Friendship: How to Make and Keep Friends

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For my in-school counseling group, I am developing and leading a group with the topic of ‘Friendship’ with six to eight sixth grade female students. These students were pre-screened for membership and mentioned concerns of friendship skills; how to make and keep friends and how to avoid gossip and ‘drama’. These students were selected for pre-screening based on the needs assessment completed by the site supervisor for practicum, which will be discussed in the next section. Based on my review of available and current literature on the topic of relationships in female adolescents, I am going to use relational-cultural theory (RCT) as a conceptual framework for my in-school counseling group. The emphasis of this framework that has been used in groups with female adolescents for similar topics includes the importance of power and relationships with others. I will use this framework to understand the issues at hand in the group, and also to develop techniques to help resolve these issues within an eight week time frame.

To assess student need, my site supervisor had already introduced herself to every class of sixth graders to review what her role is with the students and discuss what types of services she can provide with them. She then requested that every student complete a survey with open-ended questions asking what individual services students may need help with (e.g. organization, friendship, etc.) or groups they may want to join (e.g. bullying, friendship, grief, etc.), and comments about other ways the school counselor could help them. Every student had a form prepared for them with their name on the top, and they were told that they did not have to write anything if they did not want to, but she still kept every form to d...

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...oncepts of gifted adolescents. The Journal of Secondary Gifted Education, 17(2), 65-75.

Shectman, Z. & Katz, E. (2007). Therapeutic bonding in group as an explanatory variable of progress in the social competence of students with learning disabilities. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 11(2), 117-128. DOI:10.1037/1089-2699.11.2.117

Srsic, A., & Rice, E.H. (2012). Understanding the experience of girls with EBD in a gender-responsive support group. Education and Treatment of Children, 35(4), 623-646.

Tucker, C., Smith-Adcock, S., & Trepal, H.C. (2011). Relational-Cultural theory for middle school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 14(5), 310-316.

Wigfield, A., Lutz, S.L., & Wagner, A.L. (2005). Early adolescents’ development across the middle school years: Implications for school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 9(2), 112-119.

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