Alignment With the Literature from the Unit and Wider Reading
Group work counseling a psychological assistance when a client discusses his life difficulties not only alone with a psychologist, but also with other people (Schönberger, 2019). Resorting to wider reading, it can be revealed that the group itself is the main condition for personal development and problem resolution (McCabe et al., 2021). Both literature from the unit and wider reading state that group counseling is used to solve problems of interpersonal relationships and problems of social and cultural readaptation (Schönberger, 2019). It also includes a variety of trainings based on intra-group interaction, often based on a culturally independent approach which leads to the appearance of the ethical and professional issues.
Definition and Components of the Therapeutic Relationship
The therapeutic relationship that makes up the contact between the therapist and the client is a deep, trusting, psychological intimacy of interaction. These are close relationships, but they are fundamentally different from friendly or related ones (Ajjawi et al., 2020). They are not symmetrical: the therapist knows the secrets of their client, and the patient should be ignorant of any personal information about the specialist. The specialist’s personal material will introduce distortions and influence psychological work. In addition, it will be more difficult for the client to trust them. When a client is dealing with a psychotherapist, and not with a personality, they are less afraid of evaluation and can be more open.
The components of the therapeutic relationship are the boundaries of attachment, the position of the therapist and the space-time relationship. The definition of the boundaries of attachment consists in setting rules prohibiting the client from calling a psychiatrist at home without prior agreement, escorting them home or coming visiting them. (Ajjawi et al., 2020) The position of the psychotherapist represents the role strategy adopted by the psychotherapist in the relationship with the client, and in turn consists of authoritarianism or partnership in the choice of goals and objectives of psychotherapy, and directive or non-directive in their technical implementation. The space-time relationship consists of the location of the sessions, their duration and the intervals between them.
Research
It is very important to conduct a thorough selection of group members for the research. This is especially true for children and adolescents, because children are especially vulnerable. It is difficult for them to abstract from possible negative aspects of group work, such as the cruelty of other children, painful memories of family tragedies or the possible disclosure of purely personal information outside the group. Emotionally, children tend to be poorly prepared to work with their own experiences, especially if they are strong and sudden feelings. All this makes the selection of candidates for the research groups the most serious part of the preliminary preparation.
Ethical Issues in Group Counselling
Ethical issues in group counseling can often be associated with ambivalent relationships that arise in cases where, in addition to the psychologist–client relationship, there are other relationships between the leader and the members of the group. For example, the psychologist can simultaneously be a teacher, an acquaintance or a relative of a group member. Duality leads to unequal relations, reduces objectivity and prevents such a client from working on an equal footing with others (Hofmann & Hayes, 2019). Therefore, a group therapist should avoid ambivalent relationships with group members. They can affect their objectivity and professional judgments, or make it difficult for a group member to participate fully in the work, causing ethical issues.
Engaging with Respect
A group psychotherapist should strive for an equally respectful attitude towards all members of the group, taking into account their individuality. In this regard, they should understand and respect the cultural, racial, religious, age, gender, and physical differences that exist between the members of the group (McCabe et al., 2021). It is the duty of a psychotherapist to monitor their behavior towards individual members of the group and to be aware of the possible harmful consequences of favoritism or special relationships with some members of the group to the detriment of others. It is quite understandable that a group therapist will single out some participants, but they all deserve equal attention. It is also necessary to show respect to the silent participants of therapy, encouraging their attempts to engage in communication and preventing monopolization.
Client Rights and Records
Confidentiality is the most important condition for any group work, both with children and adults. Frankness and self-disclosure are possible only when the members of the group are confident in their own safety, and without self-disclosure there can be no successful group work. In addition to the right to confidentiality, each member of the group, with the exception of those forcibly sent, also has the right to leave the group before the joint sessions end (Stoll et al., 2020). However, since leaving the group can negatively affect both the outgoing and the remaining members of the group, the psychologist is obliged to discuss all the points related to this possibility in advance.
In order not to violate clients’ privacy rights, a psychologist should discuss the right to record classes on video or audio media. To do this, they must collect the prior consent of the group members and inform the participants about how these materials will be used in the future. The psychologist is also obliged to inform the members of the group about all the reports that they are required to submit to the appropriate authorities (Stoll et al., 2020). Moreover, when obtaining permission to shoot, all records about the members of the group (written, audio, video, etc.) should be kept in such a way as to ensure clients’ confidentiality.
Overcoming Bias and Prejudices
In order to overcome bias, the psychotherapist must be guided by the principle of impartiality, which implies the ability of the presenter to be aware of his sympathies for individual clients, but at the same time work in such a way that it does not prevent them from taking into account the needs of everyone else equally well. It is quite natural that some members of the group cause more sympathy than others (McRae et al., 2018). However, it is absolutely unacceptable for the leader of the group to demonstrate his preferences and highlight favorites. It is necessary to provide equal opportunities for self-expression to all members of the group.
A psychologist is often responsible for the formation of a certain value system among clients. However, there are very different opinions about which value systems customers should be guided by. Sometimes a psychotherapist tries to force what seems right to them (McRae et al., 2018). For example, they can require group members to communicate in ways that are unacceptable to clients who grew up in a different socio-cultural environment. Therefore, a psychologist needs to deal with prejudices by being aware of their values and preferences and being able to manifest them, taking into account the cultural characteristics of groups.
Personal and Professional Characteristics of Effective Counsellors
Professional as well as personal qualities of a psychologist are often interrelated; the result of combining these qualities is shown in Figure 1. Successful psychologists are also characterized by significant indicators on the scales of sociability, intellectual, emotional and volitional stability, diplomacy, courage, goodwill, self-control, empathy, tolerance and decency (Polychronis, 2018). Of great importance for a psychologist are the communicative characteristics of their personality, such as the ability to understand other individuals, as well as to influence them psychologically correctly.
Relationship Factors When Counselling Clients Though Alternative Modes – E.g., Telephone, Online
The provision of psychological assistance by phone has now received recognition all over the world, it is actively developing and improving. Contacting by phone is possible if there is no possibility or desire to meet with the consultant in person. Often the psychotherapeutic nature of telephone help is implicit, which increases the sense of security and self-esteem of clients (FitzGerald et al., 2019). At the same time, a frank and trusting nature of communication is formed, which contributes to an effective response (Bennett et al., 2021). This reduces the feeling of anxiety, and also increases the effectiveness of the psychotherapeutic effect of the conversation.
The remote format creates additional comfort and a level of security for the client, who may not show their face by choosing voice counseling. They can also stay at home and communicate with a psychologist in the most familiar environment, which will make the relationship between the specialist and the patient less tense (FitzGerald et al., 2019). A specialist can establish therapeutic contact and better monitor the emotional state of the client without causing the patient additional stress from personal communication.
Contextual & Cultural Considerations for Group Counselling
Contextual considerations for group counseling include differences in goals. Psychotherapeutic groups are characterized by the study of how to change the behavior, experiences and thoughts of clients. Moreover, differences in context depend on the use of interpersonal and intrapersonal assessments, diagnoses and interpretations to establish a connection between the material of the past and future events (Polychronis, 2018). The expected duration of counseling also plays a role: group therapy can be long-term or short-term (Heinonen & Nissen-Lie, 2019). Therapy groups differ by age criterion: there is group therapy for children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. The group to some extent recreates the world familiar to its members – a social microcosm which is a sample of social reality. The contextual considerations associated with this are the stronger, the more the group members differ in age, interests, socio-economic status and types of problems.
The healing properties of any psychotherapy consist not in theoretically unique features, such as insight in psychoanalytic approaches or cognitive changes in cognitive approaches, but in those common properties that are inherent in all psychotherapeutic directions. In the multicultural context of group therapy, it is necessary to use properties that are common not only for different types of psychotherapy, but also for various healing techniques that exist in different cultures (Mahmuda et al., 2019). In total, four common factors are identified: therapeutic relationships, a common worldview, the expectation of changes by the client and a ritual or intervention to alleviate the distress experienced by the client (Heinonen & Nissen-Lie, 2019). The identified common factors are not mutually exclusive, there is an interdependence between them, which manifests itself in the creation of a favorable cultural context during group therapy.
Listening and Responding to Diverse Clients in Group Counselling
If necessary, the therapist can behave quite harshly during the hearing of clients in group counseling. It should be emphasized that the psychotherapist should be able to use appropriate therapeutic coercion in order to prevent the group from getting away from the issues under consideration or from the need to solve problems relevant to the participants (Zagorscak et al., 2020). Listening to diverse clients, the therapist should stop all attempts of excessive pressure of the group members on each other. In addition, they must resist any physical or verbal aggression if it can harm any of the discussion participants. The main strategies for working with diverse clients in group counseling are shown in Figure 2.
The therapist should intervene in the work of the group in all cases of excessive pressure or attempts by members of the diverse group to force other participants to do something against their will. Psychotherapists should intervene in the work of the group in cases when someone in the group tries to express his aggression in the form of physical violence that can harm another member of the group (Zagorscak et al., 2020). They should also respond in cases when someone in the group directly insults another member of the diverse group or inadequately expresses their dislike for others.
References
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