NCASGW - North Carolina Association for Specialists in Group Work

About

The North Carolina Association for Specialists in Group Work is dedicated to the advancement of group work in all counseling settings.

Tips & Tools for Group Counseling

In this section of our website, we offer tips and tools for providing group counseling services and integrating a group focus into your practice as counselors and counselor educators. Some tools are noted as best suited for particular settings or groups and others are appropriate for use with/in a wide range of groups and settings. Please feel free to submit tips and tools that you would like to share to Kylie Dotson-Blake at [email protected] or to join the conversation about group counseling at http://ncasgw.proboards.com.

Galvin, C. R. (2009). The use of multi-sensory techniques for group counseling. Can be accessed at “The Carolina Counselor, Fall 2009” https://nccounseling.org/newsletters/
CarolinaCounselor_Fall2009.pdf

Excerpt: Dr. Ed Jacobs wrote a brief article on The Use of Multi- Sensory Techniques for Group Work for the Association for Specialist in Group Work website- under Practice Idea #7. In his article he provides several multi-sensory techniques for group work. According to Ed Jacobs, Multi-Sensory Techniques are those techniques or props that engage more than one of the group member’s senses, which increases focus and energy by engaging the brain in multiple ways.

One idea is using the Styrofoam Cups technique. This technique is described by Ed Jacobs as being useful for self-esteem. As counselors we know self-esteem is an issue that is very common which is often discussed in many support, counseling, and therapy groups for all ages. Dr. Jacob says; “One excellent way to provide a visual image of low self-esteem is to use Styrofoam cups”. Below are three suggestions for using the Styrofoam cups. The first step is for the group leader to provide a Styrofoam cup to each group member which represents self-esteem.

Resource Reviews

This section of our site shares reviews of resources focused on group counseling. We will share reviews of texts, websites and other forms of media. If you have a resource you would like to review, please use the Group Tool Review Outline template attached here and submit your review to Kylie Dotson-Blake, [email protected].

Dotson-Blake, K. P. (2011). Review of Groups in Schools: Preparing, Leading and Responding. Can be accessed at “The Carolina Counselor, Fall 2011”