Personal Characteristics and the Initial Stage in Group Counseling - Research Paper Example

Personal Characteristics and the Initial Stage in Group Counseling Group counseling is a process, where the psychological problems of the individualare put up for understanding, identification and analysis before a group and wherein each member of the group also gets a channel to share his/her individual psychological concerns with each other individual. Hence, a group counseling situation has a personal as well as social level of interaction. And this is why group counseling turns up as an act by which, “a small group of people (usually 6-10) … meet together …(in regular and short intervals) along with one or two trained members of the Counseling Center staff, to talk about their struggles and problems” (NC State University Counseling center, n.d.).

From the side of a counselor, the group counseling method “helps to work with more clients-a decided advantage in this managed care times- in addition, the group process has unique learning advantages” (Corey, 2011). The major advantage of group therapy has been observed as the awareness and knowledge that each member of the group is found to gain “from the feedback and insights of other group members as well as …(from) the practitioner” (Corey, 2011). In this way, diversity in information, responses, attitudes towards the problem being discussed, solutions being offered, etc.

are ensured. The initial stage of any group counseling activity is very important in the sense that if the “foundations were poorly laid at the outset”, the group has an increased possibility of becoming a failure (Corey, 2011). The major problem encountered by the therapist at this stage is the “resistance” from individual members (Corey, 2011). The common elements of resistance that occur at this stage on individual level, are “member and leader expectations, basic procedures of the group, misconceptions about groups, and the advantages and limitations of group participation” (Corey, 2011).

The group process components are described by different researchers (Corey, 2011; Trotzer, 1999, p.83) using different terminologies. For example, what Corey (2011) has called “initial stage”, has been divided into two components, namely, “security stage” and “acceptance stage” by Trotzer (1999, p.85) and into another set of two components, namely, “relationship” and “integration” by Clark (as cited in Trotzer, 1999, p.83). But the concepts represented by all these researchers (Corey, 2011; Trotzer, 1999, p.83) have been more or less same and hence in this paper, Corey’s (2011) nomenclature is accepted and others’ ideas are also incorporated wherever a correlation is there, for the sake of convenience.

In the initial stage, “a psychologically safe environment” has to be created so that each and every member feels that he/she is safe and can discuss their issues freely (Corey, 2011; Trotzer, 1999, p.85). To create such an environment, the counselor has to have a minimum understanding of the needs and characters related to “security”, which addresses the individual need of “security” and includes a relationship trait of “trust”, of each group member (Trotzer, 1999, p.85; Corey, 2011).

In this “security” level component of initial stage, the motivation of each individual will be to “find a person or place where it is safe to admit to and talk about problems” (Trotzer, 1999, p.85). In the second part of the initial stage (which is “acceptance” stage), an ambience is already created “in which members experience a sense of belongingness and acceptance as a person and as a member with and in spite of problems and issues they are dealing with” (Trotzer, 1999, p.85).

Here, the individual need that is being addressed would be the need of “love and belonging” and the relationship trait that is involved for each individual member would be “acceptance” (Trotzer, 1999, p.85). At this component level, each individual would start accepting “problems as part of one’s self” (Trotzer, 1999, p.85). It is in the above sense that Corey (2011) has called “initial stage” as “a time of orientation and exploration.” It is also seen that at this stage, “members learn how the group functions, define their own goals, clarify their expectations, and look for their place in the group” (Corey, 2011).

Though in the “initial stage”, the members present only their “socially acceptable” self to the group, complexities in the process of communication can arise if the members hail from different socio-cultural backgrounds (Corey, 2011). This socio-cultural background could be as diverse as to include “culture, ethnicity, race, gender, class, religion, language and sexual identity” (Corey, 2011). Each of these socio-cultural components is important to the group dynamics because each one of them represents a different worldview, expressed by way of “beliefs and attitudes” (Corey, 2011).

Regarding such a multicultural group there are apprehensions expressed that there might be an increased level of “differences and conflicts within the group” (Trusty and Sandhu, 2002, p.251). But in such groups, it has also been found that “the rich feedback from a heterogenous group will challenge members’ biases and promote positive changes” (Trusty and Sandhu, 2002, p.251). And from experience, it is observed that the benefits of group counseling in a multicultural setting are far more than its disadvantages, as far as the influence of the diverse socio-cultural attitudes and beliefs of individual are concerned.

For example, the personal characteristics of a White Euro-American will be guided by values such as “independence, autonomy, assertiveness, and competition” (Trusty and Sandhu, 2002, p.255). On the other hand, such values will not be considered “as important or as positive by people from cultures that are more collectivistic in nature” like, Africans or Asians (Trusty and Sandhu, 2002, p.255). In such a situation, if a group has both White Euro-American members and African or Asian members, their values might be in conflict and might lead either to difference of opinion or more hopefully to a consensus-based group dynamics.

It is to overcome the first and to achieve the second that the counselor needs specific skills. In the initial stage, this will be a very challenging task indeed. The culturally diverse attitudes and beliefs of the members necessitates the counselor to ensure “inclusion and identity” of each member so that nobody is discriminated by winning their trust separately (Corey, 2011). Each member should be able to trust the counselor as well as each other member of the group. The other member being from a socio-cultural group that discriminates the socio-cultural group to which a specific member belongs to, might prevent that specific member from trusting the other member.

Similarly, a female member might feel it unsafe to discuss her very personal problems before a male member. And all these are bound to affect the initial stage of group counseling as well as the general group dynamics. Distrust by one member could be contagious and will decrease the trust level of other as well. The counselor would try to overcome this issue primarily by publicly acknowledging before the whole group that a problem of discrimination could possibly exist in such a heterogeneous group.

Secondly, the counselor will also have to give a space to each member to express such fears (Corey, 2011). Once trust is established, the personal characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender etc. of each member can become rich resources of support for each other member and will add on positively to the total group dynamics. These personal traits can also help promote democracy, openness, cultural understanding, sharing, etc. within the group. Another important aspect of such personal traits within a group counseling scenario is that they will raise the group closer to the real situation in a given society (which of course is multicultural) and thus builds a group dynamics that helps to find realistic solutions.

References Corey, (2011) Theory and practice of group counseling, Connecticut: Cengage Learning. NC State University Counseling center (n.d.) “Group Counseling”, Retrieved from http://www.ncsu.edu/counseling_center/services/group_counseling.html Trotzer, J.P. (1999) The counselor and the group: integrating theory, training, and practice, London: Taylor & Francis. Trusty, J. and Sandhu, D.S. (2002) Multicultural counseling: context, theory and practice, and competence, New York: Nova Publishers.