A Group Approach Used for Counseling Perpetrators of Sexual Crimes in a Prison Setting

This article describes a group approach for working with incarcerated male perpetrators of incest or incest-like crimes. The article is based on a program currently being pilot tested in the New York State prison system at Collins Correctional Facility. Suggestions for interviewing group members are given, an approach for treatment is described, and termination guidelines are discussed.     

A Study of Group Counseling with Disadvantaged Workers in an Industrial Setting

The purpose of the study was to examine the process and effectiveness of group counseling as a part of a training program conducted through a Labor Department grant. Trainees in a JOBS program at the Westinghouse plant in Athens, Georgia, who were certified by the Georgia State Training and Employment Service as disadvantaged, received a 90-minute counseling session each week. Members of the training group had better work attendance and less employee turnover than a comparable group not in the training program. The tapes of one counselor—three five-minute segments at the beginning, middle, and end of each tape—were used for analysis, which was done by an affect-topic method. The counselor of the group analyzed presents some personal observations of the counseling process. Some suggestions for improvements of group counseling in similar contexts are also presented.     

Intake and Walk-in Procedures in a College Counseling Setting

Modifications of the intake procedure usually employed in counseling settings were adopted in order to provide students the opportunity for immediate contact with a counselor. Elimination of the waiting list, reduction in number of missed appointments, and reduction of length of counseling came about. Staff satisfaction with the new approach has been high and there would be opposition to reverting to the scheduled initial interview. Possible changes in the type of problem or clients' readiness for problem-solving were observed.     

Parent Education in a Group Therapy Setting

This article responds to K. Roy MacKenzie's Presidential Address, which concerns the challenge of mental health reform as it effects group psychotherapy. Issues of the time-effective use of groups for specific patient populations are explored. The need for practice guidelines that benefit from outcome studies is emphasized. In addition, the efforts of the National Registry of Certified Group Psychotherapists to support group therapy within the current managed care environment are explicated.     

Traditional Roles in a Non-Traditional Setting: Genetic Counseling in Precision Oncology

Next generation sequencing technology is increasingly utilized in oncology with the goal of targeting therapeutics to improve response and reduce side effects. Interpretation of tumor mutations requires sequencing of paired germline DNA, raising questions about incidental germline findings. We describe our experiences as part of a research team implementing a protocol for whole genome sequencing (WGS) of tumors and paired germline DNA known as the Michigan Oncology Sequencing project (MI-ONCOSEQ) that includes options for receiving incidental germline findings. Genetic counselors (GCs) discuss options for return of results with patients during the informed consent process and document family histories. GCs also review germline findings and actively participate in the multi-disciplinary Precision Medicine Tumor Board (PMTB), providing clinical context for interpretation of germline results and making recommendations about disclosure of germline findings. GCs have encountered ethical and counseling challenges with participants, described here. Although GCs have not been traditionally involved in molecular testing of tumors, our experiences with MI-ONCOSEQ demonstrate that GCs have important applicable skills to contribute to multi-disciplinary care teams implementing precision oncology. Broader use of WGS in oncology treatment decision making and American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) recommendations for active interrogation of germline tissue in tumor-normal dyads suggests that GCs will have future opportunities in this area outside of research settings.     

Expression of Feelings in Group Counseling

70 high school students in 9 counseling groups were administered outcome instruments for self-evaluation and evaluation by peers. Interaction in counseling was classified according to underlying feeling early and late in the series of 12 sessions. Tests of 6 hypotheses relating feeling changes occurring during counseling to counseling outcomes showed 2 results significant at the .05 level. Change in feeling seemed to correlate more with evaluation by peers than with self-evaluation. The 9 groups were found to differ widely in type and amount of affective interaction. Methodological problems were considered. Discussion focused on implications for counseling practice and on relationships to published research.     

Attribution Retraining as a Structured Group Counseling Intervention

The efficacy of attribution retraining as a structured group counseling intervention was tested. Participants were classified as having either an adaptive or nonadaptive attributional style. Three groups of participants were then created: Adaptive Group, Nonadaptive Group, Treatment Group (nonadaptive attributional style participants who received treatment involving attribution retraining). Results indicated that participants in the Treatment Group made relatively more adaptive attributions (similar to the adaptive Group) for an experimentally induced uncontrollable failure and reported lower levels of depressive mood than the Nonadaptive Group. Results are discussed as providing partial support for the efficacy of attribution retraining as a structured group counseling intervention.     

Group Employment Counseling Training in Canada

This article outlines the views of the author regarding group training of employment counselors in Canada. The current group training program for employment counselors and the accompanying packages are discussed.     

Themes in Group Counseling with Adolescents

A group of counselors met in seminar over a period of a year, critiquing tapes of their group counseling sessions. It was found through analysis of these recordings that certain themes could be identified which occurred and reoccurred in the content of group counseling with adolescents. These themes were entitled: “My Vices,” “Outwitting the Adults,” “Problem Parents,” “My Brother, the Brat,” “My Public Image,” “Nobody Loves Me,” and “Let's Change the Rules.” Illustrative material is presented that was transcribed from the recordings, after all identifying data were removed.     

Group Counseling with College Underachievers

Some of the controversy concerning the efficacy of psychotherapy or counseling has been resolved by recent evidence that studies reporting no effects had indiscriminately lumped together the high and low therapeutic conditions that are associated with successful and unsuccessful outcomes. The present study extends these findings to a group of essentially neurotic underachieving college freshmen. The 24 experimental students who received group counseling showed greater improvement in grade-point average than 24 matched, non-counseled control subjects. Further, those counseled subjects who received the highest therapeutic conditions tended to show the greatest improvement.     

A Test of Group Counseling

High school students were counseled in groups designed around either a “traditional” or an “accelerated interaction” format The efficiency of each approach in achieving the goals of guidance in education was studied. Group counseling appeared to be a useful counseling tool if organized on a weekly basis.