Introduction to Group Counseling

Abstract

This book primarily is founded upon the credence gleaned from Dr. Vannatta’s published dissertation that demonstrated through a rigorous systematic content analysis of Group Counseling course syllabi used to prepare students at the graduate level to conduct group counseling programs and interventions, while learning group leadership skills, and understanding group dynamics and so forth, minimally included evidence of multiculturalism being incorporated in the courses. It provides content, experiential activities, strong case applications in group leadership across every chapter. The book also provides a detailed case illustration that includes a solid foundation of the goals, purpose, membership, and other group dynamics. It uses different examples to bring to life the learning objectives of the chapter. The cases attempt to provide a broad spectrum of group leaders, coleaders, and group members. The use of multiple cases affords the reader some consistency of engaging in the material while reflecting on applying specific aspects of group leadership. Additionally, the book has an entire chapter that includes a variety of creative and thoughtful case illustrations to highlight special topics centered on a myriad of multicultural considerations. Finally, it pays particular attention to providing information on leading groups, like most group counseling texts on the market; however, it expands the market by offering counselor educators, doctoral students and early career professionals strategies on providing supervision to masters’ level practitioners.