Two phases. One steady arc from reflection to action.
Every group cycle runs eight consecutive weekly sessions, split evenly into two phases. The first half builds the safety to be honest. The second half turns that honesty into a plan you can actually carry out.
Insight without action stalls. Action without insight doesn't last.
Group counseling works best when people feel safe enough to be truthful before they're asked to change anything. So we start there — with empathy, active listening, and no rush toward solutions.
Once that foundation is in place, we shift the group's energy toward the present: the choices being made right now, whether they're working, and what a realistic next step looks like.
Person-Centered Therapy
The focus is building safety, trust, and real connection. Sessions lean on empathy, active listening, and unconditional positive regard, so members feel safe being honest about what's actually going on.
Build safety, introduce group norms and confidentiality, and get acquainted.
Storytelling and emotional expression — members share what brought them to the group.
Explore values, identity, and relationship patterns.
Strengthen group cohesion and mutual support; prepare for the shift toward action.
Reality Therapy & Choice Theory
The focus shifts from reflection to responsibility and action, using the WDEP framework — a plain-language way of working through Wants, Doing, Evaluation, and Planning.
Introduce choice theory — the idea that behavior is a present choice, not something that just happens to us.
WDEP steps 1 & 2 — clarify what members Want, and what they are currently Doing.
WDEP step 3 — Evaluate honestly whether current choices are actually working.
WDEP step 4 — build simple, realistic action Plans and commitments, with closing reflection.
"Choice theory doesn't ask you to relive everything that went wrong. It asks a simpler question: given where you are right now, what's one thing you can choose to do differently this week?"