The purpose of this study was to explore group leaders’ techniques used during group counseling sessions. The data of the techniques were collected from 5 doctorate trainees by means of the discovery approach. The “Interpersonal Process Recall” (IPR) was applied to collect leaders’ actions and behaviors in group counseling sessions within one week after each group session . The findings were as the following:
1. There were 4 categories, 49 types of techniques, namely (1) 9 techniques of basic communication; (2) 11 techniques of exploring and influencing; (3) 17 techniques of facilitating group; (4) 12 techniques of action and intervention. The top ten techniques which been used were focusing, probing, empathy, clarify, using of here and now, reflection, summarize, linking, process comment and confrontation.
2. The techniques of basic communication decreased during group process and the techniques of exploring and influencing increased significantly from the fourth session to the last session. The techniques of facilitating group were very frequently used in the early stage of groups, and decreased significantly after the fourth session. While techniques of action and intervention increased slowly that were used less frequently during sessions two to five than during sessions six to nine.
Based on the findings, some suggestions for group works and future research were proposed.
