Group Counseling as a Form of Therapy - Essay Example

The main concept is for people with similar problems to meet and share their experiences and know that they are not alone. Through these groups, individuals can gain specific skills and strategies that will help them achieve personal goals, explore areas that are of challenge to them, and get encouragement from others. Group counseling was stabilized by the emergency training groups (T-Groups). T-gps are a group where people come together to work and effect interpersonal change. Today there are several kinds of these groups.

Group therapy has similar characteristics and thesis; they are small groups and leader-directed (Corey, 2012). Howleader-directed four common group therapy namely: Psychoanalytic TherapyCognitive-Behavioral TherapySkills Development GroupsSupport Groups. Planning There are a number of things to consider be several group counseling. Some of the things to consider are, the purpose and goal of consider group, will the group is homogenous (is a closed group, membership is open up to a certain time then closed and attendance is until the end of the session) or heterogeneous (are open groups one can join and live at will).

Another thing to consider is the size of the group, the duration, and the venue where the group would be meeting (Jacobs, 2006). Additionally, it is always important to prescreen people before they become members of the group; at this point, the group explains its rules and regulation while the client talks about their expectation and their intentions (DeLucia-Waack, 2004). The following paper analyses two different types of group counseling.Psychoanalytic Therapy: In this group, the therapist spends their time listening to patients talk about their lives.

At this point, the therapist will come up with a topic that is relevant to the client’s current problem (Jacobs, 2006). The group is more educational in nature and is led by an expert aware of real-life issues affecting people. Benefits of Psychoanalytic TherapyThis group has received many critics from people terming it as time-consuming and expensive. However, it has its benefits in such a way that the therapist creates an environment where people can open up freely and share their fears and thoughts.

The aspect of sharing is also beneficial since the client will be able to offload their burdens. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: This type of group counseling deals with a specific problem. The group helps individuals with irrational thinking to change their thought, perceptions, and beliefs. For instance, an individual who believes that he or she cannot quit drinking then is the best group to attend. Another example is an individual who is being helped to overcome the fear of heights.SimilaritiesBoth groups are group Similarities Bothe people get to interact.

Both group work toward assisting individuals to overcome an issue in their lifeThere is no confidentiality in bothBoth are cost-effective group members support each other. Differences The first one deal with a wide range of issues in people’s lives, while the other one deals with a specific thing.