PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL GROUP PLAN
Discuss three essential points for why self-development is important for psychoeducational
group leaders
Discuss and define three group leader characteristics
After reflecting on the leader characteristics, identify one area where you need to improve
1
As a group leader, it is vitally important to continually improve your skills. When you are
constantly giving out to others, you can become depleted yourself. As the Apostle Paul said in his
first letter to the Church at Corinth, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest
that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (2017).
While we may not be overtly preaching in a psychoeducational group, the principle remains the
same. We must be careful that after giving of ourself to others that we could suffer from burnout
and fall away in our relationship with God and also become ineffective ministering to others.
According to the text by Brown (2018), among the reasons to pursue self-development is
to prevent burnout and countertransference, promote skill development, knowing and
understanding what to do in sessions (84). In an article by Michaud et. al., (2021),
countertransference is described as the result of the patient’s influence on the therapist’s
unconscious feelings (416). I have found that some of the darkness in the counseling
occasionally “gets on me” and I have felt myself spiritually taxed following a counseling session.
PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL GROUP PLAN2
As an Army chaplain, the military institutionalizes self-development and puts money towards it
in the form of tuition assistance. Additionally, I recently travelled to Kileen Texas to Fort
Cavazos (formerly Fort Hood) where I spent two weeks taking a Pastoral Skills Intensive Course
which focused upon counseling skill and further developing the therapeutic alliance. So I really
resonated with this aspect of self-development.
I really liked how the Brown text (2018) differentiates between leader characteristics and leader
skills. She poses that characteristics refer to what you are and skill to hay you can do. She goes
on further to describe the characteristics of an effective group leader as including believing in the
group process, confidence in yourself and your abilities and appropriate sense of humor (93).
When I look at the above three group leader characteristics, I find that I could greatly improve
upon my sense of humor. I can easily read a joke and incorporate it into my sessions however,
there is an art to weaving in self-deprecating humor and seamlessly making it part of your style. I
find that when I am fully prepared, I look for ways to add lightness to the conversation. When I
can smoothly add it in, it feels good to see eyes light up with laughter and see the mood of the
room change in an instant. So in time, I hope to have humor as a counsellor muscle memory so I
don’t even have to think about it, it just flows from me.
PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL GROUP PLAN 3
References
Brown, N. W. (2018). Psychoeducational groups : process and practice. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315169590
King James Bible. (2017). King James Bible
Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ (Original work published 1769)
Michaud, Greenway, K. T., Corbeil, S., Bourquin, C., & Richard-Devantoy, S. (2023).
Countertransference towards suicidal patients: a systematic review. Current Psychology :
Research & Reviews., 42(1), 416–430. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01424-0
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