The Counselor and the Group, fourth edition

Integrating Theory, Training, and Practice

James P. Trotzer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415951975
• eBook ISBN: 9781135434199
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This new, more streamlined version of the 1999 third edition brings the existing materials and references up to date and omits information now readily available online and elsewhere.

The updated material in The Counselor and the Group makes this book an excellent resource for those who are both learning and practicing by providing a structured problem-solving approach to group work. Trotzer provides process and practice guidelines and techniques that enable group leaders to function effectively across the broad range of groups that counselors conduct including counseling, therapy, psychoeducational, and task groups. Includes material by noted group experts

• Lynn Rapin and Robert Conyne on "Best Practices in Group Counseling"
• Niloufer Merchant on Multicultural Counseling
• Rex Stockton, Paul Toth and D. Keith Morran on "The Case for Group Research."

1

Introduction and Context

In our technologically sophisticated and media driven world, individuals are bombarded by default and by choice with more information in one day than our ancestors were exposed to in a lifetime. There is more information on the head of a pin (micro-chip) than is housed in a library. (Futurist quip)

Our Changing World

The evidence is overwhelming that the world around us is changing at an ever increasing rate and that we as individuals are faced with an ever more expansive and complex environment. We are constantly forced to adjust and adapt if we want to achieve our potential, individually and collectively. More than three decades ago Gazda (1971a) pointed out that “the world each of us personally inhabits grows steadily and rapidly larger. No (person) today has any choice but to be part of a greater and more diverse community” (p. 6). That observation has not only been realized, but accelerated by the technological advancements of the computer age.

The primary indicator of our expanding world is that we are inundated with the exponential development of new information often referred to as the knowledge explosion. Access to that new knowledge is promulgated by the perpetual evolution of the information superhighway that gives us rapid retrieval through computer technology, the internet, email, fax machines, instant messaging, and cellular phones. So sophisticated is consumer access to information that Waitley’s (1978) observation that we are bombarded with eight times more information than our grandparents were exposed to in their lifetime is archaic. Futurists drumming the perspective of space age technology indicate there is no possibility of human beings keeping up with the development of new knowledge in any discipline without the assistance or rather the necessity of computers. No wonder people who have not grown up with computers as their mode of communication feel completely overwhelmed. Even those with computer competence and allegiance have difficulty keeping pace with the rapid changes in the information industry. Such realities have prompted ethologists to muse about the impact of knowledge acquired technologically rather than through human intermediaries in the course of human evolution (Miller, 2001).

Information overload that encourages and demands dependence on technology not only overwhelms individuals but produces a byproduct of isolation (Klein, 1985). As individuals, our sense of identity is eroded as it becomes modified by and melded with the mechanics of knowledge rather than forged in the cauldron of human interaction. As this experience escalates, the seeds of dehumanization are planted, nurtured, and bloom into a world society where electronic interpersonal contact globally supercedes talking with your neighbor (Beebe, Beebe, &Redmond, 2005). It is more likely that you will communicate via e-mail with a business associate in another country or with a long lost friend who looked you up on the Internet rather than to spend a few minutes passing the time of day with your next door neighbor.

The problems of adjusting to such a world, however, are not the result of the essence or speed of change itself nor the nature or plethora of knowledge, but rather are the result of the conflict that is produced because individual adjustment to change is a slow process. C. Gilbert Wrenn (1962, 1971), one of the forefathers of the counseling movement and a great humanitarian, noted that the critical conflict of the human experience is associated with the discrepancy between what he called outer reality and inner reality. Outer reality—the world outside the boundaries of the individual person—changes very quickly. Inner reality—each person’s personality, identity, values, attitudes, and perceptions—changes very slowly. Consequently, all human problems are essentially adjustment problems. The clash between these two realities sums up the basic stress we all experience and provides a context for the problems that confront us.

Since the pace of scientific and technological change far exceeds that of social change, each of us is confronted with the task of not only getting ourselves together but also developing the interpersonal skills necessary to meet our needs in a global, mobile, and changing society. This requires each individual to be strong, flexible, and able to act interdependently and collaboratively. Each of us must increase what Toffler (1970) called our “cope-ability” capacity defined as the speed and economy with which we adapt to change.

The personal consequences of change in our environment are readily evident. The individual is bombarded with the inconceivable nature of change, the futility of understanding or impeding it, and the inability to change quickly enough to adapt to it. “We have more knowledge than we know what to do with, more people than we know how to live with, more physical energy than we know how to cope with, and in all things a faster rate of change than we know how to keep up with” (Dyer, 1967, p. 4). The implications of these realizations on our existence have effected a massive shift in our patterns of life, our sense of security and our definitions of human functionality and mental health.

Life styles have paradoxically taken on characteristics of a global expansiveness communicationally while generating relational reclusiveness personally. A person can do business by fax, e-mail, cell phone, or the Internet all over the world but remain interpersonally isolated relying on technology to stay in contact rather than making a connection personally (Beebe, Beebe, &Redmond, 2005). In addition, physical mobility has produced life styles of a nomadic nature as opposed to a stationary one associated with a community. Career experts Tiedeman and Tiedeman’s (1973) observation that “today we move more, change jobs more and ourselves more and rely on faster and more elaborate technology and communication” (p. 336) is both prophetic and understated. Technology has affected the very nature of occupation by causing many jobs to become archaic, creating jobs requiring different skills and functions, and making other jobs obsolete if not upgraded with computer capabilities and competencies. Without word processing skills and computer proficiency neither professors nor secretaries can function effectively in their respective capacities. Information processing capabilities have become more crucial than discipline specific productivity as a marketable career quality. This fact makes Katz’s (1973) projection that the concept of “job” would be phased out in favor of a view of “occupation” that is more of an attitude toward learning short sighted. Now you do not necessarily have to know how to do things as long as you know how to outsource or access information and resources. In fact, a whole new approach to human development referred to as information processing theory has emerged as one of the most influential developmental psychologies (Miller, 2001).

Expanded communication capabilities expose us to problems and social concerns that intrude upon our lives and demand our attention. Wars, racism, sexism, terrorism, ageism, poverty, inflation, overpopulation, ecology, global warming, corruption, crime, and disasters of human and natural causality, locally, nationally, or globally, confront us each day. As a result, we can be assured that we will face the prospect of changing old relationships and beginning new relationships throughout our lives. We must learn the efficacy of saying goodbye to the old and hello to the new as part and parcel of daily life. But at the same time we must learn how to retain the positive and critical aspects of our past experience to assure our present and future growth. Change and retention are facets of life adjustment that must be balanced so that stability and progress are possible.

The Domain of Choice

What then are the implications for the child, the adolescent, and the adult whose personality and identity are constantly developing and emerging through the process of interaction between the self and the rapidly changing world they live in? Individuals must be prepared to engage in a continual process of decision making to maintain purposeful and responsible control over their own lives because of the ever-increasing variety of attitudes, values and life styles that are becoming part of the “domain of choice.”

Children are more aware of the diverse elements of their environments than ever before. Mass media, computers, family mobility, and educational systems that stress exposure and experience all contribute to this awareness of an ever increasing range of possible behaviors and life styles. Pre-teenagers and adolescents are faced with choices earlier and in a more intense manner than ever before. Drugs, sex, morals, values, occupational choices, relationships, identity, and sexual orientation all must be grappled with. Neither is the adult freed from the necessity of choosing. Social awareness developed through education and the media impede acting in ignorance or irresponsibly. The economy, occupational evolution, increased leisure time, and value changes continually force adults to reassess themselves and their life style. Even the aging process is complicated by issues of quality of life, health choices, living wills, the prospect of living but being unable to care for oneself and the perplexing elements of the dying trajectory (DeSpelder &Strickland, 2005). Thus the domain of choice is not only larger but extends over a longer period of time as life span and life expectancy increases.

The common element needed for successful resolution in all these cases is the ability to make good decisions based on accurate self-knowledge and relevant knowledge of the environment. Victor Frankl (1984) once observed that “man has to make choices” and ultimately decides for himself. (p. 111). As such, education, counseling, therapy, or any learning experience must move human beings toward having proficiency in the “ability to decide.” The parameters of that decisiveness encompass both the freedom to decide and the responsibility for deciding captured in Frankl’s (1984) astute metaphorical assessment of the essence of freedom in our Western world view: “I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast” (p. 134).

The development of decision-making skills including the processes of introspection, communication, and relationship formation are necessary because only through the experience of self-exploration and feedback from others can a person become fully aware of those options and consequences that must be considered in making the best decisions possible. In addition, ecologists, ethologists, and socioculturalists emphasize the critical importance of context in the decisionmaking process (Miller, 2001). Therefore, the acuity of contextual awareness and processing is also necessary as a harbinger of effective decision-making. By acquiring and internalizing these characteristics, skills, and perspectives, we as individuals, whatever our age or circumstance, can retain control over our lives and destinies in spite of pressures brought to bear on us by our changing world.

The Need for Group Counseling

Groups and group work are peculiarly and uniquely designed to address the problems of living in our contemporary society. Hulse (1985) stated that “against the backdrop of a complex and highly technological world and our own needs for connections and support, the group emerges as a potentially humanizing force” (p. 93). Dies (1985) elaborated noting that the

heightened individualization of learning and sense of isolation... threatens to undermine the sense of personal relatedness that provides the foundation of human interaction. The feeling of universality and cohesiveness and the quality of interpersonal learning... of group experiences promise to be effective antidotes to counteract these depersonalizing forces. (p. 70)

He continued to state that groups “will be used to rehumanize the educational process for children... and revitalize adults who feel alienated in a technological society” (p. 71). Conyne, Dye, Gill, Leddick, Morran, and Ward (1985) concurred with this view and predicted that groups “will become major forces in combating the increasing depersonalization and anomie that are likely to accompany the computer and “‘high tech’ revolution” (p. 114).

Dye (DeLucia, 1991) pointedly states that “counseling groups are places where people exchange ideas and teach each other and learn from each other” (p. 68). In a practical sense, small groups in general and counseling, therapy and psy-choeducational groups in particular are valuable tools in helping people improve their ability to make decisions and act in a manner that is personally meaningful, constructive, and socially relevant. The positive aspects of the helping process are incorporated into the group setting and facilitate the transfer of learning more readily to the ongoing life of the participant. For example, the group counseling process if properly constituted and led meets the demands of an effective learning environment because it is safe, understanding, participating, and approving (Ohlsen, 1977). In addition, the process is directed toward self exploration, encouraging introspection and feedback so that communication can occur and relationships can develop (Beebe, Beebe, &Redmond, 2005). Therefore, it establishes the fundamental basis needed to make good decisions. Consequently, “it is the content and process of group involvement that impacts the very essence of our lives and leads us to new possibilities” (Gladding, 1990, p. 130).

The group process is also a most appropriate means of meeting the personal needs of individuals who often feel isolated, alienated, confused, frustrated, or lost in a world characterized by change, bureaucracy, and bigness. The group supplies a personal touch to the individual’s life, serving as an oasis in the wasteland of an impersonal existence that is often a byproduct of scientific and technological advancement. It is a means whereby we as individuals can reconstitute and revitalize the type of personal experience that gives meaning to human existence and generates the impetus to incorporate those experiences into our daily lives.

Group counseling has broad applicability, encompassing the needs of persons from a wide variety of backgrounds and age groups. For individuals who have identifiable problems that encumber their lives, group counseling and group therapy can help them resolve their concerns in a personally responsible and realistic manner. For individuals who do not have specified concerns, the group process can help them improve themselves developmentally and serve as a preventative measure to ensure continued growth, adjustment, and personal satisfaction in their lives.

The flexibility of group work and group counseling facilitates adaptability to a broad range of helping environments and programs. Groups are a relevant means of helping clientele in schools, mental health centers, correctional institutions, halfway houses, drug treatment programs, employment agencies, welfare programs, homeless shelters, and many other organizations whose purpose is to help people with their personal development and concerns. Group work is also an appropriate and effective modality in an organizational sense where the goals are improved productivity and more effective utilization of human resources (see Association for Specialists in Group Work, 1982).

However, the need for group work expertise generally and group counseling specifically extends beyond the persons and organizations served. A professional need exists to develop group work expertise as a core characteristic of counselors and as a vehicle for providing helping services to the counselor’s clientele thereby expanding the counselor’s effectiveness. In this age of accountability the counselor must be a visible professional who demonstrates group process expertise across varied venues and willingly demystifies the nature of the helping process (Ivey &Alschuler, 1973). Groups can be used to increase client-counselor contact and to extend the role of the counselor by providing services to larger numbers of persons in the schools and in the community (Cottingham, 1973). Group work expertise and the group process are the keys to providing the helping process in a manner that will best serve the interests of clients, the educational or therapeutic staff and setting, the community, business and industry, and the counseling profession. As Conyne and Bemak (2004) emphatically state: “Group work is not only a required area of training (for counselors), but a very important one. Tomorrow’s counselors simply will be unable to function effectively and efficiently unless they can work with a range of people in groups of various kinds for various purposes” (p. 3).

The Need for Training

The success and impact of group work is primarily dependent on the ability of a competent leader. Most counselor training programs recognize the need to train future counselors in group procedures and incorporate at least one course in group process into their requirements (ASGW, 2000; Furr &Barrett, 2000; Hensley, 2002; Riva &Korinek, 2004). Professional standards developed by relevant professional organizations and their derivatives (e.g., American Counseling Association and their credentialing counterparts, Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs [CACREP] and National Board of Certified Counselors [NBCC]) have all promoted the requirement of group work competency. The Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW) specifically emphasizes group work as a fundamental competency for all counselors (Conyne, 1996). ASGW (2000) recommends that core training of counselors should include “at least one graduate course in group work that addresses, but is not limited to scope of practice, types of group work, group development, group process and dynamics, group leadership and standards of training and practice for group workers” (p. 331). To support this emphasis ASGW has developed a trifecta of profe...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• About the Author
• Preface
• Prologue
• 1. Introduction and Context
• 2. Definitions and Distinctions
• 3. Rationale for Group Counseling
• 4. Group Process: A Developmental Perspective
• 5. Process to Practice
• 6. Group Leader
• 7. Group Member
• 8. Best Practices in Group Work
• 9. Multicultural Diversity-Competent Group Work
• 10. Differentiating Groups
• 11. Organizing Group Work
• 12. Evaluating Group Work
• 13. Communication Activities in Groups
• 14. Family Theory as a Group Resource
• 15. Crisis Response: A Group Work Priority
• 16. The Case for Group Research
• References
• Index