The 2009 Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs standards (II.G.6.e) and the Association for Specialists in Group Work both promote and support counselors in training (CITs) having direct experience as group members. Counselor educators must develop experiential group curricula, which intentionally facilitate CIT…

Group interventions have been useful for survivors to overcome the challenges of cancer. This study employed a pre/post, mixed-methods design to explore the influence of an 8-week support group on the holistic wellness of 14 breast cancer survivors. Pairing experiential activities with wellness-centered psychoeducation was viewed positively by…

This article presents the Achieving Success Everyday (ASE) group counseling model, which is designed to help school counselors integrate students' academic and personal-social development into their group work. We first describe this group model in detail and then offer one case example of a middle school counselor using the ASE model to…

Parental involvement is crucial to facilitating a child's high school success and enhancing their post-secondary opportunities. Unfortunately, the ability for Latina/o parents and guardians to engage in parental involvement is hindered by a general lack of familiarity with U.S. educational systems and post-secondary options. With these…

This article will present two models for conducting group work with Women of Color (WOC): the SisterCircle Approach and the Group Relations Model. The authors contend that the models, when used together, combine an internal and external focus ("inside out") of group work that can assist group workers to conduct individual and group-level…

Fifty-four counselors at 9 university counseling centers participated in a study regarding religion and spirituality (R/S) in group counseling. The majority indicated that R/S is an appropriate topic for group counseling and that some religious and spiritual interventions are appropriate to use. However, counselors rarely use these interventions.…

This study explored the impact of a 4-week skills group intervention based on the principles of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) with a sample of adolescents attending a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program. This article provides a session-by-session overview of activities adapted from DBT-specified training modules of mindfulness,…

This study investigated the impact of a psychoeducational group for social anxiety aimed at elementary children. An 8-week psychoeducational program based on empirically validated risk factors was designed. Interventions included cognitive restructuring, anxiety management techniques, and social skills training. Pre-and posttest data from 3 groups…

A sandtray group experience is a creative intervention that counselors may want to incorporate into their work with adolescents. This qualitative inquiry explored the experiences of adolescent females who participated in a sandtray group while attending an alternative school. The researchers identified five themes that emerged from the data: (a)…

The complex group work environment can be overwhelming and anxiety provoking, particularly for novice group leaders. Effectively accessing and managing one's own emotions are tasks central to effective group leadership and should be primary learning objectives of group workers in training. This article provides an overview of Gross's…

The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of secondary school counselors who develop and lead groups. The study explored participants' perceptions and their motivations for leading groups. Findings from data analysis revealed four major themes. Unappreciated and Dismissed describes the way participants felt in response to the…

This article reports an investigation of the LGBTQ Responsive Model for Supervision of Group Work, a trans-theoretical supervisory framework to address the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) persons (Goodrich & Luke, 2011). Findings partially supported applicability of the LGBTQ Responsive Model for Supervision…

There is a clear call in group counseling practice and training for evidence-based practice (ACA, 2005; ASGW, 2008; CACREP, 2009). At the same time, group counselors also are asked to keep clients' experience at the center of their work (ASGW, 2012). This article outlines the authors' effort to develop and study an instrument designed to measure…

This article presents developmentally appropriate applications of Motivational Interviewing (MI; Miller & Rollnick, 2002) for use in preparing group members for the working stages of group. Practical strategies are offered for using MI to facilitate an atmosphere of trust, recognize member readiness for change, identify and resolve members'…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to compare the effects of personal growth groups and psychoeducational groups on counselor education students' (n = 74) empathy and group leader self-efficacy. Additionally, we compared the degree to which participants in each group valued: (a) cohesion, (b) catharsis, and (c) insight. There were no…