INTRODUCTION
What is Group Counseling?
Purpose of the group counseling varies from group to group. It can be therapeutic, educational, or helping people to make fundamental changes in their way of thinking, feeling and behaving (Corey, 2004, p. 7). Group counseling/therapy has the advantage of being more effective than individual therapy because, it more closely stimulates social interactions and interpersonal communication patterns than does individual counseling (Kottler, 2004, p. 260). The techniques and strategies use in group counseling are to help resolve members’ interpersonal conflict, promote greater self-awareness and insight, and help them work to eliminate their self-defeating behaviours. The members in the group counseling setting often are peers and the group provides a microcosm of the society in some ways that clients deal daily (Sharf, 2004, p. 21).
Counseling Groups for Adolescents
Except for infancy, more changes occur during adolescence than during any other time of life. As a saying goes, adolescents are “neither fish nor fowl” (Rathus, 2004, p. 109). That means adolescents are neither children nor adults. It is a transition from childhood to adulthood - a period bounded by puberty and the assumption of adult responsibilities. They undergo biological, physical, emotional and cognitive changes. Adolescence is a time of storm and stress in which conflicts, distress, mood swings, and aggressive tendencies are common. They strive to become independent from their parents that results arguments and withdrawal from parents. Due to all these reasons, adolescents face critical challenges at this stage of life. These changes haunt them and make them lonely. They need to take key decisions for their future. Therefore, they have a need for expressing conflicting feelings, values, self-doubts, in order to understand and accept themselves. Family issues such as parental gap and separation of parents make them feel
Bibliography: Corey, G. (2004). Theory and Practice of Group Counselling. California: Brooks/Cole - Thomson. Kottler, J. A. (2004). Introduction to Therapeutic Counselling, Voices From the Firld. California: Brooks/Cole - Thomson. Rathus, S. A. (2004). Psychology - Concepts and Connections (7th ed.). New York, USA. Rosenberg. (1965). http://www.yorku.ca/rokada/psyctest/rosenbrg.pdf .