Group Counseling In The Movie 'The Breakfast Club'

Group Counseling Final Group counseling is a different dynamic to counseling that can be very beneficial for clients to participate in. There are a variety of different types of groups, such as psychoeducational, counseling, task, and psychotherapy. Regardless of what type of group it is, all consist of four stages: the initial, transition, working, and termination stages. Each of these different stages contain distinct characteristics of facilitators and members that set them apart from one another. The movie, The Breakfast Club, provides a clear example of each of these stages as a group of students go through Saturday detention.
Initial
The initial stage of group counseling is characterized by a variety of different aspects that set the …show more content…
The students reach this stage in the movie when they all decide to smoke pot together after Bender comes back into the room. At this point, self-disclosure increases significantly. During this stage, members begin to star talking about issues that they are willing to discuss. For example, Claire and Bender dumped out their personal belongings from her purse and his wallet and began to open up about some person things. The other students began to open up as well and eventually the conversation leads into Allison talking about her home life. This conversation progressed further into them talking about a variety of issues, such as sex, relationships, suicide, and other personal issues that would not have been brought up in earlier …show more content…
This stage marks the close of the relationship between the group and is just as important as the initial stage. Termination is characterized by summarizing the experience participating in the group and tying up any unfinished business that is needed. The termination stage begins when Brian asks what it will be like when they see each other in school on Monday. The students talk about this openly with one another as they discuss their roles that they have in school and how they feel about continuing these relationships that they have made with each other.
One intervention that I would implement if I was the leader of this group would be to work with the students to identify referral services for any members that may need it. A lot of the members disclosed some heavy things about themselves and I think it would be important to refer them as necessary. Another intervention I would use would be to assist the students in dealing with any feelings they have about the termination of the group. The students kind of did this on their own, but I think that it would be beneficial to have had a leader there to help them further explore those feelings. Despite the fact that the students are sad to leave each other, it is clear that they have all grown significantly and have learned something about themselves through their Saturday