Transcript
Name:: TAREQ MOHAMAD
South University
CNS Group Dynamics / CNS Group Counseling
Midterm Examination
ESSAY QUESTIONS: ( CHOOSE ( 6) OF YOUR CHOICE )
Group counseling can be designed to meet the needs of specific populations such as Children, Adolescent, College students and Older individuals. Explain why you think group work is valuable to each population?
Group counseling is very critical for any population because people get to work together under one trained professional that help to recognize them and their problems, that way, the individuals or groups will realize they are not alone despite the fact each individual in every population is a unique case in their circumstances, they still get to work on their struggle with others who feel their pain.
Another important reason is that people turn to each-other to give and get support from people of their population where they turn to each other for support, feedback and connection.
Since group therapy help individuals find their voice, so it does to the populations those individuals come from. Group therapy helps them interact with other people and self-connect when connecting with others.
Individuals get to hear honest feedbacks from others from similar populations who care about them to one degree or another, and it gives them the opportunity to see how others relate to them in the moment and how they relate to themselves.
Finally, individuals from these populations and others, receive a safety net during those sessions, some people might be struggling with being authentic and speaking up for themselves in their lives, therefore, in the sessions people get to practice skills they lack to help them practice confidence for practicing them outside of those groups.
What is the major difference between Group Therapy and Group Counseling ?
Group counseling focuses on the development, growth, enhancement, self-awareness, and prevention. Group therapy focuses on specific issues needing correction (remediation), and personality reconstruction.
What is cultural competence and what make a culturally competent group leader?
Cultural Competence is the ability to interact effectively with people that comes from different cultural backgrounds, understanding these cultures is very critical for group leaders to be able to communicate and effectively interact with people across cultures by being aware of their own world view and continuing to develop multicultural competence. For the leader to be culturally competent, he needs to have a great and open attitude, very good knowledge and cultural skills, self-awareness of others, value diversity by respecting all cultures, accept responsibility, and adaptation of other people’s cultures.
What psychological risks are associated with group counseling0==?
Opening up in-front of a group of people might be overwhelming for some people, to add to that complication, for everyone, sharing secrets with strangers is a very difficult thing to do. Group therapy is about overcoming common social phobias as speaking to a group of people; however, some people might find it very difficult to make that happen. Since each person have a unique personality, there is a big possibility that personalities might clash with each other in group sessions rather than one on one sessions. Some activities might end up being uncomfortable for some members. Some of those examples might be intense personal discussions, role playing, graphic details of past abuse and many other activities in the group session. Clients who are suicidal or in crisis are not candidates for group therapy. Clients must needs to be at an acceptable level of daily functioning in order to effectively be part of a group session.
Fragile clients may not be able to accept aggressive behaviors by other clients who may exhibit aggressive behaviors or make hostile comments about each-other. Some clients might have great fear of rejection when in group sessions. Some clients might break confidentiality since they are not bound by a professional obligation to keep what is said during the session private. Some clients might not make themselves open and vulnerable to others in order to heal; rather, they might feel obligated to put their best foot forward in the group. Finally, trust in the group can be shaken by actions of the members. It can also be difficult to adjust to new members they join the group sessions at a later time.
Why do you think that Inform Consent is important in group counseling?
Just like any other setting or one-on-one sessions, informed consent is very important in group counseling. The form that contains information about the services and the agreement to be made by the counseling service and the client is provided by the counseling service to their clients in order to properly acquire consent from them to give them the proper treatment. This form must include decision capacity documentation, of consent disclosure, and competency. In a very critical setting where privacy breaching might be an issue by some clients in a group session, it is important that every member of the group agree to uphold the confidentiality of the therapeutic setting. Members agree to keep names and identities of the other group members confidential. Informed consent is also critical in group sessions because it clarifies the role whether it is exactly the same with each person or different than one-on-one settings, it also clarifies whether the therapist have outside roles within some members, not others.
There are Ethical, Legal, Clinical and Cultural issues in group counseling, explain the difference of each.
Ethical principles are based on human principles of right and wrong, they do not necessarily have legal basis, and they are based on human principles of right and wrong as mentioned above.
Legal standards are based on written laws that are set forth in governmental laws. They help people to know what they cannot do; they allow authorities to enforce rules when people do something illegal.
Some actions may be legal but not ethical.
Some of the cultural issues in group counseling is that in order to expand their skills, counselors must acknowledge their own racial and cultural heritage and the effects of oppression, racism, discrimination, and stereotyping. Counselors must also seek out additional learning opportunities to improve their understanding of different cultural populations.
Some of the clinical issues in group counseling are the aspects that should be taken into consideration such as informed consent of participants, the freedom to leave a group if they were not comfortable with the settings or other members. Group sessions are harder to fit everyone into one schedule and might have a problem allowing every member to meet at the same time. Groups sessions also might be inappropriate for individuals who are extremely antisocial, extremely shy, impulsive, passive-aggressive, psychotic, etc. the level of confidentiality also far less secure than it is in individual therapy.
