Group counseling is a type of counseling that involves counseling of more than one person with a similar objective at the same time (Thompson, 2013). There are several types of counseling sessions that involve groups. Some of these sessions are recorded and uploaded on the internet. The group counseling video chosen for this discussion is a video published by Elizabeth Thompson, a writer, and a celebrated psychologist. The motive of the therapy session is to help change the way people perceive themselves. The group of people is in recovery from personal experiences, addictions, and other life challenges that have lowered their self-esteem. The leader of the counseling session employs the various effective technique and assumes different roles during the session. During the session, each person in the group is given a chance to provide an account of their issue. The issues most of the people in the group are facing are contemporary issues from traumatic bad experiences to feelings of low self-esteem. The leader does not only counsel each member but also relies on the help of the other members for counseling.
One of the things that makes the session is the way the group leader uses group dynamics. Group dynamics, a concept that refers to psychological processes and behaviors that occurs within a social group interaction, is a key concept that plays a critical role during group counseling. The group involves four women, including the leader who is also a woman and two male members. Each member of the group is given a chance to express themselves in front of the other group members. Communication is done in turns. While each and every member of the group counseling is given a chance at the focus seat, the leader allows the opinion of the other group members during the session. For example, the first lady that the counseling focuses on claims that she is a bad person who does not deserve to be happy. The leader tells her to tell each and every member of the group in order to have their opinion of the statement. The nature of communication and feedback has a psychological effect on the person that group counseling is focusing on. It is part of the group dynamics and communication strategy that the leader uses during the group counseling session.
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In this video, there is only one leader who is actively involved in the group discussion. The leader assumes different roles during the session. One of these roles is determining the direction of the counseling. She determines the scope of each and every discussion that is held at different times of the counseling session. She also ensures that the discussion that is being held is one not off track. As part of her job, the leader of group counseling in this video is also responsible for promoting discussion among the members. She encourages the members to speak and open to other fellow members while requesting for the honest opinion of the other members. The final job of the leader is coming up with an intervention strategy. The intervention strategy being the encouragement, emotional focusing, and team spirit building after listening to the members' stories.
An effective group counseling will know how to handle group dynamics. The group in the video of analysis employs several strategies in order to manage the group dynamics. The first of these strategies is paying close attention to the personal narration of the members. She has also effectively broken all barriers of communication among the member hence no fear. She is an outspoken lady, which therefore helps to focus on communication. She has also strengthened the group 'members' dynamics by tackling different problems through positive feedback. Drawing from the first example, when a lady who is also a member of the group claims she is a bad person and does not deserve to be happy, she seeks for positive feedback from the other members in order to tackle the problem the lady is facing.
The group leader also assumed the responsibility of a professional who was offering to a group of people. She acted with the utmost professionalism and conducted the group counseling session as a trained therapist. It was a key role that is also singled out as one of the reasons why the counseling session was a success. She also prepared the group counseling from the setting of the room to the formulation of which organization strategy to employ during the group counseling session. These responsibilities could only be executed during the session because the leader was professional during the therapy session.
There are several things that made this group counseling a therapeutic group. The first element is that the members of the group shared a similar objective. This is also called group cohesiveness. The objective was to use the therapy session in order to address personal issues such as bad experiences, addiction, and self-esteem. The presence of a leader who is also a therapist guiding the discussion also makes this a therapeutic group. A therapeutic group will have one or more therapist or psychologist as the leader guiding the therapy session (Ford, Fallot & Harris, 2009). The other element is the fact that the members of the group were sharing experiences and feelings while helping each other come up with coping intervention. The sharing of feelings, experiences, and realizing of emotions is referred to as catharsis and is a presentation during a counseling session can make a group counseling be regarded as group therapy.
References
Ford, J. D., Fallot, R., & Harris, M. (2009). Group therapy. Treating complex traumatic stress disorders: An evidence-based guide , 415-440.
Thompson, E. (2013). Group Counselling Session Video. YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYHthbg1nmY
