Assignment 2: LASA-Group Counseling Proposal Assignment
In this assignment, you will build on the research conducted for the group counseling special topic paper. The purpose of this assignment is to design a developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive group for the specific clinical issue or population you selected in M4 Assignment 2 RA. Group counseling theories and techniques will provide the framework for the activities outlined in the group counseling proposal. In addition, ethical and legal considerations, including crisis management or suicidal or homicidal ideation, will be addressed in the proposal to promote a successful implementation of the group.
Scenario: Your agency administrator has given you the green light to develop a new counseling group for the specified population or clinical issue. You have been asked to create a six-session group counseling proposal to work with the identified population to provide counseling or psychoeducation for a specific treatment issue. You may or may not be leading this group yourself. Thus, the group proposal needs to be detailed enough for a coworker to run the group without you.
Instructions: Develop a proposal for a psychoeducation or counseling group that will run for six sessions (90 minutes per session with adults or 30-45 minutes with children). The proposal should include the following:
• Describe the overall structure of the group.
• The purpose and goals of the group (e.g., treatment issue, rationale for group).
• The length, frequency, and duration of the group.
• The cultural and developmental considerations in the rationale for the group.
• Define eligibility criteria, recruitment strategies, and screening techniques. Include cultural and developmental considerations as related to participant recruitment.
• Analyze and recommend group leadership appropriate for this proposed group.
• Describe a leadership style and roles for the leader of group.
• Give concrete examples of appropriate group intervention strategies, such as process comments, empathic responses, self-disclosure, feedback, confrontation, and pacing skills across the various stages of a group's development.
• Generate proposed group norms, process, and procedures. Be specific.
• Structure of the group (e.g., open or closed groups).
• Group rules.
• Describe how to build group consensus around the group structure and rules.
• Propose activities and interventions for each session, giving details, and describe how these fit the anticipated stage of the group process. (Include group handouts in an appendix as needed).
• Include cultural and developmental considerations while describing activities.
• Explain ethical and legal considerations.
• Describe how crisis in the group will be handled (e.g., psychological first aid strategies for suicidal or homicidal ideation).
• Briefly mention any additional ethical or legal considerations as noted in the special topic paper or additional considerations that are relevant to this specific group.
• Explain the group's evaluation criteria. What will determine whether group goals have been met?
• Summarize your proposal and rationale in a paragraph.
Your final product should be a 12-page Microsoft Word document (including the cover page, references, and appendix), using a minimum of 5 scholarly sources. At least one of your references should be from the Journal for Specialists in Group Work. Be sure you write in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Use the most current APA format.