Professional and Personal
I've been studying counselling for over five months. During the course of my academic journey, I never particularly paid attention to the Group Counselling module. Even though group therapy influenced my perception of therapeutic situations and environments, I was more interested in other modules that looked at the primary skills of counselling frameworks and psychology.
At the same time, my life was heavily defined by my work and career. My personal situation was rampant with the influence of my career and my approach to working with different teams. Group dynamics played a role not only in the success of my work, but in the way I feel about work and the life that happens after.
Before I studied group counselling, my academic journey was disconnected with the personal life that I was living. But after finishing the module, I can experience a unique marriage of both my counselling education and professional career.
All groups, both counselling and professional, become more interesting to me because of how it creates new meaning and complexities to the way I navigate teams and other individuals.
To support my reflection statement, I will investigate the impact of learning group counselling by exploring my pre-existing perception of the practice, recognising key learnings that changed my perception, analysing its application in existing groups around me, as well as the insights I gained from my personal assessment.
The initial perception
Before studying the module, I had a limited perception of group counselling drawn from the way popular culture portrayed the group counselling experience.
Growing up, I had never received any first-hand experiences or recount of any group counselling activity. However, I enjoy watching films and experiencing different creative works, which led me to consume pieces of popular culture that chose to present the group counselling as a cathartic but individual experience. This portrayal is apparent in the films Wreck-it Ralph (2012) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Wreck-it Ralph opens with the protagonist Ralph, who is recounting his negative experiences of being the bad guy in BAD-ANON, a supporting group for antagonists in video games. Ralph's story dominates the entire scene and takes up the entire session. The other participants give inputs and share their own perspective, but the focal point remains to Ralph's presenting issue.
Similarly, Avengers: Endgame features a sombre scene of a support group that takes place years after a mass exodus of human population. In the scene, a client shares his experience of going on a first date as the group listens.
Both films represent group counselling as a community experience that seems to only focus on individuals and their issues one at a time. Because I had limited access and knowledge about mental health and group counselling, my point of reference for group counselling could only be determined by its expression on popular culture. This signifies the impact that popular culture has in role modelling and shaping my individual perspective on the practice (Weaver et al., 2013).
Not all expressions of today's popular culture share the same restricted perspective. In the broadway musical Rent (1996) a group counselling experience is represented in the song Will I?, which features a single set of lyrics sung by the support group members and company chorus. The song contrasts with the representation of group counselling from the previous films by showing the support group in full unison with each other. The number expresses group counselling in a different light, leading a group of people in complete unison of their stories and their pain, rather than focusing on a particular individual's narrative.
It was inevitable that popular culture affected my perception of the group counselling experience, given my lack of access to group counselling activities. The experience shaped my pre-existing understanding of group counselling as a group activity, but one that seemed to exclusively focus on each individual's story and narrative.
Groups as a singular entity
My perception of group counselling was changed after understanding the value of viewing counselling groups as a singular entity to help achieve the therapeutic goal.
I was personally compelled by Bruce Tuckman's Five Developmental Stages Framework and the way it approaches group therapy by first acknowledging its collective existence on top of the individual clients that are participating. As part of his framework, Tuckman recognises that a group as a whole also experiences its own specific journey, from the beginning stages of forming through to the performing stage that provides an environment for clients to work hard on their presenting issues. Group counsellors will strive to aim for their groups to arrive at the norming stage, but not without transitions and unique challenges that aim to test the sense of leadership and trust that take place in the group environment (Tuckman, 1965).
What I find interesting about this framework is that in the practice of group counselling, facilitators look at their clients beyond their individuality. Instead, therapists can apply techniques and activities to assist with moving the clients to explore and navigate their presenting issues as a whole. The Five Developmental Stages framework therefore challenges my initial perceptions of group therapy, and the overall interpretations of the practice that's expressed in mainstream popular culture today. And because of this, my perception and value towards group counselling has changed and widened.
The knowledge also inspired my approach to the group assessment facilitation. Both my partner Patrick and I wanted to purposely create an activity that aimed to highlight the group respondents as a whole, by inviting them to work together to define a particular element of video game behaviour that they perceived to be recognised as addictive. In the end, the brief 15-minute time duration limited the capacity for respondents to align together. But it was an opportunity for the respondents to force themselves to come out of the safety of their own individual stories and work together to see if they could collaborate as a group.
Tuckman's developmental stages framework shows a specific shift in how facilitators can view their clients, which further highlights the unique strengths and complexities that arise in group counselling. The framework breaks down my initial perceptions of the practice, by showing the possibility and potential therapeutic gain from working with the clients as a singular, collective entity.
Redefining teams at work
Understanding group counselling frameworks has presented me more ways to analyse and review the way my working teams behave as a group and synchronised both elements of my life experience.
Another key highlight as I was learning group counselling was diving deeper on the impact of influence and communication patterns in shaping how groups behave. Lewin's definition of group dynamics emphasises the importance of interactivity. It is the interpersonal processes and individual perceptions that define and shape how a group operates and behave (Lewin, 1945). Valuing these processes gives facilitators a holistic framework for managing and designing the therapeutic experience for group counseling. But on a personal level, it also triggered memories of experiences from my professional career.
For the past seven years, I have worked with an abundant number of teams across stakeholders, seniorities, projects, and goals. Working in the services industry exposes me with no choice but to work as a group, both collectively for my company, as well as for my client teams. The concept of group dynamics inevitably exists in the interactions and ways that my professional groups behave. Even though they are different both in purpose and goals, the journey of connecting with one another in order to achieve a common alignment remains similar.
Because of the similarities, I can fully synchronise my counselling education with my professional experience. As an individual, I feel empowered to transpose my skills and understanding to criticise better the way that I work and behave in my career.
Learning more about group dynamics as well as the framework of the developmental stage has given me more tools to troubleshoot the weaknesses that my professional groups have experienced during my career. Tuckman looked at conflict as an important element of the group journey because it fosters the ability for the group to become more vulnerable with their ideas and feelings, leading to a much deeper connection and relationship with one another (Tuckman & Jensen, 1977). Studying this has made me realise why many of the working groups that I experienced weren't optimal, simply because they perceived conflict as a moment of shame and weakness. The perception also contaminates the dynamics of the group, promoting behaviours such as gossip and side talk that reduces genuine honesty and feedback. My working group therefore becomes unable to achieve any storming or transition, which handicaps the capacity of the team to build trust and work together more effectively.
Group counselling effectively helped my life become more congruent by synchronising my counselling training with an empowered way of reviewing the way I work. By recontextualizing the frameworks of group dynamics and developmental stages, I'm able to understand and review my groups more effectively and become a better professional.
Do whatever it takes
Finally, my experience observing both class groups execute and manage their final assessments has given me new insights into how different group dynamics can still achieve the same goal.
As part of our group assessment, we had to manage ourselves as a group in facilitating the turns of each partner and ensure that we kept each other on time and supported each other as participants of the sessions. During the debriefing of our group assessments, the teacher mentioned during the class sessions that both groups were uniquely different based on the developmental stages we were experiencing. For myself, I particularly observed how each group was operating with each other to complete the assessment goal. The other group was much more prepared. They had shown to be rehearsing well before the assessment to ensure that each session was effectively filled with content and response. Our group however did not facilitate any rehearsals. We instead focused on making sure we gave each other support during the assessment and ensured that we had timekeepers to manage our time.
The first group were completely prepared in their responses and navigation for each session, but it lacked the spontaneity needed for the sessions to amplify their emotional feelings and ideas. Our group made each other feel anxious because of the lack of preparation, but the spontaneous responses and surprise brought genuine reactions to the sessions, providing a genuine emotional response for each facilitator to investigate and use. Both groups completed their assessments effectively and completed the necessary assessment goal.
The experience was an opportunity for me to notice the nuanced motivations and how this shapes both groups. We might infer that the first group had a stronger need for achieving a high score and sense of community, which therefore led to the rehearsals. My group might not have valued the assessment as much, but we allowed the spontaneity to take place as long as a supportive environment still exists to make each facilitator pair feel comfortable. Personally, I enjoyed the experience being in my group and preferred to do the assessment with a sense of spontaneity, because I personally believe it provides a more exciting environment for us to experience real counselling situations.
All of this highlights the value of motivation in group dynamics, and how personality traits can influence the way a group decides to align, conform, and operate (Ackerman, 1951). It adds to the additional insights that I can use to further review and reflect on how my professional teams approach group dynamics and finish the work.
Conclusion
Studying group counselling provided me with the means to be more congruent with my counselling education and working profession. It helped open up my perception of counselling, which was enforced by my learnings from popular culture. It gave me the skills to re-evaluate the way working teams operate, by applying key concepts such as developmental stages, group dynamics, and personal motivations. Because of the experience, it has widened my understanding of all kinds of groups, and I look forward to using my knowledge to better counsel my clients and help them obtain their therapeutic goal.
References
Ackerman, N. W. (1951). Group dynamics: 1. “Social role” and total personality. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 21(1), 1-17. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1951.tb06081.x
Lewin, K. (1945). The Research Center for Group Dynamics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 8(2), 126 -136. 10.2307/2785233
Tuckman, B., & Jensen, M. A. (1977). Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited. Group & Organization Studies, 2(4), 419-427. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F105960117700200404
Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384 - 399. https://content.apa.org/doi/10.1037/h0022100
Weaver, R., Salamonson, Y., Koch, J., & Debra Jackson. (2013, April 9). Nursing on television: student perceptions of television's role in public image, recruitment and education. Jan: Leading Global Nursing Research, 69(12), 2635 - 2643. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12148