Explorations of participants’ experiences of a Personal Development Group held as part of a counselling psychology training group: Is it safe in here?

Abstract

Abstract This paper aims to extend understanding of student counsellors' perceptions of participation in personal development (PD) groups during training. PD participants were invited to record their experiences in relation to these groups over a three month period. The accounts were then subjected to thematic analysis. Safety was found to be a dominant theme–both in the sense of how the group felt safe for them and also how the safety was threatened. These concepts are discussed and lessons the data has offered in terms of good practice in facilitating PD groups during counsellor training programmes are elucidated. Keywords: personal development groupscounselling psychologysafety Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. Notes 1. Maggie is a senior lecturer in psychology at a UK University where she trains counsellors to Masters Level. An integral part of this training is membership of a Personal Development (PD) group whose aim is to increase the personal awareness of student counsellors. Jenna, who is Maggie's daughter, is a trainee graduate psychologist with an interest in the therapeutic outcomes of group work. She helped to analyse and triangulate the data and therefore is accorded joint authorship. However, in order to avoid a rather clumsy style of writing, the main 'voice' in the article will be Maggie's.