by the group.
 Modeling
• Teach a desired behavior to members is to model
• A few specific behaviors leaders can directly model include:
• respect for diversity,
• appropriate and timely self-disclosure,
• giving feedback in ways that others can hear and accept nondefensively,
• receiving feedback from members in a nondefensive manner,
• involvement in the group process,
• Presence
• challenging others in direct and caring ways.
Suggesting
• Suggestions can take a number of forms, such as
• giving information,
• asking members to consider a specific
homework assignment,
• asking members to create their own
experiments,
• assisting members in looking at a circumstance
from a new vantage point.
 Initiating
• Too much leader initiation
can stifle the creativity of
a group, and too little
leader initiation can lead
to passivity on the part of
the members.
Evaluating
• Evaluating the ongoing process
and dynamics of a group
• Participants how to evaluate, so
they can appraise the movement
and direction of their own
group.
 Terminating
• Create a climate that will encourage members to make contracts to do work
between sessions.
• Helping members focus on ending a group session will better prepare them to
deal with terminating the group
• Helping members bring closure to a particular group experience involves
1. Providing members with suggestions for transferring what they have
learned in the group to the environment they will return to without the continuing
support of the group,
2. preparing people for the psychological adjustments they may face on
leaving a group,
3. arranging for a follow-up group,
4. telling members where they can get additional therapy, and
5. being available for individual consultation at the termination of a group.
 Video
• [Link]
Breakout
Groups
The Co leadership Model

• Group members can gain from

the perspectives of two leaders
• Coleaders can confer before and
after a group and learn from each
other
• Supervisors can work closely with
coleaders during their training
and can provide them with
feedback.
 Advantages of the
Coleadership Model
• Advantages
• Decreases the chance of
burnout
• Less overwhelming to respond
to the needs of the group
• Co-leader peer supervision is
beneficial
• Can be helpful in managing
countertransference
Disadvantages of the
Coleadership Model
• Most of the disadvantages in
co-leading groups have to do
with:
• Poor selection of a co-leader

• Random assignment to
another leader
• Failure of the two leaders to
 Developing a Research Orientation to
Practice

• Group therapy has been shown to be as effective as individual

treatment and, in some cases, is more effective
• Cognitive behavior therapy and psychodynamic therapy are
the models most in use worldwide
• Research confirms that the client–therapist relationship is central to
• The common
therapeutic factors approach focuses on the value of
change
• common elements
Brain-imaging across
technology in different theoretical
the emerging systems
field of interpersonal
neurobiology confirms that healing changes can occur in the brain
• Practice-based evidence – collecting data directly from members
 Points to Remember
• Groups should be thought of as the
treatment of choice rather than as a second-
rate approach to helping people change.
• Look for ways to meaningfully combine a
research perspective with your practice
when leading groups.
• Personality and character are important
variables of effective group leaders.
• Effective group leaders are knowledgeable
 ANY
QUESTIONS?
Assignments
Due This Week
• All assignments are due on
Saturday, March 2nd by
11:59PM.
• Journal Entry #1
• Quiz #1
• Read Chapter 2 for next
week’s discussion