Existence or Non-Existence of a Therapist in Group Counseling and Stages of the Group Development with Variant Characteristics Occurring Throughout the “Breakfast Club”

Abstract

The role of a therapist is a high stake issue in group counseling for its variant roles in providing safe havens, not only in regard with providing a secure setting but also for the overall development of all group members as they go through some certain stages until they reach a termination of meetings as in achieving the desired change in the behavior among the group members. One of the well-known roles tailored to a therapist in group counseling is being a moderator rather than being a therapist as well as being a counselor, and\or psychologist etc. Thus, the question of the need for existence or non-existence of a therapist in group counseling arises given that the group members take such roles instead. In this study, the inquiry of an answer to such a question is investigated together with developmental stages observed on a 5 membered counseling group in “Breakfast Club” that has no therapist; instead the members of the counseling group take the role of a therapist one for another to overcome their psychological difficulties, and moderate the 5 stages of the development together with an additional stage that can be called post termination stage or follow up of the development.