Group Counseling Guide in Reflections of School-Aged Boys & Girls
FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, & EDUCATORS
FIFTY STEPS CLOSER
Revised Edition
This is the revised edition of FIFTY STEPS CLOSER: A Group Counseling Guide in Reflections of School-Aged Boys & Girls. The revised edition contains a significant number of improvements in terms of corrections, clarifications, and expansions within the text. An addendum (sample) has also been added to the book promoting Fifty More Steps, an internet-accessed mental health classroom counseling curriculum for grades 1–12.
The corrections focus primarily on changes in punctuation, nouns, pronouns, and verbs. Clarifications include additional and or supplemental text to help the counselor develop a clearer understanding of how the materials are to be used and how they are intended to unfold. Be mindful, however, as you adjust the activities to meet the emotional, social, and cognitive needs of your group members. That is, continually assess the crew and keep your eyes fixed on the destination.
A majority of the other significant changes in the text are found in the Considerations and Student Reflections sections. In Considerations, new information has been added to assist the counselor in identifying students requiring additional interventions. This new information primarily consists of improving a counselor’s recognition of the “red flags” students frequently bring to the group.
In this text, red flags represent symptoms of a “disconnection” students may be experiencing, as evidenced by attendance, academic, discipline, and or interpersonal concerns. More specifically, student issues may manifest in one or more of the following disconnect subgroups: isolation, Intimidation, and Rebellion. Evidence of Isolation may be seen in students who have not yet established the skills required to engage and or maintain positive interpersonal relationships with their peers. These students are often off by themselves, frequently visit the nurse’s office, bounce between peer groups, and/or have an observed history of “being by themselves.” Indicators of Intimidation are often evident when students begin developing patterns of manipulating their peers intellectually, emotionally, and/or behaviorally. In a school environment, students, teachers, and principals refer to this type of manipulative behavior as “bullying.” Lastly, focal features of Rebellion are predominately interpreted by signs, words, and actions that actively work against established societal norms. Disruption, defiance, and instigating conflict are often seen as indicators of rebellion. Suspensions, expulsions, and participation in gangs and gang-related behaviors are frequently construed as primary examples of rebellion.
I have made two general observations about the disconnected community. The first is that students who tend to isolate often end up on the wrong side of dysfunctional relationships with those who intimidate them. Meanwhile, rebellious disconnects, in the absence of having developed genuine self-esteem and skills promoting cooperation, compassion, and humility, frequently develop a distorted, misguided, and maladaptive pride. It is the type of pride that fuels behaviors underscored with anger, blame, resentment, and a sense of entitlement.
My second observation is that a majority of disconnected youth from all three subgroups struggle to discover, create, and/or maintain a sense of Purpose, Joy, and Hope in their lives. The final changes made to the original text are found in Student Reflections. In places deemed appropriate, the text has been reconstructed to better assist the reader in simultaneously understanding both the counselor’s intended structure for the group and the student’s actual experience within the group. An addendum has been added to this revised edition. The addendum represents just one of fifty mental health counseling activities from an online counseling curriculum designed to encourage, support, and promote mental health in grades 1–12. The counseling curriculum utilizes both activity sheets, handouts and videos to support school-based mental health.
The original message in FIFTY STEPS CLOSER, although enhanced, remains unchanged in that the reader feels the steady pulse of understanding and connection coursing through the text. Recently, I’ve been, as a colleague, adeptly phrased “Suspended in Grace” throughout this revision process and resolute in my beliefs that we are Instruments of Change, Messengers of Hope, and Representatives of Grace to all those we encounter. This encounter includes not only the 10% of our students/clients sitting on the other side of the desk, cell, or crisis call requiring 90% of our time but also the other members of our community who abruptly burst into our schedules without appointment or warning and, despite all odds, perfectly find their way into our lives, not having yet discovered their own sense of Hope & Grace. Without Understanding and Connecting, the gift of being in the right place at the right time, without taking the opportunity to actively do the right thing, will fade unopened, leaving one with only the lingering contemplation of “What if?” “Be active in your compassion and gracious in your actions. Strive to be kind.”