A study of the effects of a skills-based versus a conventional group counseling training program

This article presents the Skilled Group Counseling Training Model (SGCTM). In this study, 68 counselors-in-training who completed systematic group skills training based on the SGCTM demonstrated significant gains in skill acquisition and performed significantly higher than 15 counselors-in-training from a conventional group-counseling class. The 36-hour skills-based SGCTM can be incorporated into conventional group-counseling classes for helping counselors-in-training to learn basic and advanced counseling skills. Findings from this study indicate that higher level group counseling skills can be efficiently taught prior to practica and internships. Thus, if counselors-in-training gain higher level group skills prior to internships, counselor educators can focus on intuitive, responsive, and conceptualization processes during clinical supervision.