Benefits of individual counseling include high confidentiality levels, offers an individualized recovery approach, provides comprehensive treatment, allows adjustment of the therapy pace to meet the needs of a specific client, facilitates the client to schedule their sessions, promotes the development of self-awareness and communication skills, and strengthens client-therapist relationship (American Addiction Centers, 2019). The challenges include it is costly, unsuitable to clients with a strong need to be in the company of others with similar issues, and requires constant motivation to achieve desired results. Individual counseling best addresses personal problems, such as family and marital issues.
Benefits of small group counseling include a sense of belonging for members, reduces feelings of isolation, offers a network of support, makes one learn new recovery strategies, promotes the development of socialization skills, offers a therapeutic approach since individuals share similar experiences, promotes modeling of successful behaviors, and it’s cost-effective (American Addiction Centers, 2019). Challenges include unsuitable for those who are social phobic and shy, may result in personality clash, reduces confidentiality levels, increases the possibility of scheduling conflicts, offers a less focused intervention level, and increases possibilities of social loafing. Group counseling best addresses developmental and situational issues. For instance, it is best suited for war veterans and bullying victims.
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In Small group counseling, clients also serve as counselors while in individual counseling clients exist as counselees only. In small group counseling, one counselor serves several clients at the same time while in individual counseling one counselor serves one client at a time. Counselor’s tasks in small group counseling tend to be more complicated than those in individual counseling (Ajufo, 2008). While small group counseling and individual counseling are both preventive and remedial, classroom guidance is preventive. Moreover, in small group and individual counseling, the counselor focuses on the client’s experiences while in classroom guidance, counselor focuses on orienting clients to new problems and helping them acquire new information.
References
Ajufo, B. (2008). Group Counseling. In E. Hassan, S. Oladipo, & J. Owoyele (Eds.), Readings in Counseling Psychology (pp. 132-142). Tai Solarin University of Education.
American Addiction Centers. (2019, June 13). Psychotherapy Guide: Group Therapy vs. Individual Therapy . Retrieved from American Addiction Centers: https://americanaddictioncenters.org/therapy-treatment/group-individual
