Group Counseling Addressing Barriers to Success

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Group CounselingAddressing Barriers to Success

• Helping Students to Help Themselves
• Cynthia L. Martin, LPC, Ed.S.
• Professional School Counselor in Training
• Oak Park High School
• Kansas City, MO

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Oak Park High School

• Mission Statement
• To establish successful learning experiences for
  all and create responsible citizens capable of
  lifelong learning accomplishments.

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The School Counselors Believe

• All students have the ability to achieve.
• All students have the right to be part of the
  school counseling program. 
• All students' needs, abilities, learning styles,
  goals, and interests are considered when
  developing and implementing the school counseling
  program.
• All students K-12 shall have access to a
  full-time, state certified, Masters' degree level
  school counselor to deliver the school counseling
  program.

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And that all school counselors

• Be evaluated by a counseling supervisor on
  specified goals and agreed upon student
  competencies.
• Actively involve counseling team members and
  other school personnel to monitor students'
  results.
• Abide by the professional school counseling
  ethics as advocated by the American School
  Counseling Association.
• Participate in professional development
  activities essential to maintaining a quality
  school counseling program.

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The school counseling program should

• Reflect the ASCA National Standards and the
  Standards for School Counseling Programs
• Be based on the three domains  academic, career
  and personal/social counseling.
• Be planned and coordinated by the school
  counseling staff in coordination with other
  school personnel.
• Utilize community resources to deliver programs.
• Use data to drive program development and
  evaluation.

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Cynthia Martins School Counselor Philosophy

•  
•      I believe that all students can attain
  success with pride and dignity building on the
  foundation of their strengths. I believe that all
  students have strengths. However, I also believe
  not all students recognize their strengths. My
  task as a professional school counselor is to
  assist in recognizing and maximizing those
  strengths and minimizing barriers to success in
  the areas of academic, career, and
  personal/social domains. I will accomplish this
  by functioning in a culturally sensitive manner
  as the link between administrators, teachers,
  parents, students, and community. This connection
  of all vested parties involved in a comprehensive
  counseling program will ensure that this
  assistance is available in an age-appropriate
  manner to every student. 
•      To meet the needs of a large multicultural,
  diverse population of developmentally varied
  students, I will utilize Reality therapy in both
  individual and group counseling.  Although I am
  convinced that our past experiences and
  relationships have shaped us into the people we
  are today, revisiting these events and
  relationships in the school environment is
  non-productive.  Focusing on the here and now
  liberates students from poor choices theyve made
  in the past.  This liberation provides them the
  opportunity to determine their future decisions
  unfettered by a feeling of failure.  Through
  Reality therapy students are enlightened and
  empowered when they understand that their future
  is theirs to mold, that decisions they make today
  shape their tomorrows.   
•      I believe that by following the Missouri
  Comprehensive Guidance Program model I will be
  able to provide guidance and counseling through
  guidance curriculum.  I will encourage student
  growth and development, model and teach effective
  communication and thereby strengthen
  interpersonal relationships.  I will utilize
  assessment strategies where needed and include
  consultation as one of my standard behaviors. 
  Acknowledgement and appreciation of cultural
  diversity will aid in my effectiveness.  I
  believe that I am guided by ethical standards
  as directed by the American School Counselor
  Association, the American Counseling Association,
  and my personal set of standards.  To this end, I
  believe that it is the responsibility of each
  professional school counselor to manage and
  maintain the guidance program.

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Purpose of the Intervention

• This intervention was used for the purpose of
  addressing issues that were presenting a barrier
  to success for students. Small group sessions
  were conducted on a weekly basis. During each
  session students were encouraged to identify
  their triggers for problematic behaviors and to
  determine and implement alternative behaviors.

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SIMSStudents, Interventions, Measurements,
Settings

• Students 9th-12th grade students
• Intervention Small group counseling addressing
  issues that were creating a barrier to student
  success.
• Measures Pre- and post-test results were
  compared for each student.
• Setting The Anger Group was held in the
  Counseling Center Conference room. The Substance
  Abuse Group met in a private room in the media
  center.

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Identification of StudentsA survey was
distributed to the student body.

• ID____________
• PERSONAL CONFIDENTIAL
• Please check the boxes for any groups that
  interest you.
• __Divorce Survival Group
• __Parenting and Pregnant Teens
• __Dealing with the imprisonment of a parent or
  family member
• __How do I deal with all the chaos and drama in
  my family?
• __Homeless-kicked out-no place to call home
• __How to manage my anger
• __Dealing with drug and/or alcohol issues in my
  life (me or others in my family).

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Needs Survey Results
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Procedure

• Step one was to identify by Student ID number
  those students who reported being depressed and
  suicidal. I immediately reported them to their
  individual counselors and appropriate steps were
  taken by those counselors. Those two students
  were not candidates for any group.
• I then looked at the largest numbers as reported
  by the students. Drama and chaos in my home
  ranked as 1. However, upon reflection, that
  category wasnt specific enough for time-limited
  small group counseling to effectively address.
  The school social worker was forming a parenting
  group and addressing homeless issues. Therefore,
  I chose Prison, Anger, and Substance Abuse as
  possible groups for me to facilitate.

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Procedure, continued

• I located the students by identifying them by
  their Student ID numbers and referred to their
  individual schedules.
• I went to their classrooms and spoke with each
  individual (in the hall, for privacy) regarding
  their desire to participate in group counseling
  and pre-screened them for the appropriateness of
  the modality, based on their expressed needs.

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The Participants

• The students in the groups were
• self-reported to be having problems, or
• referred by their counselor, or
• referred by an Assistant Principal
• The students regular counselors specified
  several students who were not appropriate for a
  group intervention and they were eliminated from
  the pool.
• The facilitator met individually with the
  students to determine if the group would address
  the students problem.
• Although I designed three groups, I only ran two
  of them. The prison group didnt make because
  parental permission was denied for those
  students.

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Psychoeducational Group Counseling

• A psychoeducational group is focused on educating
  the members about their issues.
• The group setting provides a safe place to
  experiment with adaptive, as opposed to
  maladaptive, coping mechanisms.
• These kinds of groups are structured group
  members are provided with specific topics or
  modules to discuss and learn about.

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Group GoalsThe group goals were negotiated and
established by the members of each group with
some guidance from the counselor. These may
differ somewhat from the counselor goals.

• Group members will be able to identify and share
  feelings associated with their issues.
• Group members will be able to discuss experiences
  related to having an inappropriate reaction
  (e.g. anger - loss of control Dad/Mom drinks
  Im to blame).
• Group members will interact with each other,
  listen to each other, and provide respectful
  feedback to one another.
• Group members will develop new coping strategies
  for troubling situations.
• Group members will develop a support system among
  themselves.

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Anger and Substance Abuse Pre-Post Tests

• Do you believe no one could possibly understand
  how you feel?
• Do you cover up your real feelings by pretending
  you dont care?
• Do you feel nobody really loves you or cares what
  happens to you?
• Do you tell lies to cover up for whats really
  happening in your life?
• Do you stay out of the house as much as possible
  because you hate it there?
• Are you afraid or embarrassed someone will find
  out whats going on?
• Do you make promises to others you know you wont
  keep?
• Do you think all your problems would be solved if
  this one issue were resolved?
• Has this issue affected how you feel about
  yourself?
• Do you ever treat people (teachers, schoolmates,
  friends, etc.) unjustly because you are angry at
  someone else?
• I used the same pre/post test for both groups.
  The possible answers were 1 to 5 on a Likert
  scale with 1 indicating no agreement and 5
  indicating complete agreement. The highest
  possible score on this would be 50 if all 10
  questions were answered with complete agreement.

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Counselor Goals

• Despite using the same test, my goals for the
  groups were diametrically opposed.
• In the Anger group my goal was to see the total
  scores go up. This would indicate that the
  participants are becoming more aware of their
  emotions and are claiming ownership of them,
  rather than blaming others for their emotional
  state.
• For the Substance Abuse group my goal was to see
  the total scores go down. This would indicate
  that the participants are individuating
  themselves and leaving the responsibility for the
  substance abuse to the abusers.

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Pre/Post Test Results

• Anger Management Group

• Substance Abuse Group

Students Pre-Test Post-test Improvement Counselor Goal
Stan 18 23 28
Ralph 17 24 41
Helen 25 30 20
Students Pre-Test Post-test Improvement Counselor Goal
Janice 34 27 26
Bill 21 16 31
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Conclusions

• Short-term group counseling can produce change.
• The psychoeducational format is a good fit in the
  school environment.
• All change that occurred was moving the students
  toward improved functioning.
• Scheduling the group meetings in school was the
  most difficult part of running the groups.
• As a result of the groups and the improvement in
  their functioning, the group members are talking
  it up to their friends and to faculty.

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Summation

• Although the expressed need was great, the number
  of actual participants was very low. I was
  informed that this school had never before had a
  group counseling program. However, the project
  surveys clearly demonstrated a need for and
  interest in this type of intervention.
• As I have shown, all change was change for the
  better. Hopefully, the insight these students
  gained in group counseling will allow continued
  improvement in their functioning and hope for
  their futures.