Information and Guidelines For Counseling Groups

This web page outlines some of the benefits you can expect from being in a group and presents guidelines to assist you in taking advantage of the experience. Hopefully this information will reduce the apprehensions people commonly experience when entering a group.

What to Expect From a Counseling Group

Group counseling provides you with the opportunity to address current issues most important to you. The group will consist of students with similar concerns who have the opportunity to give support and feedback to each other. In this way you can become more sensitive to others even as you learn to affirm your own uniqueness.

To a great extent, you have the responsibility of determining how you use each group session. You determine the amount of effort you wish to invest in the group. You work at your own pace and you choose when to speak and what you want to talk about. The more you invest the more you will benefit. In general it takes more than one session before group members develop sufficient trust and security to feel safe enough to share their concerns and feelings.

In group counseling you can learn to give feedback to others as well as asking for what you want for yourself. Group counseling gives you an opportunity to try out new behaviors, to express feelings you have been hesitant to express, to assert yourself in new ways, to experiment with new ideas, and to develop strategies for solving personal problems. As you experience trust and security in the group, you will feel more freedom to take risks. Your participation in the group may include expressing your reactions to what another is saying or doing, sharing your concerns, listening to another person, asking for clarification when you don't understand, giving support and comfort, and seeking support for yourself.

Confidentiality is essential to the group process. Participants must not reveal anything that occurs in the group to anyone outside the group. The group leaders will clarify their legal and ethical responsibilities concerning confidentiality at the first group session.

If you decide after the first session to attend a counseling group, we ask you to make a commitment to participate for the entire quarter unless it is a drop-in group.

How to Get the Most Out of a Counseling Group

Define goals

Think of what you would like to get out of the group. As your self-awareness increases you will discover other issues which might become more important than your original goals.

Take responsibility for getting what you want

If you are having a difficult time knowing how to discuss your problems with the group, ask group members to help you. Sometimes group members hesitate to take the time to share their concerns because they feel that others need the time or they question the importance of what they have to say. It's appropriate and productive to share your self-doubts with the group.

Focus on yourself

You are encouraged to talk specifically about yourself. You can do this by speaking in the first person (e.g., "I think, I feel") and by discussing relationships with significant others, questions about life goals and directions, childhood memories, dreams and feelings about yourself. You may want to talk about external issues (something happening outside the group), or something happening inside the group. You are in the group as you are in the world. You will learn that you are no different in the group than you are at home, in class, with friends, etc. Learning new and more satisfying ways of being and relating to people in the group can have a real effect on relationships and problems outside of the group.

Recognize and express feelings

Talking about your feelings and emotions gives life and nourishment to the group so that growth can occur. In the group the focus is on both thoughts and feelings. Thoughts and feelings are equally important to us in working through our difficulties. It is more productive to react to others by saying "I feel..." When you find yourself silently preparing a question, turn it into a statement before verbalizing it.

Be aware of censored thoughts and feelings

It's important to talk about those feelings you ordinarily don't admit. The feelings that don't seem "appropriate" or "right", those that seem selfish, or unimportant. Often the thoughts and feelings we hold back are very similar to what others in the group are experiencing. Expressing secret thoughts and feelings helps you to overcome shame and to be more assertive.

Take risks

Change and growth involve taking risks. Risk-taking might involve expressing feelings which are difficult for you, sharing information about yourself which you have kept secret, or confronting someone who is bothering you. The group is an appropriate place to learn to deal with conflict.

Make a commitment

If you decide after the first session to attend a counseling group, we ask you to make a commitment for the entire quarter (unless it is a drop in group).

The Role of Group Leaders

All CPS counseling groups are facilitated by counseling psychologists. Sometimes they are co-facilitated with predoctoral interns in psychology. The leaders are trained to guide and direct individual self-exploration, give feedback and support, encourage risk-taking, make comments on group process, set limits, and communicate information. Our training includes an understanding of human development and experiences with a broad range of people and their life concerns.

An important aspect of learning through the group experience comes from the way you relate to the leaders and other participants in the group. In counseling groups you are encouraged to respond openly to what the leaders are (or are not) doing. You are also encouraged to comment on your own experiences in the group and whether or not the group experience is meeting your needs.

Acknowledgment

This brochure was adapted from material originally developed by the Counseling and Mental Health Center at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Santa Barbara Counseling and Career Services.

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