As a mental health counseling student, I have learned to appreciate the exhilarating moment when I work with an individual or group in a real or fabricated setting for the first time. This exhilaration was definitely not absent in today’s demonstration of the Autobiography technique with my classmates in a mock group. I could feel my mind dancing with thoughts of guidelines, self-awareness, and ideas of doing and saying the next right thing, while I engaged the group and each individual in a directed activity to spawn the specific goal of making discoveries about each other and identifying differences and commonalities.
I have realized that my individual perspective of a client and/or the group broadened as I attended to what each individual …show more content…
What were your strengths as a leader during this session? I think the entire technique and the processing went extremely well given the feedback I got from the group and the professor. I did two things that I thought went very well; linking and utilizing the basic listening sequence. By observing each member of the group as they shared and as they listened to others, I was able to utilize open-ended questions, paraphrasing encouragers, and reflection of feelings, to link group members to each other to create universality. My strengths as leader reside in my ability to organize and plan well, but I also remain capable of adjusting to what the group needs at the time. I used intentionality well with my questions and observations to create connections. I worked well with the group through the use of verbal tracking and appropriate visual eye contact. My voice and demeanor communicated warmth and interest with what each individual said.
What would I have done differently? If I could do something differently, I would have not worried as much about the time and explored some more of what each individual was saying and not saying. I would have liked to make greater connections between the members of the group by bringing the group down another level
I have realized that my individual perspective of a client and/or the group broadened as I attended to what each individual …show more content…
What were your strengths as a leader during this session? I think the entire technique and the processing went extremely well given the feedback I got from the group and the professor. I did two things that I thought went very well; linking and utilizing the basic listening sequence. By observing each member of the group as they shared and as they listened to others, I was able to utilize open-ended questions, paraphrasing encouragers, and reflection of feelings, to link group members to each other to create universality. My strengths as leader reside in my ability to organize and plan well, but I also remain capable of adjusting to what the group needs at the time. I used intentionality well with my questions and observations to create connections. I worked well with the group through the use of verbal tracking and appropriate visual eye contact. My voice and demeanor communicated warmth and interest with what each individual said.
What would I have done differently? If I could do something differently, I would have not worried as much about the time and explored some more of what each individual was saying and not saying. I would have liked to make greater connections between the members of the group by bringing the group down another level