ABSTRACT

A practical issue for professional counselors, particularly those working in institutional settings, is having adequate time to provide counseling services to all the people who desire them. For example, when school counselors decide to see students for individual counseling, they make a substantial commitment of time weekly or biweekly which thereby decreases the time they have available for counseling services for others. Thus, a school counselor has to decide whether a large portion of time is appropriately spent working with individual students. An alternative is group counseling, which evolved from individual counseling as counselors realized they were limited in the amount of time available to individually reach all persons who desire help (Kemp, 1970). However, group counseling does not have an unequivocal connotation among professionals. This situation may exist because group counseling is an outgrowth of individual counseling (Vander Kolk, 1985), resulting in many different approaches.