The Sharing of Selves to Promote Group Interaction

Book Summary: Given the success of ASGW’s previous activity books, and the fact that more and more Counselor Education courses are being taught (at least in part) via an online format, we decided that creating a book aimed at online activities for counselor educators would be useful. As the field of education continues to change as technology is being infused into classrooms at an amazing rate, we thought it would be helpful to compile a number of activities that counselor educators could implement in their courses. Each activity stands alone and includes goals and learning objectives, suggested courses for usage, a point in the group when activity might be best implemented, estimated time length, technology needs, directions for the activity, processing questions, possible adaptations, and potential cautions or issues that might arise. In addition, three introductory chapters are included that we hope will help counselor educators examine issues related to online group work, building a sense of community via online education, and group dynamics that may take place. While the activities are organized by suggested courses for their usage, we encourage all readers to read them through a creative lens, and (like all effective group counselors) imagine how they might be adapted for use in other courses or with other topics as well. We greatly appreciate the efforts of those who contributed activities to this book and hope that you will enjoy using them and find them helpful in promoting effective learning communities in your online counselor education courses.