After attending four support/self-help group meetings, you will describe your observations of group member and leader behaviors; group dynamics; and meeting content and processes. You will reflect on how your experiences with the group compares to best practices and principles for group counseling and support groups that you have learned about in this course. Your paper must demonstrate critical thinking, literature-supported analysis, and personal application. Note that completion of the Support Group Selection and Support Group Attendance Quizzes is required to receive credit for the Support Group Paper Assignment.
Instructions
The paper must be 7–8 pages or about 2,500 words, not counting the title page, abstract, and reference page. Integrate relevant ideas from all required course texts and two scholarly research articles about group counseling in a substantial and meaningful way. Although you may use first person in this paper, it must otherwise be in current APA format and include a title page, running head, abstract, and a reference page. The paper must be submitted as a Word document and be well written; well organized; and free of grammar, spelling, or other writing errors. In the paper’s introductory paragraph, identify the group you attended and the number of participants at each meeting. Then, address the following topics using these headings:
Meeting Content and Process
Give a concise description of the topics or themes of each meeting you attended and how the content was incorporated. Discuss the appropriateness of the content and the effectiveness of how it was processed. Provide specific details and examples from the meetings as needed, but do not disclose confidential or identifiable information about group members.
Leadership Styles and Skills
Describe the leadership styles and skills that were used and discuss to what extent and in what ways you think they were appropriate and effective. Describe specific challenges you observed and how the leader(s) handled them.
Group Dynamics
Describe the atmosphere and dynamics of the group; what developmental stage it was in and how you determined this; the level of participation; and how you observed and learned members benefitted from this group. (You may find chapter 16 of the Forsyth text helpful for this section.)
Application and Conclusion
Reflect on your learning and the most significant takeaways from this experience. If you were leading this group, what would you do differently? How did the meetings promote or contradict a biblical view of persons? Were ethical guidelines for group counseling adhered to or violated? End your paper with a concluding thought.
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.