Group Counseling by Ashley Gibson

Family Feelings

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 00:34:02 UTC

This group will focus on major life changes, including but not limited to divorce, separation, blending families, death, loss, moving, injury, incarceration, or military deployment. This group will be for 3rd-4th graders as a school counseling small, closed group with limited sessions.

ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:35:01 UTC

Students in this group will learn:

*B-SMS 7. Effective coping skills

*B-SMS 10. Ability to manage transitions and adapt to change

*B-SS 3. Positive relationships with adults to support success

(ASCA, 2021).

Publicity

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:35:07 UTC

Third and Fourth graders will complete a Google Survey during weekly guidance class.
There will be posters in the 3rd and 4th grade hallways with tear-away referral sheets to the counselor
A student can request verbally or in writing, be referred by a teacher, or be chosen by the counselor based on the survey responses.
A "Remind" text will be sent out to parents letting them know of this group's availability and the group's objectives.
It will be on the Morning Announcements slideshow.

Pre-Group Interviewing/Screening

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:35:26 UTC

I will do the pre-group interviewing and screening with a small group of possible participants in the guidance classroom. I will review the group's description and the purpose/objectives. I will make sure the participants know that they will need to agree to some ground rules. Finally, we would review confidentiality and how it creates trust. Afterward, I would follow up and privately interview each student. I will ask them to rate their interest in the group between a 1 and 5 and sign a contract stating they understand confidentiality (Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015).

Consent

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:36:09 UTC

If the student agrees to the confidentiality and signs a group assent form, then I will follow up with a parent/guardian consent form (Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015).

Ground Rules

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:36:17 UTC

What rules do you think are important? Let's see if we can agree on specific requirements we would all like to see. In addition, here are some other ground rules:

We will practice confidentiality because trust is essential. Confidentiality is expected but not guaranteed.
All members require mutual respect. We listen and empathize without judgment.
We will pass around the Hedwig stuffed animal to take turns speaking. Only the person with the Hedwig can talk. This ensures that no one interrupts.
Participation is highly encouraged but not required on every topic. The more you put in the group, the more you will get out of it.

We would utilize this resource to make an anchor chart about what each rule looks like and sounds like. It would hang on the wall and they would all sign it afterward (Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015).

Group Dynamics Stages

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:36:31 UTC

Stage 1:

One way I would build relationships and trust is by my hallway greetings. I have a Bitmoji greeting visual outside of my door. In addition, I will ask the group members if they would like anything added to the board. For example, maybe they would prefer foot bumps to high fives. In addition, I could also have jobs for the students during the meeting. One student may focus on complimenting the other students. Another may be in charge of resources/materials, etc. In our beginning sessions, we will discuss confidentiality and explain that it is expected, but not guaranteed (Responsivecounselor, 2023).

Stage 2:

To keep members working cohesively together, we will have warm-ups that are sometimes ice breakers to continue relationship building, not only with me but with each other. In addition, I will share coaching and reinforcing strategies with their teachers to help them generalize the objectives we are practicing in small groups. Exit tickets can gauge how it is going through scenarios and emotional check-ins (Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015).

Stage 3:

In the final meetings, I will review confidentiality and let them know that I will schedule a review check-in with them in about a month. I will schedule time during the last session to formally say goodbye to each other as groupmates and reflect on how they will go forward with their new knowledge. They will take a post-assessment (Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators, 2015).

Leadership Style

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:36:46 UTC

This group would benefit from transformational leadership. According to Cherry (2023a), it "is often identified as the single most effective style." In addition to being the most effective leadership style, it would also suit this group because it relies on a solid foundation of support and trust ( Cherry, 2023b). Finally, this type of leadership would be great because I value genuine interactions and passion for the big picture.

Yalom's Therapeutic Factors

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:37:03 UTC

Of Yalom's therapeutic factors, I think this group would experience the instillation of hope because they could have "faith that the treatment mode can and will be effective" (Yalom, 1995). They will believe that they will feel confident and have the tools they need to cope with their family situation by the end of our sessions. In addition, they may experience universality. Although their family changes may not be identical, they may feel camaraderie with their groupmates with similar problems or effects of the family changes (Yalom, 1995). Finally, they will receive direct advice in the form of strategies for communicating with their family members what they are feeling.

Legal/Ethical Requirements #1

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:37:46 UTC

The Texas Education Code "requires a school counselor to spend at least 80 percent of the school counselor's total work time on duties that are components of a counseling program" and that "time spent in administering assessment instruments or providing other assistance in connection with assessment instruments, except time spent in interpreting data from assessment instruments, is not considered time spent on counseling" (2 TEC § 33.006). This means that a counselor should spend 80% of their time on counseling-specific duties and not other duties as assigned by the administration of the school. This protects counselors from getting assigned many jobs that detract from their direct counseling time and preparation of small groups and guidance lessons.

Legal/Ethical Requirements #2

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:37:57 UTC

The limitations of confidentiality need to be addressed as well. According to ACA Code of Ethics (2014), "The general requirement that counselors keep information confidential does not apply when disclosure is required to protect clients or identified others from serious and foreseeable harm." Students need to know this for their group sessions. If they become comfortable with one another and share with a fellow group member that they intend to harm themselves or others, groupmates should feel comfortable to report that without guilt of violating confidentiality. In the same way, if the group members share that with me at any time, I will need to break confidentiality as well.

References

awingert3 — 2024-02-08 01:38:30 UTC

American Counseling Association (2014). ACA code of ethics. Counseling.org https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

American School Counselor Association. (2021). ASCA student standards: Mindsets & behaviors for student success. https://www.schoolcounselor.org/getmedia/7428a787-a452-4abb-afec-d78ec77870cd/Mindsets-Behaviors.pdf

Cherry, K. (2023a). How to lead: 6 leadership styles and frameworks. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/leadership-styles-2795312#toc-transformational-leadership

Cherry, K. (2023b). How transformational leadership can inspire others. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-transformational-leadership-2795313

Missouri Professional School Counselors and Counselor Educators. (2015). Professional school counselor small group counseling guide: A Professional School Counselor’s Guide to Planning, Implementing & Evaluating School-Based Counseling Groups. https://missouricareereducation.org/doc/smallgroup/SmallGroupCounseling.pdf

Responsivecounselor. (2023, January 23). Group counseling: Relationships, routines, and reinforcement. The Responsive Counselor. https://theresponsivecounselor.com/2019/11/group-counseling-relationships-routines-and-reinforcement.html#:~:text=Check%2Dins%20are%20also%20a,feeling%20when%20they%20walk%20in.

Yalom (1995). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (4th ed). Basic Books.