Our conference room at the Lupton House is an important space. It's where we gather as Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC's), Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW's) and Resident's in Counseling to discuss this complex, beautiful journey of professional counseling. As you may be able to imagine, counseling comes with challenges and questions. Thankfully, there are many reputable resources for our wondering, and "group" is one of them. Group consultation is a valued aspect of the counseling experience but not everyone knows about it! To put it simply, group consultation is a group of counseling professionals (most typically) of various sizes that gather together for the opportunity to discuss with, learn from, and support one another as it relates to their current experience in the counseling career.
What's fiction and what are the facts??
Fiction -- Group consultation is where counselors talk about or "gossip" about clients.
Fact -- Hopefully this is not a widely believed myth but we're here to absolutely confirm that consultation is NOT an exception for confidentiality. Meaning any identifying or personal client information is not shared in this space, nor is it a space where counselors ethics are disregarded.
Consultation is used as a space for counselors to further their understanding and continue to provide the most ethical and informed services to their clients. We understand that different counselors have different expertise, so we learn from one another in a space like consultation groups.
Fiction -- It's the same as supervision.
Fact -- While they definitely have similarities, supervision is held between a Licensed Supervisor and most typically a Resident in Counseling or Supervisee in Social Work, working toward their licensure as a professional in the counseling space. Due to these differences, supervision most often includes a one-on-one setting where more in depth learning and case conceptualization can happen.
Fiction -- This is where counselors receive all their education and professional development.
Fact -- Counselors and Licensed Clinical Social Workers alike, are required to engage in Continuing Education (CE) courses to further their professional practice and maintain appropriate levels of knowledge and insight to counsel with their license. While group consultation is a wonderful place to hear others' ideas, perspectives AND to learn more about practices and theories, our CE courses are separate learning opportunities that are tracked by each licensed counselor individually.
Fiction -- Group consultation has to happen within a single counseling center.
Fact -- Consultation groups can consist of a variety of types of licensed professionals. Typically, the group identifies as either a counseling consultation group, multidisciplinary consultation group, and many other variations. It can be typical, like in Lupton House's case, that we are gathering with colleagues from our building to consult on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. However, the confidentiality that is upheld individually during group consultation also allows professionals from different work environments to come together in this way. There are boundaries and ethics upheld that prevent situations of dual relationships or otherwise breaches of confidentiality.
Group consultation works as more of a behind the scenes mechanism in the counseling world, but an aspect that likely informs much of your work as a client or counselor. A testament to how we can continue to learn from one another, and rely on our unique communities for support and for our growth.