Turkish counselor trainees’ experiences regarding experiential groups: A qualitative study

The purpose of the study was to examine Turkish counselor trainees’ experiences in participating in an experiential training group. The phenomenological research design was used to understand counselor trainees’ experiences in experiential group. The 18 undergraduate counseling students (14 female and 4 male) enrolled in a group counseling course were the participants of the study. The data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews after the completion of twelve- week experiential counseling groups. Content analysis was used to analyze the data and according to results, three main themes emerged: a) perceptions, b) contributions and c) problems. Under the perceptions theme emotions and metaphors codes emerged. Vocational and personal contributions were two main codes emerged under the contributions theme. And under the problems theme, two codes emerged as group structure and group process. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature and recommendations for counselor educators and researchers are presented.

Groupwork course experiences

<p><i>Numerous concerns exist in the groupwork and counseling literatures regarding the requirement that students participate in experiential counseling groups as part of their academic coursework. This research examined the use of service learning task groups as an alternate way to address this required component of group counseling coursework to address multiple relationship concerns between faculty and students. Results indicated that while many group counseling skills were demonstrated in the task group, not all skills manifested. Group skills that were more ‘safe’ in terms of counselor risk were demonstrated more often. Less ‘safe’ or risky group skills for the counselor, such as providing feedback to a group member, were demonstrated less frequently. The authors offer implications for research and practice</i>.</p>