Exploratory study on group counseling supervision experience: Focused on the intermediate-level group counselor’s helpful experiences

Objectives The purpose of this study is to explore both the intermediate-level group counselors’ helpful experiences in the group counseling supervision session and the essential meaning of what changes. Methods 11 group counselors were interviewed individually from September 2019 to March 2021. Some of them with a second-degree counseling license participated in the group counseling supervision at least five times. Others were in the process of obtaining a first-degree counseling certification. Data were analyzed through Giorgi’s phenomenological method and the analysis led to a total of 66 semantic units, 16 sub-categories, and 6 categories and 3 themes. The results are as follows. Results First, the participants joined the group counseling supervision session with expectations that they would be able to gain a deeper understanding of group work and receive the confirmation of the supervisor when functioning as a group counselor. Because training for certification for counselor does not comprehensively cover how group counseling is operated in actual, the participants reported they faced difficultes in carrying them out. Secondly, what the participants experienced were helpful of this supervision is that by adjusting to the previously-burdedsome supervision work and applying the supervisor’s feedback to real intervention, they could experience professional development. Finally, changes as a group counselor in this process were that the participants deeply trusted the group members and understood themselves, as well as they got to form the sense of identity as the supervisor. Conclusions These results are meaningful in that they provide specific implications on the professional learning process and development of intermediate-level group counselors by means of analyzing the helpful experiences gathered from counselors who participated in group counseling supervision session.