Groupwork course experiences

Abstract

<p><i>Numerous concerns exist in the groupwork and counseling literatures regarding the requirement that students participate in experiential counseling groups as part of their academic coursework. This research examined the use of service learning task groups as an alternate way to address this required component of group counseling coursework to address multiple relationship concerns between faculty and students. Results indicated that while many group counseling skills were demonstrated in the task group, not all skills manifested. Group skills that were more ‘safe’ in terms of counselor risk were demonstrated more often. Less ‘safe’ or risky group skills for the counselor, such as providing feedback to a group member, were demonstrated less frequently. The authors offer implications for research and practice</i>.</p>

Analysing Meso and Macro conversation structures in an online suicide support forum

“…What is radically different from a clinical context is that the posters are not healthcare seeking and may be on SW precisely because they are seeking alternative support and there is no 'professional' facilitating the discussion. The closest analogy in a live group setting is "fishbowls" (used in certain group counselling courses) 34 where there is an inner ring of discussants (the OP and other posters on the thread) who are observed by an outer-ring of observers (in SW, a parallel may be drawn with the moderators who manually examine comments and delete those that threaten or violate the thread's specified codes and ban trolls 35 ).…”