Group Work Leadership

This is a proposal for a core text on group work, anchored in the new standards set forth by CACREP in 2009. It will be the second book in the series Counseling and Professional Identity in the 21st Century and will also foster a structure that allows developing counselors to crystallize their own values and professional identity development. Quite often, group courses are packed with the theoretical information needed to understand the complex nature of running and leading groups, but often lack a direct link to help student understand what to do in practice. This book, based on experiential framework, aims to bridge solid research and empirical support with clear dialogue, exercises and connections back to theory. The book will cover the process of groups and group leadership, theories of group counseling, methods of practice, and direct experiences, cases, and dialogues of groups in practice. A key goal of the book will be to connect it with best practices in group work set forth by the Association of Specialists in Group Work, but also to the core elements of 2009 CACREP revision. Each chapter will begin with a description of the theoretical construct, the clinical considerations, in depth and verbatim counselor thinking boxes, and guided practice exercises.