Four Tips to Running Small-Group Counseling Services

Do you ever feel like the process of starting counseling small groups is overwhelming? You are not alone! There are so many things that play a role in starting up small-group counseling services. What if I told you with these four tricks, I could replace those worries with a tangible starter place so you can confidently start implementing groups within about a week! Let’s get started…

1: Identify the Needs of Your Students

First of all, you need to know what your students need. What are some areas they are struggling with? You can find this information from parents, teachers and even students themselves. Usually, they can tell you what they are lacking in or areas they would like a little growth with. Some of the most popular groups I run are for friendship, self-control, hygiene, organization, divorce, grief, attendance etc.

One easy way to do this is send out a Google Form Needs Assessment. That way the collection and data piece are very easy! I like to use my Easy Peasy Needs Assessments because there are forms for parents, teachers, and students. Then once the results are in, Google will summarize it and let you know the highest need areas to start with. Check out how to use needs assessments in this article… Painless Ways to Collect Needs Assessments.

If you’re not into the digital forms, I also have a paper copy within the Small-Group Starter Pack. It also has three forms for teachers, staff and students.

Once you understand what needs there are within your building, you can begin requesting students for your groups.

2: Recruiting Students by Need First

There are several different ways you can recruit students to join your groups. I like to get student, parent and teacher referrals. I will send home permission slips, talk to teachers about who could benefit from the specific topic and gather student referrals to see if I can get a group together.

Usually, this isn’t a problem because I limit the size of my groups to around 5-6 students. But, I want to make sure to find the right students for the group. Not ALL students will be a good fit for small-group counseling within ALL settings. I want to be very clear about that because in order for group work to be productive there are limits that would hinder a student from being successful.

For example, if you’re running a small-group for 1st grade friendship skills, you don’t want to stick a 5th grader in that group. Also, making sure students are behaviorally appropriate for group work. Meaning that they can contribute, learn and participate in activities while being respectful and cooperative. Yes, some of these skills may be why they are in group in the first place. But, use your best judgement and scope out the group dynamics first. If a student isn’t quite ready for group, don’t give up on them. Start seeing them individually until they are ready for group.

If I am on the fence about a student or group of students being in a specific group, I will give a quick student interview. This is nice because I get to lay out expectations, explain group rules and get some feedback from the student if they think this would be beneficial for them.

3: Gather Permission Slips

This step seems fairly easy, however during my first year of counseling I was sending home individualized permission slips that looked amazing. They were each customized specifically for the group I was going to run. But, I was doing so much work for nothing! I came up with a universal permission slip where I can write or type in the important information pertaining to that specific group and send home. It makes it so much easier to copy one hundred copies and pull them out when I need them.

This is what I’ve done in my Small-Group Starter Pack. Plus… I made it editable for you to customize it even more and make it fit your school district and building.

Once, I send those home, I allow about a week to gather them back. I go through them and make sure everyone is still on board, maybe make a few phone calls and set a time to meet.

From this point, I group kids according to grade-levels and personality types… just trying to refine the group dynamics a little more. Then I get ahold of each teacher to set up times. Sometimes it works perfectly for the teachers schedules. But, most of the time it’s where I have to come up with a common time and just set it. Everyone seems to be very understanding because they see the value in students coming to group.

4: Plan Lessons and Assess for Results (Pre/Post)

This is the fun part… gather your lesson materials! You may have curriculum sets you already love to use or you may be an avid TpT’er like me! Either way, just take some time to line out each lesson for around 6-8 weeks so you know what materials you’ll need and what topics you’ll be discussing each week.

I think this is the fun part because I love incorporating books, crafts, food and movement! I’ll use these things as a “hook” at the beginning or during an activity after the main lesson. I always make sure there is also plenty of time to discuss and debrief the lesson for the week.

If you’re needing some suggestions on small-group counseling sets… check out my Small-Group Counseling Bundle here.

Once you have your plan, make sure there’s a way to asses student growth. This may be different with each type of lesson or topic you do. Growth can be measured by learned outcome, student/teacher perspectives, a simple pre/post etc.

 

I hope these tips help you feel confident and ready to tackle small-group counseling. I know you can do it! Once you start it really becomes easier than you think!

To help you get started take a deeper look at the Small-Group Counseling Starter Pack that will include all the needed materials you just read about. The best part… it’s already done for you!