SYLLABUS

Counseling 644 is designed to prepare students to facilitate counseling and therapy groups. Emphases are on identification and use of group dynamics, process illumination and stages of group development.

REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS:
Yalom, I.(1995) The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (4th ed).
Basic Books: NY

Brown, N. (2004) Psychoeducational groups (2nd ed). Brunner-Routledge: NY
OPTIONAL (Select based on your interest)
Expressive processes in group counseling N. Brown
Group counseling for elementary and middle school children N. Brown
OTHER MATERIAL: A personal set of crayons, felt markers or oil pastels. Bring these to every class.

PREREQUISITES
Students are expected to have successfully completed Counseling 630, 633, and 650 prior to enrolling in 644. These are not co-requisite courses and students who do not meet the minimum pre-requisites will not be allowed to enroll.
The following knowledge and skills are expected of all students who enroll in Counseling 644:

• Counseling skills as demonstrated by high levels of attending, clarifying, reflecting, supporting, informing, appropriate probing, focusing, reframing, constructive confrontation, appropriate feedback, and effective sending and receiving of messages.
• Relationship skills as demonstrated by high levels of acceptance, warmth, appropriate self-disclosure, openness, present-centeredness, active listening, genuineness, positive regard, congruent verbal and nonverbal behaviors, and immediacy.
• Personal qualities as demonstrated by increasing self-awareness, affective expressiveness, self-understanding, and modeling behaviors.
• Cognitive material as demonstrated by knowledge of major counseling theories, techniques associated with theories, and applications. An extensive knowledge of object-relations theories and existential theories is helpful.

MAJOR COURSE OBJECTIVES AND COMPETENCIES

• Identify, define, illustrate and use therapeutic group factors. 6a
• Understand the sequence of mechanics of interpersonal learning. 6a
• Understand the roles of cohesiveness, existential factors, projections, transference, countertransference, resistance, and past experiences on group process. 6a
• Know the tasks of the group leader, including professional ethics. 6b,f,g
• Develop the ability to effectively use process illumination. 6d
• Understand group members’ roles; stages of group development; problem behaviors in group; issues related to gender, culture, and class; and strategies to address each.6a.d
• Integrate cognitive and affective understanding about group process.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS, GRADING SYSTEM AND ATTENDANCE POLICIES

1) Participation in a small group during class and fishbowl processing for the group during class. Write a journal entry for each small group session. Journal entries should meet the criteria in the handout on Guidelines for Journal Entry. Students are expected to:

• attend every session,
• be on time for sessions,
• notify the instructor in advance when being absent is unavoidable, e.g. illness,
• follow the guidelines for confidentiality and,
• actively participate in group.

Each tardiness and absence will result in decreased points, although missing one class does not usually have an adverse impact on grades. However, missing two or more classes will have a negative impact on the grade as there are no substitutes for journal entries. The first journal entry is due on January 26, 2005 30 percent

2) Lead two consecutive group sessions and write a critique of your leadership skills for each using the criteria in the handout, Guidelines for Group Leadership. You do not have to submit a journal for the sessions you lead, just the critique. 5 percent

3) Three tests on material from texts, readings, lectures, etc. 25 percent

4) Fishbowl processing feedback reports will be submitted each week. Your responsibilities are to reproduce 8-10 copies of the attached form, observe the group processed each week, write feedback on what you observed using the form as a guide, and provide verbal feedback. 10 percent

5) Write a paper on your personal growth experiences, learning, observations, etc. Include examples of your projections, transference and resistance. The paper must be a minimum of 10 pages, double space. Points will be subtracted for technical writing skills, triple and quadruple spacing, and margins wider than one inch. Due April 6, 2005 15 percent

6) Quality of class participation, writing and professionalism. 15 percent

EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS

• Read all assigned material. It is strongly recommended that students read material in advance of assignments.
• Attend all class and group sessions on time.
• No food or drink during class and group sessions.
• No chewing gum.
• Turn off beepers and cell phones during group sessions.
• Assignments are due on the specified date. Points will be deducted for assignments submitted after the due date.
• Observe the honor system.
• Students with special needs are expected to notify the professor so that reasonable accommodations can be made. Appropriate documentation will be required.
• Students in therapy are responsible for notifying their therapists of class requirements.
• Students must activate their ODU e-mail accounts and check them prior to every class. If you have another account, you must set it up so that mail is forwarded to that account. The instructor will only communicate through the ODU account.
• Students are expected to perform and behave as professional counselors. This especially includes the requirements for confidentiality of personal material revealed in small groups, fishbowl processing and during class. Dr. Brown is considered to be a member of all groups and, as such, the requirement for confidentiality from small group disclosures does not apply to her.

PROFESSIONAL DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

Nina W. Brown, Ed.D. is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC). She has additional training in group psychotherapy from the Mid-Atlantic Group Psychotherapy Society and the American Group Psychotherapy Association. Her specialties are group counseling/therapy, psychoeducational groups, counseling theories and, destructive narcissism. Dr. Brown is serving as the past-president of MAGPS, a member of the Institute Committee for AGPA, a member of the American Association of State Credentialing Boards (AASCB)’s test panel, and is a member of NBCC’s test development committee.
Dr. Brown is the author of 15 published books and over 40 nationally refereed journal articles. Recent publications include: Loving the self-absorbed, Psychoeducational Groups (2nd Ed.), Working with the self-absorbed, Whose life is it anyway, Children of the self-absorbed, The unfolding life (with Parker), Student generated sexual harassment in secondary schools (with Wexel), Student development and student learning at a distance (with Schwitzer and Ancis), Creating high performance classroom groups and The destructive narcissistic pattern.

COUNSELING 644 – GROUP COUNSELING
GUIDELINES FOR JOURNALS

Your weekly journals are intended to increase your awareness and ability to identify group dynamics, and communicate your learning and growth to the instructor. These journals are a major source for my understanding of what you have learned and can apply in a real life setting. It is also important that you practice listening and retaining material presented in your small group. Therefore, no notes are taken during these sessions.

Learning group dynamics is an unfolding developmental process that needs time to be internalized and understood. Group dynamics are not intuitively obvious, nor can they be discerned only from reading and lectures. A combination of experiencing, writing, reading, observing and lecture is needed for the deep understanding that characterizes effective group leaders.

These journals guide your learning and are critical for the class. It is important that you follow these guidelines and pay attention to feedback from the instructor. NO ONE READS THESE JOURNALS EXCEPT DR. BROWN.

IMPORTANT POINTS FOR JOURNALS

• Date each journal for the day of the session – not the date you submit it.
• Use APA guidelines for margins, spacing, capitalization, etc.
• Each entry must be a minimum of 2 full pages. There is no maximum number of pages.
• You are free to include personal associations, responses and the like. These are not required and will be read in confidence.
• Pay attention to the following requirements for the 3 phases of journals.

Phase 1 Journals for sessions held on January 19, 26, February 2, 9

1. Effective member behaviors
2. Counterproductive member behaviors (Handout)
3. Resistances in self
4. Feelings aroused in self
5. Feelings directly and openly expressed by others – do not intuit others’ feelings, stay focused on direct and open expression.
6. Degree of group present-centeredness (the here and now focus)
   

Phase 2 Journals for sessions held on February 16, 23, March 2, 16

1. All phase 1 topics
2. Group communication patterns ( i.e. through the leader, among members, by a few members, etc.
3. Group resistances
4. Non-verbal behaviors
5. Conflict, i.e. was the conflict in the group suppressed, resisted, denied or, resolved.

Phase 3 Journals for sessions held on March 23, 30, April 6, 13, 20

1. All phase 1 and 2 topics
2. Problem behaviors and how the group managed them.
3. Group theme
4. Group feeling tone
5. Projections, transference, empathic failures

You will be graded on the extent to which you report on the required topic. Your personal experiences, opinions, etc. are also important, but you will not be graded on these. I do not give feedback on personal material, unless you specifically request me to do so.

CRITIQUE OF GROUP LEADERSHIP

These critiques are intended to:

• increase your awareness of the demands and responsibilities of group leaders,
• promote your awareness of group process and,
• evaluate your beginning group leadership skills.

They are self-evaluations that will help focus your attention on your strengths and weaknesses. You will be graded on the quality of the written critiques, not on the quality of your group leadership skills.

Each critique must have the following sections:

• primary goals and objectives for the session,
• the method or process you used to achieve the goals and objectives,
• counseling skills you used,
• a self-evaluation of your group leadership strengths and weaknesses,
• a summary of what transpired in the session,
• resistances you observed,
• feelings expressed by group members, and
• communication patterns.

Critiques are to be typed in APA format and submitted one week after you lead a session. As the instructor, I am to be considered a member of the group as far as confidentiality is concerned.

Try to be open and objective when writing your critique. You will be graded on the level and extent to which the critique meets the stated guidelines, not on how good you were as a group leader. You are expected to make mistakes at this point as you are learning how to use group leadership skills and become aware of group process.