The Impact of Group Psychological Counseling on Counseling Self-Efficacy: A Mixed-Methods Study

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impact of group counseling practice conducted with undergraduate psychological counseling and guidance (PCG) students on their counseling self-efficacy levels. The study group consisted of 36 third-year students enrolled in the Group Counseling Principles and Techniques course in the spring semester of 2019 at the Department of PCG at Atatürk University. Since the course content was theoretical and students needed to have fundamental knowledge related to the course, it was taught theoretically for the first 7 weeks (until the midterm exam). After the midterm, group counseling practice was conducted with students divided into three groups for the remaining 7 weeks. The researcher led the sessions, and the students participated as group members. The Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales was administered immediately before and one week after the practice. After the practice, students were also asked to fill out a semi-structured form to evaluate their group experiences. This study was designed using the explanatory sequential design, one of the mixed research methods. The quantitative aspect of the research was conducted as a single-group pretest-posttest design, one of the weak experimental designs. In analyzing the quantitative data, the Paired Samples t-Test was used for pretest-posttest comparisons. For the qualitative aspect, content analysis was performed on the forms filled out by the students. The study found that group counseling practice significantly increased the counseling self-efficacy of the counselor candidates, and the students’ qualitative responses supported this finding. Furthermore, students indicated that the practice contributed to their development in both professional skills and personal relationships. It is observed that individual counseling practices are generally emphasized in psychological counselor education. Considering the inadequacy of group counseling practices in counselor education and the lack of research addressing the contributions of these practices to the personal and professional development of psychological counselors, it is evaluated that the results of this research will contribute to the field.