Evaluation of PPD Groups Essay
Introduction
Personal and professional development (PPD) groups are significant forums through which counselor training is enhanced and involves the development of self-awareness among counselors’ trainees. The use of PPD groups has been identified as a very critical process which enhances self-exploration, self-awareness, and congruency and ultimately brings about great counselors. Through many studies and research work, the PPD groups have been selected as one of the important and which is able to train counselors with skills and enhance the healthy working environment with others. Nonetheless, there has been some issues and opponents of the process who felt that the groups could elicit fear and discomfort to some members which would be detrimental in bringing about negative emotions and as well affect the learning of the individuals. The paper will therefore critically evaluate the importance and challenges of PPD in training of counselors.
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The PPD groups are an essential part of counseling and create an exclusive avenue through where the trainees can meet and exchange ideas. The groups are mainly interlinked to the extent that they bring about many benefits to the learners such as giving them counseling skills and developing self-awareness skills. Through the PPD groups, the learners are able to accept themselves in the presence of others and improve the way they make a judgment about others. This makes them complete beings that can coexist with others and make sound decisions concerning health issues and psychological issues. The ideal nature of PPD groups is participation where the trainees can react to different ideas, feelings, and thoughts. This nature of participation helps counselors in identifying their vulnerabilities such that they are able to become aware of themselves (Moller, 2013). Evaluation of PPD Groups Essay
In addition, the PPD groups are essential in giving the learners experience of understanding and coping with clients’ challenges such that they can see things in the same way with clients. The experience of getting opinions about specific issues or views from the group members gives the trainees significant expertise in dealing with more challenging cases later. Moreover, the PPD groups are able to provide the learners with exceptional abilities in listening, reflecting and also in learning about relationships with others. There are also many models of learning through PPD groups such as self-learning, learning about the clients and then the most vital learning about the counseling process. The trainees are all through aiming at gaining the most significant learning experiences and good practice to enable them to serve their clients better (Lennie, 2007).
In most cases, the use of PPD is a theorized way through which trainees’ again personal awareness, relationship skills, and ability to address and identify their challenges. To have maximum gains from the group, the trainees should have genuine openness and explorative ambitions. Anxiety in the groups should be minimized through the use of normalization and idealization (Moller, 2013). This can only be achieved through the experience of the tutors and facilitators. For instance, the tutors should be able to intervene to bring the group’s purpose on course tactically. The tutors should also prepare and train the trainees on the techniques to use in handling tough times. For instance, some trainees feel that they may face challenges in times of conflict and anxiety in groups. The training should, therefore, be very strategic to prepare them for any event and uncertainties (Moller, 2013).
Through the PPD groups, the trainees will always feel close to people who care and respect their opinions. This makes people more confident and encourages them to think broadly to challenge the group into action. The individual feelings are also very well reflected through the group, and this can be an excellent avenue to identify one’s attitude and changes. However, in many instances, the group can elicit diverse opinions and feelings among the trainees. For example, some may feel not comfortable in dealing with and sharing with others due to fear of getting exposed. Thus, confidentiality is an issue for every group work, and this makes most of the members to feel not ready to share their information and ends up not realizing their self-awareness. For example, I am from Poland, and it was very challenging for me to join my colleagues and share my feelings and ideas with them. This is because I feel like a stranger and never trusted them at first. However, after staying together and learning about each and every member and knowing them all today, I am very free and confident in the group. This is because, I can freely share my feelings without fear as I know that they are all very close and determined to help and come up with solutions to every issue we raise (Moller, 2013). Evaluation of PPD Groups Essay
The PPD groups are also very challenging, and some of the respondents in the study were able to point out significant issues. For instance, some trainees claimed that they felt unsafe in these groups and more when it comes to disclosing of one’s information. This is an indication that the groups may trigger or harm individual feelings which may be as a result of members not adhering to confidential expectations (Ismail, 2015). The trainees who raised issues concerning the PPD groups felt that their problems might spill over which may bring adverse effects to their practice. It is this fear of the unknown that forced many members of the groups to see the process as harmful, bad and one that could not be depended upon. In some other cases, there were cases of the uncertainty of the trainees to the PPD groups. Some were not able to identify the reasons for them to participate (Moller, 2013). The groups may, therefore, be a very crucial point of enhancing trainees’ skills and self-awareness but if not well structured and explained to the learners it can elicit negative feelings. This is because some do not see its importance at all due to fear of their confidentiality and others are entirely uncertain about what to expect from participating in the group (Payne, 2010).
Conclusion
The PPD groups are therefore an essential part of enhancing the counseling trainees’ skills and self-awareness experience. It is an avenue where the learners can interact and share experiences and feelings and get help from within the group’s members. The forums are very positive, and in many times they have the energy and abilities to resolve any issues affecting the clients. However, there are many challenges of confidentiality surrounding the PPD groups and the feelings of distrust and barriers of communication as a result of members fearing each other. Evaluation of PPD Groups Essay
References
Payne Helen, 2010, Personal development groups in the training of counselors and therapists: A review of the research. Retrieved from, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238318923_Personal_development_groups_in_the_training_of_counsellors_and_therapists_A_review_of_the_research
Lennie Claire, 2007. The role of personal development groups in counselor training: understanding factors contributing to self-awareness in the personal development group. Retrieved from, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03069880601106849
Moller Naomi, Rance Nicola, 2013. The good, the bad and the uncertainty: Trainees’ perceptions of the personal development group. Retrieved from, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14733145.2012.754482
Ismail Nik, 2015. Rediscovering Rogers’s Self Theory and Personality. Retrieved from, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286456614_Rediscovering_Rogers’s Self Theory and Personality Evaluation of PPD Groups Essay
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