A qualitative research of leaders' intervention intensions in process of unstructured group counseling / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore group leaders' intervention intensions during group counseling process. Methods: The Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) was applied to collect leaders' intervention intensions in 11 sessions of 2 unstructured counseling groups. Leaders' intervention intensions were coded according to coding manual. Results: Totally 29 types of intervention intensions were identified and grouped into 10 categories. The 3 intervention intensions with the highest frequency were"access to information and evaluation", "promoting awareness" and "expressing support for group members". The intervention intensions of establishing a group culture and promoting group cohesion mainly appeared in the early stage of group counseling. The intervention intension of dealing with emotion mostly appeared in the middle stage. The intervention intension of promoting awareness appeared a lot in the early and middle stages of group development The intervention intention of expressing support for group members was salient at the initial and final stages of group counseling. Conclusion: There may be diverse intervention intensions in the process of group counseling. Group leaders could pay attention to interpersonal interaction, giving consideration to both individuals and groups.