Grief counseling is a very broad topic. You will need to narrow both the population and the presenting problem a bit further when developing your group. For example, it will be important to think about the nature of the grief/loss you may focus on in your group (death of a spouse, child, extended family member, etc). Additionally, there are a lot of group plans out there that focus on grief and loss. It is important to develop your own plan and not simply copy one that is already in place. Group Counseling Plan Instructions · July 15 by 11:59pm · Points None Key Performance Indicator Assignment: Group Counseling Plan You are required to choose a group counseling topic you would like to research and for which you will develop a six-week group framework plan. The instructor must approve your topic in advance. Sample topics could include: 1. Grief counseling 2. Self-esteem building 3. Conflict resolution 4. Social skills 5. Interpersonal communication 6. School achievement skills 7. Decision making (college/career focus) 8. School transitions 9. Addictions 10. Parenting education Your counseling plan needs to specify the population for whom the group is tailored. You also need to include relevant research regarding effective small group intervention plans for this topic and population. You will then design (in outline form) a 6-week, small group counseling plan based on this research. You are required to submit the assignment in written form. Your written paper needs to follow the outline form below. Please make sure you address each point in the outline. Instructions: The outline of this group counseling plan will include the following sections: I. Introduction a. Is this topic more appropriate for small or large group? Highlight why individual counseling wasn’t chosen. b. What is your specific population of focus for this group? (e.g., court mandated clients, children who have lost a loved one, adolescents with school difficulties, couples, etc.) II. Characteristics of Group Leaders a. What group leader characteristics are necessary for successful group facilitation? b. How does the type and formulation of the group impact your group leader selection and facilitation? III. Culturally Relevant Strategies for Designing and Facilitating Groups a. How do cultural and diversity factors impact development and facilitation of your group? b. What steps have you taken to insure these strategies are in place? IV. Research a. What does the research suggest as effective interventions for this population? b. What does the research show was ineffective for working with this population? V. Group Counseling Plan a. Clearly outline at least 6 sessions for the group b. Include the following for each session: i. Objectives for each session ii. Materials needed for each session iii. Step-by-step instructions for leading the lessons, including process questions the leader should ask with the activities iv. Any additional materials (e.g., worksheets, handouts ...

1. Grief counseling is a very broad topic. You will need to narrow
both the population and the presenting problem a bit further
when developing your group. For example, it will be important
to think about the nature of the grief/loss you may focus on in
your group (death of a spouse, child, extended family member,
etc). Additionally, there are a lot of group plans out there that
focus on grief and loss. It is important to develop your own plan
and not simply copy one that is already in place.
Group Counseling Plan Instructions
· July 15 by 11:59pm
· Points None
Key Performance Indicator Assignment: Group Counseling Plan
You are required to choose a group counseling topic you would
like to research and for which you will develop a six-week
group framework plan. The instructor must approve your topic
in advance.
Sample topics could include:
1. Grief counseling
2. Self-esteem building
3. Conflict resolution
4. Social skills
5. Interpersonal communication
6. School achievement skills
7. Decision making (college/career focus)
8. School transitions
9. Addictions
10. Parenting education
Your counseling plan needs to specify the population for whom
the group is tailored. You also need to include relevant research
regarding effective small group intervention plans for this topic
and population. You will then design (in outline form) a 6-
week, small group counseling plan based on this research. You
are required to submit the assignment in written form. Your
written paper needs to follow the outline form below. Please

2. make sure you address each point in the outline.
Instructions: The outline of this group counseling plan will
include the following sections:
I. Introduction
a. Is this topic more appropriate for small or large group?
Highlight why individual counseling wasn’t chosen.
b. What is your specific population of focus for this group?
(e.g., court mandated clients, children who have lost a loved
one, adolescents with school difficulties, couples, etc.)
II. Characteristics of Group Leaders
a. What group leader characteristics are necessary for successful
group facilitation?
b. How does the type and formulation of the group impact your
group leader selection and facilitation?
III. Culturally Relevant Strategies for Designing and
Facilitating Groups
a. How do cultural and diversity factors impact development
and facilitation of your group?
b. What steps have you taken to insure these strategies are in
place?
IV. Research
a. What does the research suggest as effective interventions for
this population?
b. What does the research show was ineffective for working
with this population?
V. Group Counseling Plan
a. Clearly outline at least 6 sessions for the group
b. Include the following for each session:
i. Objectives for each session
ii. Materials needed for each session
iii. Step-by-step instructions for leading the lessons, including
process questions the leader should ask with the activities
iv. Any additional materials (e.g., worksheets, handouts) the

3. leader will need
VI. Recommendations
a. In addition to the group, what (if anything) should the
counselor do to ensure that the client’s needs are met in this
topic area?
b. What would you recommend to counselors planning to lead
this group?
VII. References
a. APA style is required
b. At least 5 professional references must be used (no websites
or self-help books)
A rubric for this assignment can be found attached to this
assignment. Students must receive at least a 70% to receive a
passing grade. A student who scores less than 70% of the grade
on the KPI assignment must complete an Individual
Remediation Plan with the instructor. Failure to successfully
remediate the KPI assignment will result in an F (Fail) grade in
the course.

4. “SAMPLE of Group PLAN”
Parenting Education Group
1. Introduction
Parents continue to face unique challenges associated with
raising their families. Parents may have difficulty coping with a
child’s personality traits; they may struggle with having to shift
parenting strategies as their child reaches a new developmental
milestone; they may be a dual-career family and feel they do not
have enough time for children or their significant other; they
may have to manage coparenting, whether living together or
apart; and couples may have to adjust expectations in
accordance with life changes such as having a baby and
becoming parents.
a) Is this topic more appropriate for small or large group?
Highlight why individual counseling wasn’t chosen.
The Parenting Education Group is ideal for a maximum of 8
people “A group of this size is big enough to give ample
opportunity for interaction and small enough for everyone to be
involved and to feel a sense of the “group” (Corey, 2016).
The idea is that during a session everyone would have the
opportunity to participate and share their own experience as
parents but still have time to gain insight and learn effective
parenting techniques. Having a relatively small number of
participants might help to avoid turning the group into a
“playground social interaction” among parents, where a lot of
common experiences are shared but little learning is happening.
I believe a small group is more adequate for a Parenting
Education Group than individual counseling because
participants can learn from other parent’s experiences and at the
same time feel “normal” as they go through the same
challenges.

5. b) What is your specific population of focus for this group?
For this group, participants must be a father or mother to a child
who is no older than 10 years old. Children should not suffer
from any mental illness or physical disability.
2. Characteristics of Group Leaders
a) What group leader characteristics are necessary for
successful group facilitation?
In this particular case it is important that the group leader has
some experience with kids. The leader can be a parent himself
or work with children in any way that will give him or her
exposure to common problems and challenges that grownups
encounter in their daily interactions with children. “The leader
should also have the ability to establish solid relationships with
others in the group in order to ensure some level of openness
from the participants” (Corey, 2016).
Other important traits in a Group Leader:
· Non-defensiveness in coping with criticism
· Openness
· Sense of humor
· Goodwill, genuineness and caring.
b) How does the type and formulation of the group impact your
group leader selection and facilitation?
The leader must be selected on the grounds of his experience
working and dealing with children and his ability to explain and
teach how to enhance the relationship between parents and their
children. The leader must show empathy and understanding,
must be able to talk openly about the challenges he/she
encounters while dealing with children.
3. Culturally Relevant Strategies for Designing and Facilitating
Groups
a) How do cultural and diversity factors impact development
and facilitation of your group?

6. It is important to understand the cultural background of parents
that will be attending this group. If we are aware of the
environment where this group will take place it will be easier to
understand their values, beliefs and behaviors. Will this group
be conformed by members of a certain school, church or
community? If this is the case, it is probable that the group will
be somehow more homogeneous which will reduce diversity. If
the group is offered for members that have nothing in common
among them, the leader will certainly have to have a
multicultural perspective in addressing the group.
When the subject is closely related to family and upbringing,
each individual brings his particular cultural learning with
them, which might enrich the group experience but might also
create some tension. Examples of this can be how each family
deals with punishment, some families might consider physical
punishment a good and accepted option while others might view
it as extreme and unacceptable.
It is for this reason that when designing both the content and the
type of facilitation the leader will be using, it is important to
have some previous knowledge about each participant’s
background.
b) What steps have you taken to insure these strategies are in
place?
In order to ensure each participant’s cultural background is
understood and taken into account when designing the
development and type of facilitation, the leader would need to
work closely on the screening and selection procedure.
Publicizing
Attracting group members that are interested in enhancing their
parental skills and that will be committed to the process. The
brochure should include who is this group oriented to, the goals,
number of sessions, location, name and background of the

7. leader and topics to be addressed.
Screening and selecting participants
Conduct individual interviews during which the leader should
consider the following issues:
· Group members whose needs and goals are compatible with
the goals of the group
· Diversity “you may want to put together a group of individuals
who share common experiences but also are different in a
number of respects. If member composition is carefully
considered and balanced, members have opportunities both to
connect with and to learn from each other” (Corey, 2016).
· Likelihood that a candidate will benefit from a group
experience.
· The degree to which a candidate wants to make changes and is
willing to expend the necessary effort.
Orientation
Conduct an orientation session to both inform and screen group
members.
4. Research
a) What does the research suggest as effective interventions for
this population?
Research has shown that in order to enhance families and
child/parent relationships, parents should work on:
· Self management techniques
· Improving parent/child attachment
· Behavioral techniques for the day-to-day activities
· Improving the child’s self-esteem
· Understanding child perspective
· Reducing aggressive behavior
· Language use
· Modeling
· Empathizing
· Self-care

8. In order to achieve these goals the following approaches have
been proven to be effective:
· Psychoanalytic therapy based on insight, unconscious
motivation and personality.
· Family therapy: It tends to view change in terms of the
systems of interaction between family members. It emphasizes
family relationships as an important factor in psychological
health.
· Behavior Therapy: eliminate maladaptive behaviors and
replace them with more constructive patterns. During this
process, the behavior in need of improvement needs to be
selected, second the chosen behavior must be measurable and
third, when change sin behavior are observed it is necessary to
ask whose behavior has changed (Cooper, Heron & Heward,
2007).
· Cognitive Therapy: correct faulty thinking, incorrect
inferences on the basis of incorrect or inadequate information,
and failing to distinguish between fantasy and reality.
b) What does the research show was ineffective for working
with this population?
Any aggressive behavior such as physical or psychological
punishment has proven to be not only ineffective to improve
child behavior but also counterproductive.
5. Group Counseling Plan
Session 1: Understanding and accepting your child
Objectives: Accept your child for who he is. We all might have
ideas of the child we wanted to have and it might not always
coincide with the child we have. We might have wanted easier,
more obedient and complying children and we might have more
active, self opinionated and independent children instead. Try to
see the positive aspects of his/her personality. Embrace the gifts
that they do have and try to manage the behaviors that might

9. bring you here today. Change the “glasses” with which you
scrutinize your child, be more accepting and empathetic with
him. Show him your love and respect even in difficult moments.
Your child gains self-esteem from the way he feels loved and
accepted by YOU!
Materials: The following questions will be distributed among
participants and each should answer the questions individually.
Once all the questions have been answered the group leader will
ask parents to engage in a discussion.
· Can I legitimately say that I accept my daughter for who she
is?
· Do I tell her?
· Do I regularly communicate to my son his unique identity?
· Have I ever felt as distant from him?
· Have I ever spoken hurtful, angry words that left my child
wounded? If so, have I mended the offenses?
Step-by-step:
Since this is the first session the leader would open the
discussion by asking each parent to present himself/herself and
present their child in a positive and loving way, explaining only
their positive traits. No negative remarks will be accepted about
any child.
Step 1: The group leader will explain the importance of the way
we view and think about our children but also the way we talk
about them with others. We usually tell others thing like: “
Peter never follows my directions, he is so uncooperative”,
“Peter has such a bad temper, he is always crying”.
Step 2: The group leader explains how these statements hurt our
children self-esteem and how we need to improve the way we
refer to them and the way we see them.
Step 3: The group leader will give each parent the above
questions and the group will discuss the answers.
Step 4: The group leader will offer some techniques to work on

10. acceptance and show acceptance to a child.
Session 2: Peaceful Parents
Objectives: “Being peaceful and in control is a parent’s
responsibility. Parents who succeed are calmer and more
connected to their kid. They are more joyful and in control
which produces better behaved kids” (Markham, 2012).
Switching views by working on self-management and self-
control rather than on controlling the kid. Managing own
emotions and actions is what allows parents to feel peaceful.
Materials: List and identify the triggers to your anger and what
could you do to calm down.
Step-by-step:
Step 1: Identify your anger. The first step to managing your
anger is to notice the early signs. It’s really important to know
and say that you’re angry, even if it’s just to yourself.
Step 2: Try to calm down. Once you notice the early signs of
anger try taking a big breath, doing something that soothes you,
put some music, go outside, ask for help, go somewhere quiet
for a moment.
Step 3: Reflect on the situation. If you feel you’ve calmed
down, it might be a good idea to reflect back on the situation,
and think about what has just happened. ‘How important is this?
Why was I so upset about it?’ ‘Do I need to do something about
this, or can I just let it go?’
Keep in mind that feeling angry is totally normal and it is
unrealistic not to feel upset or angry, it is OK to feel angry –
it’s just not OK to yell or to treat a kid in an aggressive way.
If you could not control yourself, say sorry for yelling or losing
your temper. This shows your children that it’s OK to feel angry
sometimes. The important thing is to find healthy ways of
handling anger.

11. Session 3: Connecting
Objective: Are you really connecting with your child? What
does it mean to connect with your child? It means to be
attached, to respond to a child’s needs, to create a strong bond
where the child knows he is taken care of. Relationships, and
especially strong ones, are created by daily interactions.
Materials: Role-play a busy mother who is checking her phone
and preparing dinner as her son tells her something important
that happened today at school. She answers with simple “aha”,
“oh, that’s great” but is hardly paying attention.
Step-by-step:
Step 1: Explain the notion of connecting and what it means.
Give examples and explain how our busy daily lives can prevent
us from making these kind of necessary connections. Present the
child perspective, how does a child feel when he is not actively
listened, when there is lack of connection with his/her parents.
Step 2: Ask participants to name 2 activities per week where
they connect with their child. It can be during dinner or bath
time, it can be a board game or a walk around the park. Ask
participants to list what things are preventing them to connect
with their child.
Session 4: Managing your child behavior
Objective: Give specific behavioral tools to better manage a
child’s behavior. Explain and model techniques that could be
put in place by any parent.
Materials: no specific material for this session.
Step-by Step:
Some of the techniques that will be explored are:
Step 1: Tantrums: don’t try to make your child understand his

12. wrongdoing while he is in the tantrum. Wait for a calmer
moment to talk about what happened. Give examples of
acceptable ways to react to situations that upset him. Remain as
calm as possible during the tantrum and make sure he knows
you understand why he is upset.
Step 2: Following directions: get the child attention, talk in a
soft voice and repeat only once, if the behavior is not achieved
give a consequence.
Step 3: Rewards: provide rewards for small things, in an
unexpected way. Praise your child for every little thing he does
right. Build a rewards system that will help them succeed.
Session 5: Listening to your child
Objective: Learn how to really listen and acknowledge the
child’s inner pain, and give a chance to talk more about what is
troubling the child. “By doing so, parents will see their kids
begin to feel less upset, less confused and more able to cope
with their feelings and problems. Kids can help themselves if
they have a listening ear and en empathic response.” (Faber and
Mazlish, 1980).
Material: The following exercise shows that children make
statements that often lead to an automatic denial from their
parents. Please read each statement and write down what you
think a parent might say if he were denying his child’s feelings.
CHILD: I don’t like the new baby.
PARENT: (denying the feeling)
CHILD: I had a dumb birthday party. (After you went “all out”)
PARENT: (denying the feeling)
CHILD: I hate my coach! Just because I was one minute late he
kicked me off the team.
PARENT: (denying the feeling)
Step by Step:
Step 1: Discuss what it means to listen to your child and

13. acknowledge and accept their feelings.
Step 2: Give examples
Step 3: Ask parent how often do they really listen and validate
their child’s feelings?
Step 4: Get in groups of 2, start a conversation and practice the
following instructions:
· Listen with full attention.
· Acknowledge their feelings with a word – “Oh” …”Mmmm”
… “I see”.
· Give their feelings a name.
· Give them their wishes in fantasy.
Session 6: Putting it all together
Objective: During this session the leader will conduct a brief
review of all the topics that were discussed and at the same time
will help members consolidate learning and deal with unfinished
issues. Discussion will revolve around how the members will be
applying their new behaviors in daily life.
Materials:
Participants will answer the following questions:
· What will be the first thing you will put in practice?
· What are a few things you’ve learned that you’d most want to
remember?
· As you put in practice some of the things we’ve been talking
about during these sessions, have you seen any changes in your
child or in your relationship with him?
Step-by-step:
Step 1: Shortly reviewing all the material that was discussed
during the 8 sessions.
Step 2: Explain what should participants expect in the future.
Step 3: Talk about putting in practice and not expecting
perfection.
Step 4: Discuss the importance of seeking for help if one feels

14. he is unable to manage a situation. Ask them not to wait until
their relationship with their son or daughter has deteriorated to
a point where communication is inexistent or dysfunctional.
Step 5: Ask participants to write a contract outlining the steps
that members agree to take to increase their chances of
successfully meeting their goals when the group ends.
6. Recommendations
I would recommend the counselor to concentrate more on the
changes of attitude and behaviors of the parents instead of the
children. I would make sure sessions are more about how
parents perceive and influence their child that in the specific
maladaptive behavior of the kid. Session 4 is specifically focus
on behavioral tactics that are aimed at children, but apart from
that specific session, all behavioral modifications should be on
the parent’s side. I would also recommend the counselor to
make sure that participants are ready and eager to make changes
in their behaviors and not in their children’s.
References
Cooper, J., Heron, T., and Heward, W. (2007). Applied behavior
analysis. N. Jersey: Pearson.
Corey, M. S., Corey, G., & Corey, C. (2016). Groups: process
and practice. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Faber, A and Mazlish, E. (1980). How to talk so kids will listen
and listen so kids will talk. Rawson: Wade Publishers.
Markham, L. (2012). Peaceful parent, happy kids: how to stop

15. yelling and start connecting. New York, NY: Perigee Book.