Learning Group Leadership: An Experiential Approach

Focusing on how to conduct and lead groups in a variety of therapeutic settings, Learning Group Leadership: An Experiential Approach, Third Edition covers theory, process, leadership, ethics, special populations, and challenges as they relate to group work in a positive, realistic, and knowledgeable way. Jeffrey A. Kottler and Matt Englar-Carlson introduce important conceptual and practical information and then use activities, exercises, field study assignments, and personal application questions to help students apply concepts to their work and lives. The fully updated Third Edition brings concepts to life through “student voices” in every chapter, examples drawn from the authors’ combined 55-plus years of experience, and demonstration video content that contains sessions corresponding with every chapter.

 

“This is the best book out there for introducing students to the complex world of groups. The text delivers what it promises in the title. It teaches counseling graduate students how to become solid group leaders (or—to be more precise—how to begin their journey in that direction), and it does this in a way that is positive, knowledgeable, and realistic.…The most impressive aspect of the material is the authors’ focus on the experiential approach (training students to be group leaders), combined with an accessible writing style, a lot of knowledge, and an enthusiastic attitude.”  —Marilyn MacGregor, Western New Mexico University

 

“It’s clear that the authors have a wealth of experience with counseling groups—information is conversationally presented and realistically discussed."  —Marla J. Muxen, South Dakota State University

 

“This book is very readable and clearly explains the points it makes using accessible examples which students can readily understand. Skills discussed can be appreciated and applied to whatever personal experience of facilitating groups the student already has; as such it is a text which ‘grows with the student.’”  —Corinne Hutt Greenyer, University of Southampton

Jeffrey A. Kottler is one of the most prolific authors in the fields of counseling, psychotherapy, and education, having written more than 90 books about a wide range of subjects. He has authored a dozen texts for counselors and therapists that are used in universities around the world and a dozen books each for practicing therapists and educators. Some of his most highly regarded works include Creative Breakthroughs in Therapy, The Mummy at the Dining Room Table: Eminent Therapists Reveal Their Most Unusual Cases and What They Teach Us About Human Behavior, Bad Therapy, The Client Who Changed Me, Divine Madness, Change: What Leads to Personal Transformation, Stories We’ve Heard, Stories We’ve Told: Life-Changing Narratives in Therapy and Everyday Life, and Therapy Over 50. He has been an educator for 40 years, having worked as a teacher, counselor, and therapist in preschool, middle school, mental health center, crisis center, nongovernmental organization, university, community college, private practice, and disaster relief settings. He has served as a Fulbright scholar and senior lecturer in Peru and Iceland, as well as worked as a visiting professor in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Nepal. He is professor of counseling at California State University, Fullerton.

Matt Englar-Carlson, PhD, is an associate professor of counseling at California State University, Fullerton. He received a master’s degree in health psychology education from Stanford University, a master’s degree in counselor education from the Pennsylvania State University, and a doctoral degree in counseling psychology from the Pennsylvania State University. He completed his APA accredited pre-doctoral internship in psychology at the University of Southern California Student Counseling Center. Matt co-edited In the Room with Men: A Casebook of Therapeutic Change (2006) and Counseling Troubled Boys (2008) and is the co-editor of the book series, Theories of Psychotherapy, published by American Psychological Association Books. Matt has taught group counseling and process to hundreds of students across the United States and has facilitated groups in schools, community settings, work sites, and in university settings.