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OUTLINE

Assoc. Prof. Deniz Albayrak-Kaymak

(Revised, 2023)

ISSUE 7:
TYPES OF GUIDANCE-COUNSELING:
SMALL AND LARGE GROUP COUNSELING

In this direct service of small group counseling, the counselor leads a unique group where
students (6-12 individuals) come together to explore ideas, attitudes, feelings, and behaviors
especially related to personal development and progress in schools. They meet once or twice
a week for 20-30 min to 45-50 min. for 10-12 sessions at a group room, a place other than
classroom.

Group counseling is a very powerful, yet a less commonly used technique compared to
individual counseling.
Questions. Why do you think this is so? Do you think counseling groups is easier than
counseling individuals, why and why not?

Just like individual counseling, group counseling could be crisis, problem or growth
centered. Likewise, group counseling has its stages (Mahler, 1969):
• Involvement (getting to know, expectations, ground rules, trust, acceptance),
• Transition (lowering resistance, belonging, cohesiveness, group ID),
• Working (Here and Now, feedback, caring, awareness, discovery, action planning
and practicing),
• Ending (applications, closure, sadness, and follow-up).

A unique strength of group counseling is universality; realization that we are all human and
not alone in what we experience.

Types of groups, classification by various characteristics include;

• open vs closed,
• support vs interactive (encounter groups),
• direct (confrontive, marathon groups) vs indirect (bibliocounseling),
• homogeneous vs heterogeneous.

Issues to consider:
• who is a suitable member?
• how to arrange group meetings (time, place)?
• how to form ground rules?
• what is the impact of having friends (subgroups, exclusive loyalty)?
• how to deal with resistance (go-around/ice-breakers)?
• how counselors work through time, connect sessions/link members?

If schools follow TAP kind of programs where guidance hours are reserved, and a
curriculum is present, large group guidance activities become a common practice. In most
cases, schools are more likely to have large group guidance services than group counseling
services. However, large and small groups are not to replace each other, but they serve
different purposes.
Schools face a dfiiculty unique to small group counseling; there are existing friendships
formed before which may lead to subgroups, exclusive loyalty, resulting in inhibited
participation or conflicts, if not handled well.

Below is a summary of distinct and common characteristics of group counseling and large
group guidance.

Group counseling common Group guidance

notion: power of peers

interactive learning

agenda: open previously set

topic: in-depth, sensitive issues information giving,

skill teaching,
educational planning

size: smaller (6-8) more than a few larger (even >100)

leadership: less active active

counselor counselor/teacher with
counselor support

material: less if any a lot/plenty

interaction: more risk, more personal less personal

high member involvement limited member
participation

setting: separate/unique room school classroom

seating: circle rows/varied

style: rarely structured largely structured,

timely teaching

frequency: twice or once a week varied

duration: could be marathon 45-50 min class hour

length: 10-12 sessions,

unless it is open varied

climate: confidentiality, learning

cohesion

Seating arrangements:
• Rows (classroom, speech, lack of eye-contact, hierarchical, large group),
• Circles (eye contact, participation, equal positioning, limited number),
• Semi-circles (eyes to front end eye contact, more people than circles),
• In/out circles (empty chair, fishbowl, demo mode, rotation of seats),
• Discussion teams (large group, participation, assigned tasks, treated as one, transitory).

2
Tips in facilitating large group guidance:
• accept all contributions,
• use eye-contact,
• reinforce participation,
• move to/away from students,
• set limits/use positive language,
• give tasks,
• have a plan,
• give signals regarding time limits,
• tolerate noise,
• clarify directions,
• be watchful, move around, join in,
• prepare various materials, and
• measure outcomes.

Mastery Questions
1. Compare and contrast individual and group counseling. What are advantages and
disadvantages of both?
2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of group counseling?
3. What different counselor skills are needed for small group counseling and large
group guidance?
4. What are typically group rules and how are they determined?
5. What are the unique functions of support groups?
…
Three relatively recent issues and terms are brought to attention of counselors:

HIKIKOMORI, social withdrawal, isolation and detachment, passively observing the world.
This term hikikomori (in Japanese language, hiki means to withdraw and komori means to be
inside) was coined in 1998 by Japanese psychiatrist Tamaki Saito.
It is a sociocultural mental health phenomenon, rather than a distinct mental illness.
https://theconversation.com/hikikomori-understanding-the-people-who-choose-to-live-in-
extreme-isolation-148482

NEET, Youth not in activities of employment, education or training.

A term used to describe young individuals who are between 15-29, lack or not currently
engaged in any of these activities.
Associated with low family income, disadvantaged family background, migratory
background, disabilities, family responsibilities, and parental history of unemployment or
divorce.
Psychological distress, loneliness, powerlessness, restlessness, anxiety, depression, criminal
activities, alcohol and drug abuse.
For women, early marriage, early motherhood and dissatisfaction with life.
https://data.oecd.org/youthinac/youth-not-in-employment-education-or-training-neet.htm
OECD (2022), Youth not in employment, education or training (NEET) (indicator).
doi: 10.1787/72d1033a-en (Accessed on 12 April 2022)

Troubled teen industry, a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States, run on so called
«treatment» programs that market themselves as cures for struggling teenagers who may
have learning disabilities, emotional regulation problems, mental disturbance and substance
abuse.
TTIs are underregulated, highly controversial and known with many scandals of child
neglect and abuse, institutional corruption and death. Examples include forced labor of
physically demanding tasks (wood chopping and horse manure shoveling), use of stress
(submission) position (putting the person in a posture hat creates intense pressure on the
body, results in pain and muscle failure), strip or cavity searches against the will, restricting
communication with family and peers, solitary confinement, denial of sleep or nutrition,
false imprisonment and psychological abuse as ways of disciplining.
Lack of regulatory (lawful) oversight and parental guardianship.
Those who got out (e.g., Paris Hilton) reveal their experiences, open trials and advocate for
the youth in the so-called care.
https://www.youthrights.org/issues/medical-autonomy/the-troubled-teen-industry/
https://www.breakingcodesilence.org/
…